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So now they’ve started arresting women

An Idaho woman arrested for inducing her own abortion is taking her case to federal court. Jennie Linn McCormack was charged last year under an obscure Idaho law for ending her pregnancy with RU-486.

McCormack won’t talk about the day she had an abortion. She’s following her attorney’s advice. But here’s what the public record says.

In late 2010, McCormack learned she was pregnant. The father was out of the picture. Her youngest was barely two and she was living off child support checks.

Getting an abortion would have cost at least $500 and required multiple trips back and forth to a clinic hours away. So, McCormack turned to the rising number of Internet suppliers of abortion pills.

Now, this is where the story gets more complicated. RU-486 is medically recommended only within the first nine weeks of pregnancy. It turns out that  McCormack was way past that although she said she didn’t realize it at the time.

After she aborted the fetus she was horrified by how far along it seemed. Possibly as much as 20 weeks. McCormack confided in a friend. It was this friend’s sister that tipped off the police.

The police, who knocked on the door…

 

Comments

  1. Dez says

    Not surprised by this story at all. This will happen more due to the recent restrictions on abortion. Women will always decide whether to terminate a pregnancy or not. Either abortion is easily accessible or potentially worse situations like this will be common place.

  2. michaelswanson says

    The poor thing. If her fucking state provided people with affordable health care (you know, that thing that always ends up saving money and lives when you’re not just obsessively and condescendingly mad at the poor for being poor!), she wouldn’t have had to take to take those steps in ignorance of her own condition. It looks like she wouldn’t even have considered it if she knew she was 20 weeks along! I can’t imagine what that was like for her.

  3. Pierce R. Butler says

    Here seems to be as good a place as any to pass this along: “Men With Breasts” packs more sexism & silliness into one page than I had thought possible for anyone not named Limbaugh.

  4. EmbraceYourInnerCrone says

    And why did the friend’s sister feel it was necessary to report her to the police?!

    Not to mention that if abortion was more widely available in the States, and didn’t have so many restrictions in many cases (waiting periods, ultrasounds, multiple counseling sessions) she probably would have been able to obtain an early, safe abortion in a clinic. Not everyone can take multiple days off to go get the counseling, etc and then go back for the procedure, not everyone has childcare available or money for a motel overnight in addition to transportation and the money to pay for the abortion.

  5. dianne says

    So, McCormack turned to the rising number of Internet suppliers of abortion pills.

    This is going to kill someone some day. It sounds like McCormack at least got real RU-486. Real RU-486 is not without risk-there’s a reason that there’s a follow up visit after you take it and counseling before hand-but pills over the internet, especially being sold to vulnerable people, can be anything. Stupid, stupid laws.

  6. Gingerbaker says

    “Looks like it’s time for another Roe v. Wade anyway to put all this misogyny to rest.”

    Do you really think we are going to get a better abortion law than Roe v Wade?

  7. Brownian says

    Women will always decide whether to terminate a pregnancy or not.

    Don’t be silly; we’ve learned from the War on Drugs that if you make something illegal, people will simply say no, stay in school, etc.

  8. says

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

    I will feel MUCH better when I am no longer pregnant, and instead have an IUD firmly implanted in my uterus. Grrr.

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