Abortion Beyond the Law: Building a Global Feminist Movement for Self-Managed Abortion

by Naomi Braine

Overview

How feminists across Latin America, Africa, and Europe are making self-managed abortion available to all–and the strong transnational feminist movement they have built along the way

The feminists across Latin America, Africa, and Europe making self-managed abortion available to all - and the transnational movement they have built along the way

Drawing on years of research with activists around the world, sociologist Naomi Braine describes the strategies, politics, and tactics of direct action feminists bringing abortion pills, information, and support to people seeking to end unwanted pregnancies. From combatting the legal strictures of Bolsonaro's Brazil, to navigating the NGO-dominated landscape of Kenya and Nigeria, feminist activists are making safe, accessible abortion care available against the odds.

Even more important, these women are building a robust transnational feminist network. Tactics developed in the Global South - hotlines, practices of accompaniment and peer-to-peer care, and scientific information - are now being shared with activists in Europe and North America, building a new model for international feminist solidarity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781804292075
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	11/14/2023
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	294 KB

About the Author

Naomi Braine is a Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College, CUNY. Prior to joining the faculty at Brooklyn, she worked in the non-profit research sector on issues of drug use and HIV, and consulted for community based organizations. Her political and intellectual work addresses gender, sexuality, reproductive justice, wars on drugs and terror, and health and collective action. Her current work, as an activist and a research investigator, is centered on self-managed abortion.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Abortion Is Unstoppable: The Emergence of a Transnational Movement
2. We Are Everywhere: The Shape of the Global Movement for SMA
3. An Act of Solidarity between Women: Strategies to Share Information and Enable Safe Abortions
4. Being an Activist Is Not Easy: Managing Security and Sharing the Risks
5. We Have Become the Experts: Scientific Research, Medical Protocols, and Movement Knowledge
6. We All Work Together: Building Activist Networks from the Local to the Global
7. In It for the Long Term: The Lives of Committed Activists

Conclusion: Moving Forward

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/13/2023

Sociologist Braine debuts with a striking and lucid survey of the recent struggle for abortion rights across Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, and argues that American abortion activists can learn from these communities’ successful promotion of self-managed abortions. These illegal, at-home abortions were made possible around the world by the growing availability of abortions pills, the use of which has now also become more widespread in the U.S., Braine notes, after increased restrictions on abortion in some states. Braine traces how these pills first came into widespread use in Brazil when abortion was criminalized there in the 1980s and ’90s. Grassroots activist organizations provided information about self-managed abortion medication to pregnant women through illicit abortion hotlines, and eventually established informal medical practices to guide patients through a self-managed abortion over the phone. These organizations, which Braine calls “civil disobedience without a press release,” not only provided abortion services free of charge, but also fostered a sense of solidarity that she demonstrates was crucial to later legal victories securing abortion rights in Argentina, Colombia, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and other countries. Drawing on three years of travel and interviews, Braine paints an enthralling portrait of a robust, globe-spanning network of feminist activism. It’s a stunning view of a sea change in abortion rights. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to know how the global feminist movement for self-managed abortion has been providing access to safe and quality pregnancy termination—beyond legal and medical authority."
—Nayla Luz Vacarezza, National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, Argentina

"Read this book and learn all about the creative strategies and intrepid people making a real difference in the lives of millions."
—Francine Coeytaux and Elisa Wells, Cofounders, Plan C

From the Publisher