In Historic First, Witness Explains How To Self-Manage Abortion In Front Of Congress

For the first time ever before Congress, an abortion rights advocate described how to self-manage the procedure using pills — giving a highly public platform to a method all the more vital now that the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade.

Renee Bracey Sherman, the founder and executive director of abortion storytelling group We Testify, spoke during a House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panel hearing on Tuesday. The hearing included four other panelists, all of whom discussed the impacts of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn the landmark ruling guaranteeing abortion rights nationwide.

During her testimony, Bracey Sherman discussed how she considered throwing herself down the stairs when she was 19 and pregnant. One night, she recalled, she drank “an unsafe amount of alcohol,” hoping it would cause a miscarriage.

“That was when it [abortion] was legal in every state. Now, it is not and I know some will try the methods that I did,” she said. “And I want them to know that there are safe methods to self-managing their abortions according to the World Health Organization.”

Medication abortion is a combination of two drugs — mifepristone and misoprostol — first approved by the FDA in 2000 for miscarriage and abortion care before the 10-week point. It’s commonly used in health care settings and is often the type of abortion people get when they go to an abortion clinic.

When used together, mifepristone and misoprostol are more than 95% effective and safer than Tylenol.

Bracey Sherman explained in plain terms how to take the medication.

“It is one mifepristone pill followed by four misoprostol pills dissolved under the tongue 24 to 48 hours later, or a series of 12 misoprostol pills, four at a time, dissolved under the tongue every three hours,” Bracey Sherman said. “There’s no way to test it in the blood stream and a person doesn’t need to tell police what they took.”

Bracey Sherman wore green ― a color that has been used by advocates and lawmakers to show support for abortion rights since nearly two decades ago during the Argentinian reproductive rights movement.

“I share that to exercise my…