Taking abortions home.

• Author: Burke, Julia

IT'S CHICAGO IN THE 1960s. A woman and her husband drive at night to a dark corner of the West Side, following the instructions from the voice on the phone the previous day. After receiving three anonymous calls, each one telling her to expect the next, preserving a chain of perfect secrecy, she'd finally gotten to the voice that directed her here. As promised, a man identified as "Jack" jumps into the back seat of the car and proceeds to direct her husband, the driver, to a motel. They pull into the lot, and after checking the scene, Jack escorts her upstairs to a room. Heavy drapes cover the windows, and a doctor, medical kit in hand, stands by a bed. The coast is clear. She has her abortion, courtesy of the Chicago mafia.

"She said, for her own mental health, that she couldn't have any more children, after the two of us," that woman's daughter recalls, fifty years later. "And I can attest to that." And at this, her eyes fill with tears. "But the thing that stuck with me was this: She said she felt more taken care of, more midwived, by these men--who called her afterwards to ask how she was feeling, who were compassionate and sweet--than by any OB/GYN she'd ever seen."

The woman's daughter is herself a midwife practicing today in Wisconsin. She doesn't want her real name to be used, so I'll call her Sally Johnson. She is amazed that abortion, even to this day, is such a loaded issue.

"Abortion is a huge challenge in our culture, where we can't even say the word oftentimes," says Johnson. "It's fraught with fear and control issues, with this idea that women aren't smart enough, capable enough to make decisions."

As one state after another passes laws restricting abortion, women may be able to take power into their own hands.

In light of the onslaught of abortion-restrictive legislation over the last year, notably in Texas, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, the possibility of abortion once again becoming a state-based matter, rather than a right protected federally, is becoming more and more real.

As a result, women may need to prepare for a world where the safest, most affordable abortion option is in their own homes. The era of the midwife may be returning.

"I promised myself when I turned fifty, I'd close the circle," Johnson says. "I want to help women take back home abortions, which they've been doing for ever and ever. We can now blend medical safety and chemical safety."

Johnson recommends misoprostol, a common and inexpensive drug...