Abortion Pills Go Global: Reproductive Freedom Across Borders

Calkin (Human Capital in Gender and Development), a lecturer in the School of Geography at Queen Mary University of London, examines in this eye-opening study recent worldwide changes to abortion access brought about by the production and distribution of mifepristone and misoprostol, pills used for self-managed abortion. Calkin traces these medications from India, where rules allowing copycat drugs have facilitated a substantial pharmaceutical export industry, to places like the U.S., where the rise in abortion restrictions in some states has led to an increase in the illegal acquisition of mifepristone and misoprostol via mail order. Other countries profiled include Poland, where abortion laws have become significantly more restrictive, but self-administered abortion is not criminalized; Ireland, where the rising availability of abortion pills helped force politicians to hold the 2018 public referendum that legalized abortion in the country; and Northern Ireland, where criminalization of pill users made obtaining an abortion more difficult even as the drugs were being transported through the country to other U.K. destinations. Calkin’s meticulous analysis demonstrates how the technological development of these pills has led to substantial changes in the social politics of abortion around the world, due not just to their ease of use but their ease of transport. The result is an incisive look at the deeply intertwined relationship between international supply chains, local politics, underground activism, and women’s rights. (Oct.)