Abortion by coat hanger

Today, staff members from the National Abortion Federation abortion by coat hanger a private viewing of the documentary The Coat Hanger Projectwhich chronicles the development of the reproductive justice movement in the United States, abortion by coat hanger. Filmmaker Angie Young got the inspiration for the film and began shooting footage while working on a campaign to overturn a South Dakota law banning abortion. Young, like many others, was compelled to go to South Dakota after the state legislature passed sweeping prohibition on abortion care in the state. In response, the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families coalition, NAF staffers, volunteers, and activists from across the country descended on Sioux Falls and canvassed, protested, rallied and raged to get this ban overturned.

When abortion is illegal, women and girls with unwanted pregnancies are unable to terminate their pregnancy in healthcare facilities such as abortion clinics and hospitals, and are forced to resort to dangerous methods to end their pregnancy. These dangerous methods include taking poisons, causing deliberate injury to the abdomen, pumping corrosive substances through the vagina, and inserting foreign objects into the uterus through the cervix. The wire coat hanger, because it has a thin metal wire that can be bent and can fit through the cervix, has been used by women who are unable to get a legal abortion to terminate their pregnancy at home. As you can imagine, inserting a sharp object into the uterus is extremely dangerous, and can lead to perforation of the uterus, infections, severe bleeding, and may fail to end the pregnancy after all. However, history has taught us that when abortion is illegal, women and girls with unwanted pregnancies will resort to dangerous methods rather than be forced to give birth against their will.

Abortion by coat hanger

If a woman can be charged with attempted murder for trying to give herself an abortion, what stops police from investigating miscarriages? In December , a year-old Tennessee woman, Anna Yocca, was charged with attempted first-degree murder for allegedly trying to use a coat hanger to end her pregnancy. On Tuesday, more than a year later, she was released from the Rutherford County jail on time served. Yocca pled guilty to "attempted procurement of a miscarriage" — an obscure Class E felony that was added to Tennessee's criminal code in the late s, and is still on the books today. Yocca pleaded guilty to attempted procurement of a miscarriage despite the fact that it is unconstitutional and a violation of international human rights principles to use this vague statute to punish women and new mothers for their pregnancies and the outcomes of those pregnancies," Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women NAPW , said in a statement Tuesday. Yocca was arrested in Tennessee in September after she showed up bleeding at a hospital, fearing for her health and safety. She gave birth to a very premature baby boy, who was just 24 weeks along and weighed one and a half pounds. Yocca's defense attorney, Gerald Melton, managed to get the first-degree murder charge dismissed in February Then, however, Yocca was re-indicted for aggravated fetal assault, under a law that penalized women who abused opioids with jail if they gave birth to babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome. This was done despite there being no evidence that Yocca had abused opioids. That law, however, was extremely problematic even when it was used as intended — it didn't address any of the health issues surrounding pregnant women and opioid abuse, and it actually threatened to make those issues worse if women refused to seek treatment for fear of jail sentence. The law was written to expire automatically in July unless it was renewed, and it was not renewed. But prosecutors weren't done with Yocca after that law went away. They charged her with three new felonies: aggravated assault with a weapon, attempted criminal abortion, and attempted procurement of a miscarriage.

They could try, of course. Who would those victims be?

The clothing hanger was originally designed to allow people quick access to their clothing as well as designate an area, in their home, to keep their clothing in. It was also used to keep clothing dry or without a wrinkle. There are three basic types of clothes hangers. The first is the wire hanger, which has a simple loop of wire, most often steel , [ citation needed ] in a flattened triangle shape that continues into a hook at the top. The second is the wooden hanger, which consists of a flat piece of wood cut into a boomerang -like shape with the edges sanded down to prevent damage to the clothing, and a hook, usually of metal, protruding from the point.

A twisted piece of wire isn't just a symbol of dangerous abortions; it's a symbol of inequality. In the mids, a woman went to an abortionist. She had been raped and now, pregnant, she sought his help. As he prepared to perform the procedure, he said to her, "You can take your pants down now, but you shoulda' -- ha! And also: Expensive -- very. When these methods failed, she hammered at her stomach with a meat pulverizer before going to an illegal abortionist.

Abortion by coat hanger

Coat hangers are a universal symbol of the backstreet abortions women were forced to resort to in the 20th century due to a lack of legal options. But activists say using the symbol to decry the fall of Roe v Wade is unhelpful as it could spread misinformation about the procedure. Whoever put it in — perhaps the patient herself — found it trapped in the cervix and could not remove it. He wrote that he also heard from a colleague about the use of a syringe full of soap solution, which could have killed the woman. Following the fall of Roe v Wade, protesters took to the streets around the world carrying placards featuring the coat hanger as a symbol that reproductive rights are regressing. Previously, TikTok users encouraged people to send the objects to the Supreme Court in protest against the erosion of abortion rights. Brook, a sexual health charity for young people, said posting symbols of coat hangers on social media was not a way of helping women in America. Log In. Latest 3h ago Russians set out to 'destroy Putin's propaganda myth' in sham election.

Tiller for sale

The wire coat hanger symbolizes a dark era of abortion rights. If a murder or fetal homicide charge won't stick, there are always charges like practicing medicine without a license or improperly disposing of fetal remains. Fetal homicide laws are supposed to protect pregnant women, not prosecute them. Doctors for Choice Jul 22, 2 min read. In other projects. But the legal options today, where available, are safe: surgical abortions, more accurately known as aspiration abortions, and medical abortions, which use a combination of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. The reason we tell people in Malta about these telemedicine services - despite them being illegal - is because these services are preventing people from having to resort to dangerous abortion methods, and therefore keep women and girls safe. Other times, as in the case of Mrs. North of New Britain, Connecticut. Israel United States.

You could see them held high in the air from among the crowd of protesters marching outside the U. Supreme Court, after the conservative-majority justices ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to have an abortion last month.

Why is the wire coat hanger a symbol of abortion rights? In Malta, abortion is illegal in all cases, and is not provided in hospitals. He stated frankly that he felt the element of physical risk was negligible but that the myths and exaggerations about abortion and the hard fact that it was an illegal procedure created prior apprehensions of sometimes damaging proportions. This one is exploding with life. Hulett patented an improved design, which used cardboard tubes mounted on the upper and lower parts of the wire to prevent wrinkles, and in Elmer D. Yocca was arrested in Tennessee in September after she showed up bleeding at a hospital, fearing for her health and safety. But prosecutors weren't done with Yocca after that law went away. Support our mission and help keep Vox free for all by making a financial contribution to Vox today. It's not clear what injuries Yocca's child sustained from the coat hanger itself, but his reported health problems are consistent with the health problems you'd expect in any baby born that prematurely. I'm sympathetic to those who believe that abortion is legalized murder, but to ban it outright would have victims too especially, as would in all likelihood be the case, you do not simultaneously increase and ease access to contraceptives and sex ed.