For Privacy’s Sake, Taking Risks to End Pregnancy

[groovedaddy]

Amalia Dominguez was 18 and desperate and knew exactly what to ask for at the small, family-run pharmacy in the heart of Washington Heights, the thriving Dominican enclave in northern Manhattan. “I need to bring down my period,” she recalled saying in Spanish, using a euphemism that the pharmacist understood instantly.

It was 12 years ago, but the memory remains vivid: She was handed a packet of pills. They were small and white, $30 for 12. Ms. Dominguez, two or three months pregnant, went to a friend’s apartment and swallowed the pills one by one, washing them down with malta, a molasseslike extract sold in nearly every bodega in the neighborhood.

The cramps began several hours later, doubling Ms. Dominguez over, building and building until, eight and a half hours later, she locked herself in the bathroom and passed a lifeless fetus, which she flushed.

The pills were misoprostol, a prescription drug that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for reducing gastric ulcers and that researchers say is commonly, though illegally, used within the Dominican community to induce abortion. Two new studies by reproductive-health providers suggest that improper use of such drugs is one of myriad methods, including questionable homemade potions, frequently employed in attempts to end pregnancies by women from fervently anti-abortion cultures despite the widespread availability of safe, legal and inexpensive abortions in clinics and hospitals.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/nyregion/05abortion.html?th&emc=th

[MountainLaurel]

1. Not just for "privacy's" sake

Heaven only knows what these women would be facing if their families, or their partners, knew they had an abortion.

[Warpy]

2. Even young girls know when it's safe to tell Mom and Dad

and when it's not safe to tell them.

No parent with a decent relationship with his/her daughter needs a squeal law.

[MountainLaurel]

3. Absolutely right

Although in this article, it seems that some of the young women involved are technically adults, but they still have much to fear from their families and the community.