How a 'network' of women changed abortion access in Latin America

S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , we explore a new documentary podcast series from NPR's embedded about abortion rights in Latin America. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Nearly three years ago , abortion rights in the U.S. were upended when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. Its impacts are still being felt by American women today. But for women in Latin America , the journey to increase abortion access has been decades in the making , and the effort was driven by women who organized to make it more accessible and safer. That story is the focus of a new limited documentary series from NPR's embedded podcast series called The Network. Take a listen.

S2: June 24th , 2022 the US Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade. Abortion was no longer protected by the Constitution.

S3: And abortion rights supporters were grappling with the change.

S4: People are just absolutely terrified.

S5: Women are suffering. Women will die.

S3: But around the same time , all over Latin America , the opposite was happening. Countries were lifting abortion bans.

S2: In Argentina and Mexico.

S3: Colombia to. Colombia.

S2: Colombia.

S3: It was like women in Latin America and women in the United States had traded places.

S2: But for the last several decades , these women had been trading something else , too.

S6: It was spreading by word of mouth.

S7: I was like , hey , what ? No way.

S2: A huge discovery this year.

S8: Women stopped dying.

S9: We just started hearing that patients were taking some pills.

S3: You can have.

S6: A safe abortion and you can do it at home.

S3: This is the story of that discovery. But more than that , it's the story of the women behind it.

S10: It's just friends. It's mothers. It's sisters.

S7: Taking experiments.

S6: In our own bodies.

S10: Operating outside of the legally sanctioned system.

S3: Women who challenged each other.

S2: As a doctor , I didn't think it was safe.

S7: Do we have to do this so public ? You are not.

S2: Women who broke laws.

S7: If they arrest you , they are going to come for everyone.

S3: A network of women who changed abortion access for millions of people.

S1: KPBS Midday Edition producer and roundtable host Andrew Bracken spoke with Victoria Estrada and Marta martinez , host of the network. Here's that conversation.

S11: Victoria , tell us about what made you want to tell this story ? You know , about these efforts to increase abortion rights throughout Latin America ? Yeah.

S2: So Marta and I have been working together for a couple of years. We both have been covering reproductive rights in the Americas for years. So we have a perspective that is informed by our reporting in Latin America and also in the US. And as you mentioned , when Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022 , like we we did start to pay , we were documenting what was happening here in the US , how demand for access was still there , but maybe the the clinics had to shut down. And so we were looking into that and we were contrasting with what the reality is in Latin America , where abortion happens have been happening for years in a very different way , using a pill and not necessarily going to see a doctor. And so our series actually is focused on this loosely connected movement that's that's expanded abortion access. It doesn't necessarily. It has to do with right , like legal like legal access , but just access to women around the world and Latin America specifically , and how they're helping them have safe abortions without a doctor , regardless of the law. And so I think that we are just following this movement.

S11: And , Martha , you know , on that contrast. Can you talk more about , um , you know , as Victoria just said , um , there's more reliance on looking for spaces and access outside of medical clinics. Tell us more about the stories and the places your series talks about here. Right.

S3: Right. So we start in Brazil in the 1980s , which is where women discovered that actually this bill called misoprostol , had a side effect that was helping women have abortions in a way that was much safer than anything else they had tried before. We follow the bill as it goes into other countries in Latin America. We go to Argentina , where women started organizing and created helplines. They would explain to women how to take the pill , to have the abortion. What they should be careful about. How to , you know , understand when you actually need to go to the doctor. And we also go into this new support system that they created that's known as a companion or accompaniment , which basically means there is a woman supporting another woman throughout the abortion from beginning to end , regardless of the legal risks. And for example , we have the example of also of Beto from Lesley in Mexico , which Victoria A interviewed and she explained how she would give women pills and they would just be on the phone with them whenever they were taking the pills and just providing support and expanding this network through just like women telling other women how to do this. And what's fascinating is that over time today , basically the W.H.O. , the World Health Organization , recommends this as a safe abortion method for the first trimester.

S11:

S2: But we were really looking for a firsthand testimony of someone who took this pill that , as Marta said , was not created for abortions. It was actually created for stomach problems , for ulcers. And so when they noticed the side effect. And so the women just you could buy it over the counter and start it. We knew that there were there were tellings like we could find it in research papers that said like , oh , they're starting in the 1980s. Women started taking this in Brazil and it became very popular. And so we we really wanted to take to get a firsthand testimony. But this since this is something that happened 40 years ago , it did we did have to go to Brazil. We did on the ground reporting there. And it wasn't as easy as we thought we might. We thought it might be because we had read that this was very widespread. And so we thought , of course we're going to ask around and eventually but we , we did manage to to find a person and she shares her story. And so it was a very important interview during our reporting process , just hearing from these women who started using this pill that , as Marta said , is now researchers estimate that it's the most used abortion pill in the world. And it all started just with women working class , lower income black women in Brazil.

S11: And Martha. So the first episode is out now.

S3: Victoria and I traveled there last year to document the origin , the origin of this very unexpected discovery that the women made in the mid 1980s when this new pill came into the market there. And we meet Doctor Rivaldo , and he is one of the OB GYNs who was just getting started in his career in in the northeast of the country and in his hospital. He started seeing women coming in with bleeding. So they had these symptoms like they had attempted to have an abortion , but there was no infection because until then women had been trying very unsafe , very dangerous things to have abortions , because research shows that even though there might be laws banning abortion , women will still find ways to have abortions. So the doctor was very surprised because the women showed up and there were no infections anymore or very few. So they were they were curious , like , it looks like they're doing something , but we don't know what they're doing. So we explain in this episode what is it that the women were doing on their own and how they actually created this whisper network , how they were telling each other. And Brazil is a huge country. It's similar to the United States. So it actually is very impressive that we found research in most of the country where women knew about this and were using this bill to have abortions.

S11: You know , you know , as journalists , I think we look for stories that have impacts on us in one way or another. Personally , I'm just curious , you know , for both of you.

S2: And I think that both Martha and I were we really wanted to tell this story of how , when , how did this happen ? Because it's it's something that is very relevant now to , to the US. And it's been very relevant for women across the Americas and in Mexico and Argentina. And so I think that just getting to to to hear the stories and then be able to tell them , just to know like a lot of the details , like because we hear like , oh , women organize but but what does it look like ? Were there any internal tensions were there ? Like what were the challenges ? What were the methods ? And I think that just being able to have those conversations , we find that there were there were challenges and just just knowing that history , I think that has been very enriching.

S3: I was just going to say , I think for me , it was very inspiring to see how women became so resourceful and found ways to deal with something that was a big problem for them , like there was this big problem , which was that they were dying because of infections , because they were using very unsafe methods to have abortions. And they figured out something that actually , over time , was backed by science , and it was proven that it was safe and effective. So as one of the experts we interviewed said they were doing domestic science , they were developing scientific knowledge completely out of the mainstream medical system and mainstream research or medical research work world.

S11: I've been speaking to the hosts of the new NPR embedded series called The Network , Victoria Estrada and Marta martinez. I want to thank you both , and you can listen to the first episode of embedded , the network wherever you get your podcasts. Martha Victoria , thanks again.

S2: Thank you.

S3: Thank you for having us.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.