Produced by Eleven Lab and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.
For all the chaos that occurred after the overthrow of the state, Roe vs. Wadeit did not dramatically change the most basic fact about abortion in America: its numbers. Starting in 2022, the number of abortions in the United States will remain flat and increase slightly, based on the best available limited data. One big reason: the rise of abortion pills. This drug is now used for the vast majority of abortions in America. Every month, thousands of women in states where abortion is banned are able to secretly order pills by mail and take them at home. Even though abortion is prohibited, the availability of these drugs makes these rules less absolute than the anti-abortion movement would like.
“Abortion Pill Pose” the single biggest threat To the fetuses born in the mailboxegg They are, according to Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s conservative policy strategy.death by mail“What has unfolded under the Biden-Harris FDA is a travesty,” Kristan Hawkins, the group’s president, told me, according to Students for Life. And the anti-abortion movement has developed plans to target the drug through a number of legal and political means, some of which could apply regardless of who is elected president next month. There is.
For years, abortion pills have steadily increased the proportion of abortions in the United States; in 2021The pill is actually two different drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, and the FDA has lifted its longstanding requirement that mifepristone be prescribed only in person. As a result, abortion pills are now available by mail. FDA cited Risks related to the new coronavirus 2021 Decision But Immediately Supports Anti-Abortion condemned the moveAnd this policy continues even after the pandemic. After flipping over, egg In 2022, 21 states passed new abortion bans or restrictions; More than a dozen statesStates including New York and California have taken steps to make abortion pills available by mail, even in restricted states, by passing shield laws. These laws specifically protect doctors, midwives, and nurses who use telemedicine and prescribe medications by mail across state lines.
Since then, on average 6,000-7,000 people Data from the Planned Parenthood Association, which tracks abortion providers in the United States, shows that people who have lived in a state with an outright or six-week ban for a month are less likely to obtain abortion pills through telemedicine. He was able to do so. This number does not include, for example, people who had abortions outside the public health system. Tablets ordered from overseas. And in states where abortion remains legal, the number of abortions and the use of abortion pills also increased from 2020 to 2023, the report said. Guttmacher Institute data. (The number of women traveling to other states for abortions also doubled during this period, which is another reason abortions haven’t declined significantly after abortion.)egg. )
“The anti-abortion movement still doesn’t quite know how to respond to this,” said Greer Donley, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh who has supported the anti-abortion movement. Drafted the nation’s first shield law. The Shield Act has not yet been directly challenged in court. And when anti-abortion groups tried to pursue the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone, lawsuitthe Supreme Court dismissed the case this year for lack of standing.
Still, three states requested it last week: Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho. To revive that incidentis asking the court to reinstate certain restrictions on mifepristone. And while President Kamala Harris is likely to stick with current FDA policies regarding abortion pills, it is possible that the Trump administration could directly change those policies. As my colleague Rose Horowich has reported, simply reinstating the in-person requirement for drug dispensing could reduce access to mifepristone, or revoke mifepristone’s FDA approval altogether. It’s fine just by itself. (In August, Donald Trump announced he was open to cracking down on abortion pills; his vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, retreated from its position ) Anti-abortion activists hope President Trump will enact the long-dormant Comstock Act. This law is an obscenity law enacted 150 years ago that prohibits the mailing of “any material intended to cause an abortion or any obscene act.” immoral use. ” This could criminalize mailed abortion pills even if no federal abortion ban is passed, but anti-abortion activists have suggested that Trump continue to provide abortions. There is. Quiet about Comstock Until he wins. (Trump refused to share his views on the Comstock Act for months, but eventually said: wouldn’t force it. )
No matter who becomes president, the anti-abortion movement is devising ways to restrict access to abortion drugs, even through state governments. For example, the shield law could be directly challenged if prosecutors in a red state went after a doctor who prescribed the pills in a shield state. Linda Prine, a doctor with Aid Access, a nonprofit organization that sends pills to states with abortion bans, said she will never leave her home state of New York. She said all health care providers working under the Shield Act are “very cautious.”
Anti-abortion groups could also test the limits of shield laws in more indirect ways. John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, said pro-abortion groups in Texas signboard Promoting abortion pills: “You can go to the people who are putting up signs. That’s aiding and abetting.” His group also wants the Texas Legislature to file a new bill that would create legal liability. encouraged the introduction of legislation. internet service provider or credit card processing company Involved in the abortion pill trade.
Abortion is already prohibited in Louisiana. law It took effect this month and further restricted both mifepristone and misoprostol as “controlled hazardous substances.” The name of this law is louisiana woman my husband secretly disappeared mix misoprostol into her drinkand anti-abortion activists have used cases like hers to argue that the pill needs more regulation. “The faceless, doctorless abortion pill process allows abusers to poison and coerce women and girls,” Emily Davis, vice president of communications for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement. It will be possible to do so.” However, the law also affects everyday medical care unrelated to abortion. These two drugs are commonly used for miscarriage and postpartum management, and hospitals in Louisiana are doing the following: timed drill To ensure that staff have ready access to locked closets where medications need to be stored.
Anti-abortion groups are also trying creative approaches to regulating abortion drugs. through environmental regulations. Hawkins said Students for Life plans to work with state legislators next year on legislation, including legislation that would require fetal tissue from abortions to be disposed of as medical waste. These laws aim to impose liability on abortion pill providers (presumably doctors operating under shield laws), and states could pursue providers for environmental cleanup fees and fines. said Christy Hamrick, vice president of media for the organization. Policy, he told me.
The new availability of abortion pills opens new ground and future political and legal battles could be very different from those of the past.. “We will innovate and we will come back. Our work is definitely just beginning,” Hawkins said. Texas’ Seago said he doesn’t expect any attempts to restrict the use of abortion pills to be effective. decades ago egg He said the plan was reversed and states introduced various restrictions to restrict access to abortion. Some worked. Some did not. When it comes to abortion pills, he told me, “You can’t expect a magic bullet.” But activists like him are still calling on lawmakers to stop using it.
