The Underground Network Of Women Who Provide Secret Abortions

After trying to help a few of her friends with abortions, sometimes unsuccessfully, Anna connected with a woman who told her about a three-day workshop. The workshop would teach her how to perform home abortions safely. Through the workshop, she joined a loose underground network of around 200 women in the United States who are providing thousands of safe home abortions outside of the law. The women are doulas, midwives, nurses, mothers, activists, and herbalists who are carrying on a history of female home practitioners that existed until the early 20th century. 

They are also part of a global trend to expand access to abortion by training midwives and community health workers. Across the United States, though, the work is restricted by dozens of laws. These women and their clients risk imprisonment and fines if caught.

The women may be breaking around 40 laws, according to Lizzie Presser, the author of the article. That includes for practicing medicine without a licence, mailing pills, and burying fetuses. Most of their clients are low-income women who can't afford a medical abortion, or they prefer privacy, or they want home remedies, or a clinic is too far away. The piece follows the history of abortion and how it has become criminalized and politicized.  

Natalie, the woman who convenes the workshops, first assisted with her mother's abortion, then began holding classes to teach friends and colleagues about her knowledge. More requests started rolling in. Then, when Donald Trump was elected president and promised to overturn Roe v. Wade and defund Planned Parenthood, the network spread into every region in the country. 

Natalie told participants how she counseled women and established herself as a confidante: “Whatever’s your darkest question that you can’t ask your husband and you can barely ask yourself, you can ask me.” 

(The names and locations in the article are changed.)