Since the rightwing cabal in control of the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, fourteen states where legislatures are controlled by the Republican Party, have passed laws creating a nearly total ban on abortion. They are Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Medication abortion, which is legal in the United States since 2000, is banned because medical facilities and personnel, afraid of suits, losing accreditation, and arrest, have stopped prescribing the medication. Decades of scientific studies demonstrated that medication abortion is safe and effective. They currently account for more than half of all abortions obtained in the United States.
CVS and Walgreens, the largest pharmacy chains in the United States, announced they will begin selling the medical abortion pill mifepristone, but only to women with prescriptions and only in New York, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts at this time. CVS is also considering making the pills available in Kansas, Wyoming, and Montana where the pills are banned by law but the legislation is currently on hold because of court challenges. Walgreens, however, will not make the pills available to women in states where the law remains unclear.
Telemedicine abortion shield laws in Massachusetts, Washington, Colorado, Vermont, New York, and California now protect doctors, nurse practitioners, and midwives licensed in those six states who prescribe and send abortion pills to patients in states where abortion is banned or sharply restricted. These laws went into effect last summer and their legality has not yet been tested in the courts. They already provide access to abortion to tens of thousands of women. Under the laws, legal officials and accreditation agencies in these states will not cooperate with a request from an abortion banning state to investigate or penalize abortion pill providers. Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri have already petitioned to join a case that seeks to bar the mailing of abortion pills and to require in-person doctor visits.
Anti-abortion groups are trying to resurrect the 1873 Comstock Act. The law was designed to suppress everything that its champion, Anthony Comstock, considered immoral including birth control products. The Comstock Act specifically outlawed the mailing of “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” materials. It also prohibited mailing anything “intended for the prevention of conception or procuring of abortion.” Under the law, if enforced, the U.S. Post Office, FedEx and UPS would be prevented from delivering abortion bills.
One of the groups working to make medication abortion accessible is Aid Access. It pioneered the shipment of abortion pills to women living in states where abortion is banned. It acquired prescriptions for the pills in Europe and ordered the pills from a pharmacy in India. Aid Access is now using shield laws to provide medication abortion pills to about 7,000 patients a month. It advises women that they can order abortion pills in advance, just in case she needs them in the future. The abortion pill Mifepristone can also be used as a weekly on-demand contraceptive and it is an extremely effective morning-after pill.
To help Aid Access, you can make a donation to the Dutch non-profit organization Women on Waves or you can use their GoFundMe page.
