Yet the use of this drug can be illegal: A handful of states outlaw self-induced abortion, and other states have found ways to use existing laws to criminalize people who share misoprostol or use it to prompt a miscarriage.

There is little doubt that banning abortion in parts of the country will lead to more home-based abortions with medication. The only question is how much harm will result. We know which Americans are most at risk: those who are poor, young, geographically isolated and minorities. Instead of bemoaning the impending loss of legal abortion while leaving marginalized people alone to take on the risks of self-managed pregnancy loss, those of us who are more privileged can organize to reduce the potential harms.

First, we can work to fully decriminalize self-induced abortions. This is an area where all Americans, including pro-life Americans, can work together. The pro-life movement has insisted for decades that women should not be prosecuted for self-abortion, although this position is shifting in the face of safe, cheap abortion medications.

Pro-life people who sincerely care about women and babies should insist that women not be punished for pregnancy losses. Health care providers must also continue to oppose prosecuting women, knowing that doing so will create barriers to seeking treatment and undermine the doctor-patient relationship. Prosecutions for pregnancy loss invariably target the poorest, most marginalized people in society, including those who suffer unintended miscarriages and stillbirths. Working together to decriminalize self-managed abortion will curb these risks.

We should also work to expand access to misoprostol. It should remain a prescription drug, and no additional restrictions should be placed on its distribution. We might begin by normalizing the possession and use of the drug. Just as we keep EPI-pens on hand for potential life threatening allergic reactions or emergency contraception for when a condom breaks, we should start seeing it as a prophylactic drug that deserves a place in our medicine cabinets. We should ask our clinicians for prescriptions before we need it.

Those with the means should buy and share misoprostol, so our most vulnerable community members don’t have to rely on foreign websites to send them drugs, and so more of us have a stake in any threat to criminalize the possession and use of this drug.

In fact, those of us with social privilege should consider openly carrying or displaying the medicine — something Irish activists did during Ireland’s recent successful campaign to legalize abortion. Imagine if those old coat hanger pins warning against unsafe abortion were replaced by pins with pills on them to show that we have access to this medicine and can help others? Maybe “open carry” isn’t only for guns?