Navigating reproductive healthcare

In this note, we will discuss how to navigate our reproductive rights and freedoms and consider how abortion policies and regulations in different countries can vary and change rapidly.

In this note, we will discuss how to navigate our reproductive rights and freedoms and consider how abortion policies and regulations in different countries can vary and change rapidly.

Disclaimer: This note is not intended and cannot be used as a complete legal or medical guide for healthcare. For local laws and regulations regarding abortion in your area, please refer to our directory in YSM as well as the Center of Reproductive Rights and Women On Waves resources we will be sharing through this note.

Reproductive rights and laws

Reproductive rights consist of all laws, policies, and regulations that determine our legal ability to choose what we do with our own bodies. This includes autonomous (independent) access to safe contraception and access to safe abortion options.

We all deserve the right to decide freely and responsibly the number of children we want to have and when we have them. We also deserve the right to information about our bodies. The views and laws that reflect or support these rights are called pro-choice. However, not all countries have the same reproductive rights, or the same abortion access or resources. Navigating this can be frustrating and difficult, but remember that we are here to support you during this process.

Because reproductive rights laws are often changing, it is important to find up-to-date information that is relevant to where we live. The pro-choice Center for Reproductive Rights created an informative “The World’s Abortion Laws” map to help us understand the broad laws in our area that will be regularly shared throughout this guide. Additional country specific information and local organizations can be found on the “Sexual health and abortion services worldwide” database from the pro-choice organization Women on Waves. We’ve also found a useful list of where pregnant people can access free information and services from Safe Access.

Reproductive rights vary greatly around the world. In a handful of countries, abortion care is prohibited entirely. Others permit abortion in a few cases, for example, for survivors of rape or if the life of the pregnant person is at risk. Even in places where abortion is permitted, there are many factors that can influence access, such as mandatory waiting periods, or regulations on abortion facilities that which lead to restricted their ability to provide care, or even socio-cultural and religious attitudes towards abortion.

There may be factors that affect or limit our access to abortion.

• Abortions can often only be carried out until a certain period from the onset of the pregnancy, usually measured by a number of weeks starting from the first day of your last period. Check your local laws to see how many weeks into a pregnancy an abortion would be allowed.

• Specific rules may apply that make it difficult to categorize the amount of time we have to get an abortion. Check your local guidance and laws for any exceptions to this time period.

• Some jurisdictions have waiting periods or requirements to attend a consultation or watch videos at the clinic prior to any abortion appointment. These restrictions are used to make abortion access more difficult by taking more time than necessary.

Women on Waves has informative resources on what we can do if an abortion is not a legal option for us, such as travelling to a country where abortion is permitted. As we discussed in Note 1, if we decide we don’t want to have an abortion, the other options available to us are continuing the pregnancy and becoming a parent, or continuing the pregnancy and placing the child for adoption. The Pregnancy Options workbook is a supportive resource designed to help us work through this decision.

Finding supportive organizations

If available, we recommend reaching out to a local, regional, or national pro-choice organization to help navigate these laws and learn about our options depending on where we live. Speaking to someone directly about abortion may be difficult, but many organizations have anonymous helplines or chat features that may make us more comfortable. While pro-choice organizations are here to support us, we should always put our own comfort first.

It is important to be aware that not every sexual health or women’s health organization or clinic is pro-choice. Movements aiming to restrict our reproductive rights have created health centers that actively try to discourage us from seeking an abortion, often called Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPC). They do this by refusing to give clients information on abortion rights, or by giving false or misleading information about our rights or health related to abortion. Some common misleading ideas are discussed in Note 7.

CPCs often try to look like pro-choice health clinics, so recognizing them can be difficult, but we are here to support and provide advice on finding reliable, pro-choice health care. First, it might be helpful to find health centers that are affiliated with national or global pro-choice organizations, such as Member Associations of the International Planned Parenthood Federation located in 142 different countries, those listed in the country profiles of Women on Waves, and this list of MSI’s contact centres that offer free advice and referrals in over 20 countries. We might also be able to recognize a CPC based on their website or the information they give when speaking to us.

Here are a few indicators that a health center might be a CPC:

• They state that they will not provide abortion referrals.

• They give information that frames abortion negatively. For example, they might say that we will automatically feel ashamed or guilty after an abortion, or that it will prevent us from having children in the future.

• When we contact them, they refuse to describe their services or views regarding abortion and instead pressure us to visit the center for more information. This is done to make it easier to influence our decisions.

• They are not a licensed medical facility. We have the right to ask them for this information to be sure.

• They are heavily staffed by volunteers with no medical training or by personnel that are not medical professionals. Some may even dress in an attire similar to medical professionals to make it difficult to tell. We have the right to ask them to verify their credentials.

• They give unclear or unspecific information about laws regarding abortions.

We may also find that there are no pro-choice clinics near us and a CPC is the only option for free services such as a pregnancy test. If we are in this situation, it is good to prepare ourselves to be in a potentially pressuring environment and contact a pro-choice organization to ensure we have all of the accurate information beforehand.

Ensuring we are heard and supported

It’s important we remain informed on how best to navigate our reproductive healthcare options. We all deserve unbiased support , and access to correct information when we make choices or when we look for help, irrespective of what part of the world we live in.