The war on abortion pills takes a terrifying new turn
Have you ever come across a scientific study and immediately thought to yourself: why? What was the point of this work exactly? Why were resources and brainpower devoted to figuring this particular thing out?
Normally I have this thought when a study comes out about whether, for example, Viagra can help hamsters recover from jet lag (it can!) or whether mosquitoes like electronic dance music (not really!). On this occasion, however, it was prompted by news that researchers in Poland have developed tests that can detect whether a woman has taken mifepristone and misoprostol, the drugs that are used in a medication abortion and colloquially known as abortion pills.
Why the desperate need to figure this out? According to the researchers, one of whom apparently identifies as pro-choice, it’s because they were very worried about whether abortion pills on the black market posed a threat to public health. Which seems rather a strange explanation, since those drugs have been around for decades and there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that they are safe and effective.
The real reason there was a state-funded study to try detect the use of abortion pills is probably because Poland has draconian abortion laws – a near-ban on legal abortion was implemented in 2020 – and the government wants to crack down on any woman who dares to exercise autonomy over her own body. Under Polish law, you can’t go to jail for taking abortion pills, but if you help someone else procure them you can be prosecuted. Last March, for example, a Polish human rights activist was sentenced to eight months of community service for sending pills to a woman who was a victim of domestic violence.
In the past, trying to prove someone had taken abortion pills was tricky. It was impossible to tell whether a woman had experienced a miscarriage or had a medical abortion: the symptoms are the same and the technology didn’t exist to find evidence mifepristone and misoprostol had been ingested. Now, however, a government intent on controlling women has chilling new tools at its disposal. And, according to a New York Times piece by Patrick Adams, it is using them: Polish authorities have already leveraged the new tests to investigate the outcomes of pregnancies.
While there is no evidence that these tests are being used anywhere else in the world I imagine that anti-abortion activists in the US are champing at the bit to get their hands on them. Conservatives, after all, are already trying to clamp down on the availability of abortion pills in the US: in August, a federal appeals court ruled that access to mifepristone should be limited. Extremists are going to continue trying to chip away at access to medication abortions; they are going to continue their calls for women who get abortions to be charged with murder. A small but frighteningly zealous group of lawmakers will not be happy until every woman who so much as thinks about abortion is thrown in jail. And once they’ve outlawed all abortion they’ll move on to birth control.
You think I’m exaggerating? I wish I was. Daniel Cameron, the Republican candidate for governor in Kentucky, has said he believes hormonal birth control (ie the morning-after pill) is abortion and should be criminalized. Last year, the Republican governor of Mississippi refused to rule out the possibility he might ban certain forms of contraception. Meanwhile, a number of states have passed “personhood” laws, which state that life begins at the moment of fertilization – a position which paves the way for charging women who use emergency contraception with murder. No doubt all these lawmakers are watching Poland’s development of abortion pill testing methods with glee. It seems depressingly inevitable that technology like this is coming to a red state near you soon.
Young women in the US are afraid to get pregnant in a post-Roe world
Thirty-four per cent of women aged 18-39 questioned in a new poll said they or someone they know personally has “decided not to get pregnant due to concerns about managing pregnancy-related medical emergencies … the Dobbs decision, it seems, has fundamentally altered how people feel about having families and the calculus for getting pregnant”.
DeSantis does not support criminalizing women who get abortions after all
The Florida governor recently insisted that it is only the doctors who perform the abortion that will be liable for fines and imprisonment under the extreme six-week abortion ban he signed the law. So that’s OK, then!
Happiness of girls and young women at lowest level since 2009, shows UK poll
The biggest drop in happiness is among seven- to 10-year-olds. Only 28% say they are happy compared with well over half in 2009.
Silicon Valley bros are having testosterone parties
Tickets to the “T parties” cost between $100 and $400. According to founder Jeff Tang, guests can get blood tests to check their testosterone levels while discussing approaches to “optimizing T naturally, endocrine disrupters, and supplements” while dining on “home-made kefir, beef patties (heart, spleen, kidney) and pork loin (blood, liver), and delicious Colombian coffee”. Tang, by the way, is not a doctor or a scientist. “Just a guy who likes experimenting with his health and productivity.”
Mahsa Amini and a year of brutality and courage in Iran
It’s the first anniversary of the death in custody of 22-year-old Amini, who was allegedly detained for not wearing a headscarf. The Iranian illustrator Roshi Rouzbehani powerfully recaps a year of tumult for the Guardian.
Man accused of groping Spanish reporter live on air arrested
Journalist Isa Balado was just trying to do her job when a passerby groped her live on air. He’s now been arrested for sexual assault.
The week in paw-triarchy
What happens to robot dogs when they get old? Sony Japan’s pack of digital canines are heading to a nursing home. Five years after releasing a reboot of the ERS-1000 Aibo robot dogs from the late 90s, Sony is launching an “Aibo foster parent program” that lets owners who have cancelled their digital subscriptions send the dogs to nursing homes and medical facilities where they can provide emotional support and spread paws-itivity.
