Decriminalizing Self-Managed Abortion

Abortion Without Punishment Campaigns

With the implications of a gutted Roe, and fewer abortion clinics open and accessible, we now face the perfect storm for the criminalization of women and medical professionals for seeking or providing abortions. Archaic laws criminalizing abortion could become enforceable and states could introduce new legislation to ban abortion outright, as they have in Ohio. In 2018 and 2019, NIRH supported statewide campaigns in Ohio, New York, and Michigan to decriminalize people seeking abortions and providers who offer abortion care.

March 12, 2019Decriminalizing Self-Managed Abortion, Impact, Public Education|
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Passing & Protecting New York’s Reproductive Health Act

For more than 10 years, NIRH and the NIRH Action Fund led the advocacy campaign to educate the public, rally New Yorkers, and convince elected officials to update New York’s laws by passing the Reproductive Health Act.

March 8, 2019Decriminalizing Self-Managed Abortion, Impact, Proactive Policy on Abortion Access, Public Education|
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Massachusetts Passes State Decriminalization Bill Safeguarding Abortion Access

On July 18, 2018, the Massachusetts legislature passed long-overdue proactive legislation to decriminalize abortion. This win is significant because it overturns archaic statutes that have been used to prosecute women who self-manage their own abortions. With this win, Massachusetts pushed back against a hostile anti-choice federal landscape, and laid the groundwork to push even further to […]

July 18, 2018Decriminalizing Self-Managed Abortion, Impact, Proactive Policy, Proactive Policy on Abortion Access|
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NIRH White Paper on Self-Managed Abortion – “When Self-Abortion is a Crime: An Analysis of Massachusetts Law”

NIRH’s white paper, “When Self-Abortion is a Crime: Laws that Put Women at Risk: An Analysis of Massachusetts Law,” raises awareness about the harms of criminal bans on self-abortion, with a particular focus on Massachusetts, which is one of a handful of states with criminal laws on the books that explicitly make self-abortion illegal.

April 6, 2018Decriminalizing Self-Managed Abortion, Impact, Publications & Reports|
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NIRH White Paper – “When Self-Abortion is a Crime: Laws that Put Women at Risk”

The legal status of abortion has changed throughout American history – from legal to illegal and back to legal again. However, women seeking to end an unintended pregnancy have always done so, whether it is legal or not. Our white paper, “When Self-Abortion is a Crime: Laws that Put Women at Risk,” documents this history in New York and assess whether there is any justification for the state’s criminal abortion ban.

July 5, 2017Decriminalizing Self-Managed Abortion, Impact, Publications & Reports|
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Raising Awareness of the Movement to Criminalize Women for their Abortions

NIRH President Andrea Miller has been an outspoken advocate against the laws that criminalize women for their abortion decisions. She has emerged as one of the leaders in the field ringing the alarm bell about politicians’ threats to shame, pressure, and ultimately punish women who end their pregnancies.

See her op-ed in TIME magazine.

To read […]

April 6, 2016Decriminalizing Self-Managed Abortion, Impact, Proactive Policy|
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