In Latin America, as in the rest of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic affected health systems. Sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion, already limited in most countries in the region, were relegated or directly suspended.
A report by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) revealed that Australia, Canada, the United States, Scotland, Spain, France, Wales, India, the United Kingdom, and South Africa reduced barriers to abortion by telemedicine during the pandemic. This contrasts with the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the disinterest and lack of knowledge of the authorities about the possibilities and potential of self-managed abortion or teleabortion prevails.
Another significant example is found in Kenya, where, during the pandemic, organizations such as Women First Digital and Marie Stopes Kenya expanded their telemedicine services, allowing women to access safe abortion services and online counseling. These platforms are crucial to ensuring that women, especially in rural areas, can exercise their right to reproductive health safely and confidentially.
The first clarity we need to have on this matter is that self-managed abortion, for example, through medications such as mifepristone or misoprostol, is a safe and effective way to terminate pregnancy early, and the WHO supports this practice, as evidenced by the following two posts:
- The “Unified Guidelines on self-care interventions, sexual reproductive health, and rights,” published in 2019, include a section on pharmacological abortion without health supervision in the first trimester of pregnancy.
- The new “Abortion Care Guidelines” published in 2022 recommend telemedicine as an alternative to in-person interactions with the health care worker to provide medical abortion services in whole or in part.
On April 7, 2023, the New York Times published an article on the safety of abortion pills evidence-based scientific. The newspaper, along with a group of experts, reviewed more than one hundred studies that together covered more than 124,000 abortions. Studies conclude that abortion pills – such as misoprostol – are a safe method to end a pregnancy.
Organizations and activists around the world agree that self-management of medical abortion is increasingly necessary in the face of restrictions such as criminalization and discriminatory access to sexual and reproductive health services. Self-managed medical abortion also promotes autonomy and dignity by exercising RSD in conditions of privacy and safety.
Promoting these online and self-managed abortion platforms is a way to protect the reproductive autonomy of women, girls, and people with the capacity to bear children. It is also a clear example of the close link between the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights and digital rights.
