Yesterday, South Dakota banned abortion. Normally, we'd steer clear of a hot-button topic like abortion, but this law has also triggered a small firestorm around the blog of a woman named Molly, who last week put issues of open access to scientific knowledge in sharp relief by publishing a guide to setting up a cheap, safe, mobile abortion clinic for use in places where abortion has been criminalized:
In the 1960s and early 1970s, when abortions were illegal in many places and expensive to get, an organization called Jane stepped up to the plate in the Chicago area. Jane initially hired an abortion doctor, but later they did the abortions themselves. They lost only one patient in 13,000 -- a lower death rate than that of giving live birth. The biggest obstacle they had, though, was the fact that until years into the operation, they thought of abortion as something only a doctor could do, something only the most trained specialist could perform without endangering the life of the woman.
They were deceived -- much like you have probably been deceived. An abortion, especially for an early pregnancy, is a relatively easy procedure to perform. And while I know, women of South Dakota, that you never asked for this, now is the time to learn how it is done. There is no reason you should be beholden to doctors -- especially in a state where doctors have been refusing to perform them, forcing the state's only abortion clinic to fly doctors in from elsewhere.
No textbooks or guides existed at that time to help them, and the equipment was hard to find. This is no longer true. For under $2000, any person with the inclination to learn could create a fully functioning abortion setup.... If you are careful and diligent, and have a good grasp of a woman's anatomy you will not put anyone's health or life in danger.
Like other principles of free expression, open access to scientific knowledge often seems absurdly removed from our lives. Molly shows just how tangible such knowledge can be. Science is, above all else, a moral commitment to openly and freely discussing the actual functioning of the universe (and of our bodies). People went to the stake to make science a going concern. Not all that long ago, the information Molly is sharing would have made her a criminal in many countries, just as sharing information on contraception, or evolution, or the fact that the Earth moves around the Sun all once made scientists criminals. What knowledge now being acquired will politicians take it on themselves to criminalize in the future?
(via Warren)
