The New Yorker has profiled Project SANA lead investigator Abigail Aiken in a new piece, “What does an at-home abortion look like in 2021?”
The profile focus on why Aiken–an outstanding student growing up in Northern Ireland–decided to focus her talents on the study of abortion access. As a young woman, Aiken faced a possible pregnancy in a country in which abortion was illegal. Her feelings of relief upon learning she was not pregnant–or was no longer pregnant, she never knew–propelled her to study others seeking self-managed abortion.
The profile further chronicles her work, including collaborations with Women on Web and Aid Access, and her decision to settle in Texas, because she was “interested in being somewhere where reproductive rights are important.”
The article notes that Aiken’s research has helped to change perceptions of abortion pills—and of self-managed abortions in general. Aiken’s data continue to suggest that, when pills are used, inducing an abortion at home is as safe as going to a clinic.
The article concludes by focusing on Aiken’s decision two years ago to have a child: “Parenthood can only be a choice if abortion is allowed.”