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The Post-Roe Battleground for Abortion Pills Will Be Your Mailbox

Wired – “If regulation of abortion access falls to the states, it will unleash legal havoc over pregnancy-ending medications that are shipped across state lines. The draft legal opinion leaked from the Supreme Court that promises to overturn the right to abortion in the United States says it will “return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” making abortion access each state’s decision. Having had some time to absorb it, legal experts warn that’s a recipe for chaos—especially for abortions performed via medications, since pills cross state lines via the federally-protected US Mail. Medication abortion—which constitutes ending a pregnancy in its first trimester with a regimen of one or two drugs—has already been a target for red-state legislatures. It accounts for more than half the abortions in the US, and so anti-abortion campaigners accurately perceive it as an end run around restrictions on surgical abortions. During the pandemic, access to the drugs actually got easier: The Food and Drug Administration allowed women who wanted them to make telehealth appointments, rather than the medical office visits some states insist on, and then to receive the pills by mail. The agency made that policy permanent in December. If Roe v. Wade is nullified, that changes. Legislatures in 26 states have indicated they will either ban abortion entirely or restrict it to so early in pregnancy that the procedure becomes essentially inaccessible. Thirteen states have teed up trigger laws that would enact bans or restrictions immediately when Roe is overturned. Seven have banned the use of telehealth plus mailed drugs for abortions. Legislators in Louisiana have proposed, and ones in Tennessee have passed, criminal penalties for providing abortion medications by mail…”

See also Fast Company: Why corporate America is afraid to talk about abortion – “Over the past three months, we asked nearly 200 companies their stance on abortion access. Only 15 responded.”

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