Ross tells Allure that granny midwives in the black community also frequently performed abortions. “I myself was delivered by a granny midwife on my mother's kitchen table," she says. "This is what we did. So if a woman needed help delivering her baby, or as they used to call it, 'bringing back the menses,' a euphemism for abortion, that's what the granny midwives did, up until they got criminalized in the 1950s and 60s.”

Emily Varnam — who is a doula, educator, and co-founder of the Fifth Vital Sign — explains the practice of menstrual extraction to Allure, saying that it works by creating a vacuum to suction out the contents of the uterus through the cervix. “Extraction is a setup that [...] creates this suction that can remove the endometrium with the fertilized egg. Obviously, care is needed, and it's something that you would want to have someone who is trained to do.”

Access to Safe Abortion Is Necessary

However, just because DIY abortions are arguably possible doesn’t mean we should perform them. As Cepin says, “In order for women to receive the most effective regimen, they currently must see a provider.”

But the truth is, self-induced abortion is still being practiced today. While some of us are steeling ourselves for the fact that we may need to revisit this form of birth control if Roe v. Wade is overturned, many others are already doing so. The reason that we need this information today, even while abortion is still legal, is the reality of class, race, and geographical privilege. Those of us in more progressive states or with greater socioeconomic privilege and medical access may view DIY abortion as a scary part of the past, no longer practiced or necessary. But some simply do not have access to safe and legal abortion, and that number is likely going to grow in the Trump era.

Many feminists, activists, and doulas are fearful that Roe v. Wade could be overturned for multiple reasons, including the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. But they also acknowledge that it may not happen. Instead, conservative lawmakers are more likely to systematically slice away at abortion access and narrow women’s options as much as possible.

"Even without the looming idea of Roe v. Wade being overturned, we need to have more options for abortion. When you need an abortion, you fucking need an abortion.”

“I think that the cascade of state-based laws trying to win their way to the Supreme Court is perilous," Ross tells Allure. "But there's a part of me — a semi-cynical part of me — that says these boys [in the Supreme Court] don’t want to go there right now. I think that they're concerned about how many conservative women will remain blindly loyal to them if they overreach on abortion...it's hard to calculate at what point they may snap into pragmatic sanity. It doesn't seem like there's a bottom… But I don't know if it's fair to predict that Roe will be fundamentally overturned, but they will certainly make accessing abortion as difficult as possible and it'll definitely become [more of] a class-based system.”

How to Get Involved in the Fight for Reproductive Rights

So what can we do? The most obvious answer is to vote and get involved with reproductive rights organizations, such as Women Help Women, and Abortion Pill Info, which provides secure information about DIY abortion pills.