Abortion Beyond the Law: Building a Global Feminist Movement for Self-Managed Abortion

Sociologist Braine debuts with a striking and lucid survey of the recent struggle for abortion rights across Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, and argues that American abortion activists can learn from these communities’ successful promotion of self-managed abortions. These illegal, at-home abortions were made possible around the world by the growing availability of abortions pills, the use of which has now also become more widespread in the U.S., Braine notes, after increased restrictions on abortion in some states. Braine traces how these pills first came into widespread use in Brazil when abortion was criminalized there in the 1980s and ’90s. Grassroots activist organizations provided information about self-managed abortion medication to pregnant women through illicit abortion hotlines, and eventually established informal medical practices to guide patients through a self-managed abortion over the phone. These organizations, which Braine calls “civil disobedience without a press release,” not only provided abortion services free of charge, but also fostered a sense of solidarity that she demonstrates was crucial to later legal victories securing abortion rights in Argentina, Colombia, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and other countries. Drawing on three years of travel and interviews, Braine paints an enthralling portrait of a robust, globe-spanning network of feminist activism. It’s a stunning view of a sea change in abortion rights. (Nov.)