Right to the body. “Abortion tourism” is forced to develop in Europe and the USA
Abortion tourism has begun in the United States. Recently, a 10-year-old pregnant victim of violence had to travel from Ohio to Indiana to have an abortion, as in her region, abortions are prohibited for more than 6 weeks, and the girl had it for three days more.
Catch to the last carriage
According to The Guardian, six US states — South Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Alabama — Abortion has been completely banned. Another 12 will soon ban it or impose severe restrictions. Abortion rights are under threat in 12 more states. By some estimates, more than half of the US states will move to ban abortion in the coming months.
In those regions where abortion is still allowed, they are preparing for an influx of patients. For example, Bend, Oregon, has the only family planning clinic that serves the eastern half of the state. They're expecting an influx of women from neighboring Idaho, where a law to ban most abortions is expected to go into effect this summer.
“We've already started recruiting,” — said Joanna Dennis-Cook, manager of Benda Health Center.
It's worth saying that such tourism is quite expensive. You need to pay for both medical services and a many-hour trip with a stay in a hotel. Therefore, some large financial companies support abortion tourism by offering to cover travel expenses.
Mass protests continue against the background of the ban on abortion in the United States.
In an underground way
Recommendations to do “herbal abortions” spread in the American TikTok; against the background of the abolition of the legal right to medical abortion. Girls are advised to drink tea with a specific herb several times a day to terminate a pregnancy.
Doctors are horrified by such methods, trying to debunk the myths and warn of serious harm to health: vomiting, abdominal pain or liver necrosis. The social network has already reacted to the resonance and started deleting the videos.
European “tolerance”
In Europe, abortion tourism is especially developed in Poland. Local law prohibits termination of pregnancy. Recently, 37-year-old Savita Halappanavar died because of this. The woman died from an infection caused by the pathology of pregnancy. It happened in a Galway hospital after her requests for an abortion were denied. This is the third known case since the near-total ban went into effect in January 2021.
Malta — another country in the European Union that completely bans abortion. Recently, local doctors refused to perform an abortion on an American woman who was bleeding. The only chance to survive was a flight for medical care to another country. “I just want to get out of here alive,” — the woman told The Guardian. After several days of waiting, she and her husband Jaywere airlifted from Malta to Spain, where Andrea received the treatment she was denied by the Maltese doctors. A pregnancies that were thought not to be viable were terminated before a potentially fatal infection developed in the woman's body.
In Germany, doctors are not allowed to provide information about abortions. They may claim to have abortions, but they cannot say how or under what conditions. Restrictive rules also apply in the countries of Andorra, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Monaco.
Support for volunteers
In Europe there is an association of volunteers who support abortion (ASN). They explain to which nearest country you can go for the procedure, suggest where to get help. The first to contact the hotline were women from Ireland — a country that has long had strict rules on abortion. Now most of all women from Poland, Malta and Gibraltar are asking for help from ASN, and they are calling from other countries. According to the volunteers, just because abortion is technically legal in the country doesn't mean it's always easy.
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