An ultrasound is often necessary to confirm a pregnancy and assess how many weeks a woman has been pregnant. What Women Help Women has done differently is connect US women with counselors who can provide step-by-step instructions, and answer questions, in real time. But abortion rights opponents cite these safety concerns as reasons to oppose any project that makes abortion drugs available outside a clinical setting. One study of abortion patients found that 2.2% had tried to, at some point in their lives, induce their own abortions without professional medical assistance. With reproductive rights under threat, Women Help Women gives legal and medical advice to women who may be taking matters into their own hands 
 
 New website offers US women help to perform their own abortions 
 
 Fearful that Donald Trump’s presidency poses a once-in-a-generation threat to US reproductive rights, an international advocacy group this week is unveiling what is sure to be a controversial response: a web portal dedicated to helping US women terminate their own pregnancies with abortion-inducing drugs they have obtained outside of a medical setting. In response to a study, first reported by the Guardian, that tests the efficacy of sending women abortion drugs by mail, a spokeswoman for Americans United for Life said, “We have grave concerns about handing out dangerous, life-ending drugs without medical supervision because women face great risks for chemical abortions.” 
 
 Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, asked, “Who are they supposed to call if they have a problem?” 
 
 Yanow says that’s exactly the point of Women Help Women’s new portal. Trump replied, “Well, we’ll see what happens.” 
 
 But we don’t have to wait and see what happens. “Women in the US have been and are using the pills without good guidance,” said Susan Yanow, the US spokeswoman for the group, Women Help Women. (The group does not send abortion drugs to the US, because the US does not outright ban abortion.) The legal risks are thought to loom larger than the medical risks. And in fact, self-induction is in a legal gray area, and many enterprising prosecutors have charged women who carried out their own abortions with crimes. “To end this nightmare,” she wrote, “it would cost me one-third of my family’s monthly income.” She continued, “I have seen a doctor. “People are not being advised to use the pills,” she said. ‘Please, I am out of options’: inside the murky world of DIY abortions Read more 
 
 The project, launched by Women Help Women, is a nod to the fact that many US women may already be taking matters into their own hands as abortion options in this country contract. Some years, up to 200 women would die of complications from illegal or self-induced abortions.  Share 
 
 In the U.S., abortion is legal in every state, and every state has at least one clinic that provides abortion care. He treated women who had gone to back-alley abortion providers and a woman who had shot herself in the stomach. It is approved by the World Health Organization as a safe abortion method when used by women themselves to 9 weeks and has been used successfully by millions of women* around the world, without a clinician. Jimenez had previously had one legal abortion, paid for using Medicaid. We can help her understand what signs to look for, and what’s going on.” 
 
 Research suggests that there is a small but significant number of US women who attempt to induce their own abortions without any medical supervision. We will do anything in our power to get people the information and the care that they need.” Even now, her group posts instructions for self-administering misoprostol on its website – “For safety’s sake.” 
 
 Not all advocates feel good about disseminating this information. Where can I find a clinic or help paying for my abortion? “This whole time that I’ve been pregnant, and that I’ve known I’ve been pregnant, that’s all I’ve thought about,” she said. “If a woman is anxious and has the pills in her hand, and doesn’t know what to do … we can help her understand what to do. In the US, it is illegal to administer the drug outside of certain medical clinics. Grossman argued that a project like Women Help Women’s could minimize those risks. Misoprostol alone, or in combination with mifepristone, is a safe and effective way to end a pregnancy in the first 12 weeks. She was still too nauseous to take the pills while she was in Mexico City, so she would have to take them in the United States. “If women have information about how to use it, then women can safely use it on their own.” 
 
 When women go to an abortion clinic, they are typically given two drugs: mifepristone, a drug that blocks hormones necessary to sustain a pregnancy administered in person, and misoprostol, which is taken many hours later and causes the uterus to contract and expel its contents. Researchers believe that women who self-administer abortion drugs are most likely taking misoprostol by itself, because it is easy to obtain from foreign pharmacies. “I think that it’s worse to just remain silent while we know women are doing this,” he said. “I would so much rather have a health professional help me in this and kind of guide me through it versus DIY.” 
 
 New Brunswick becomes first Canada province to offer free abortion pill Read more 
 
 Those words stuck in Yanow’s mind. And using the drug improperly – say, at a high dose in the second trimester – can lead to serious medical complications. The pills worked just like they were supposed to.
– A Dutch organization that advises women on reproductive rights has now launched a website to help US women terminate pregnancies on their own. The Guardian reports on the "Self-Managed Abortion: Safe and Supported" portal, or SASS, set up by Women Help Women. Through it, 23 trained counselors will answer questions and give advice if women have already decided to take the drug misoprostol. The medication, which, when taken alone or in combination with mifepristone, keeps a pregnancy from happening, is only legal in the US at medical facilities, though it can be purchased OTC in Central American nations. A Women Help Women rep says the idea for the site came about after a Guardian story documenting a Texas woman's trip to Mexico to get the drug, and all the questions she had once she got it. The site won't provide pills, and organizers say they won't even suggest women take them—they're just there to keep women safe if they've already decided to. "It's worse to just remain silent," says a UC San Francisco obstetrics professor who calls misoprostol a "very safe and effective" drug (though it's more effective taken with mifepristone, which isn't as easy to obtain). For women who do have complications and must seek medical care, the Washington Post notes they'll be advised that drug-induced and spontaneous abortions typically look the same, and that the drug isn't detectable via drug test. Abortion foes note the meds can be dangerous if not taken correctly or if taken late in the gestation period, and that this site could put women at risk by providing info on taking them. Women Help Women is being cautious in case of legal ramifications: Its servers are located outside the US, as are its two dozen or so staffers.