With telemedicine shield laws in the Democrat-controlled states of New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Vermont, and Colorado, that protect abortion providers who mail pills to restricted states, the result has created a pipeline for legally prescribed abortion pills.
Seven U.S.-based providers affiliated with Aid Access have in the past month mailed out 3,500 doses of the abortion pills and could be on track to facilitate at least 42,000 abortions in the nation’s restricted states, and the numbers could climb higher if more doctors and nurses sign up as prescribers.
A Hudson Valley doctor, who is one of the company’s providers, said that everything she is doing is legal.
“Texas might say I’m breaking their laws, but I don’t live in Texas,” she added.
Some conservative groups are pushing for a nationwide abortion pill ban along with a ban on medical abortions, but the flow of abortion pills from overseas is playing a prominent role in facilitating abortions after the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the Roe v. Wade decision.
Some lawyers say the pill providers could face repercussions, even if they stay out of the states where bans call for prosecuting those who provide abortions.
The issue could also lead to states with shield laws fighting in the courts to block other states from charging medical providers who send the pills with crimes.
The shield laws are “a huge breakthrough for people who need abortions in banned states,” said David Cohen, a Drexel University law professor focusing on abortion legislation. “Providers are protected in many ways as long as they remain in the state with the shield law.”
Aid Access providers say that major groups supporting abortion rights, including Planned Parenthood and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), have expressed concerns about the pill distribution, saying providers could face risks legally.
ACOG general counsel and chief legal officer Molly Meegan commented that the group cannot give legal advice to individual members of the organization, and Planned Parenthood said its advocacy arm is “doing everything possible” to ensure “patients can access care no matter where they live.”
But Jonathan Mitchell, the former solicitor general of Texas and architect of the state’s six-week abortion ban, told The Post that it’s too early to predict how the other states’ shield laws will play out but warned that the providers could face legal problems.
“Someone in Texas could do a sting operation and charge them with attempted murder,” he said.
In many anti-abortion states, Texas included, a person found guilty of distributing abortion pills could face several years in prison.
New York passed the most recent telemedicine shield law in mid-June, with Massachusetts passing its shield law after Roe was overturned in June 2022.
“We’re medical providers suddenly thrown into this world of shipping,” Lauren Jacobson, a nurse practitioner who operates out of Massachusetts, told the Post “Do we write labels by hand? What if we mess up an address? How on earth do we ship 50 packages a day?”
Aid Access has been sending abortion pills out to the United States for some time for $150 or less, which is far less than the price tag for a surgical or medical abortion at a clinic.
And demand for the company’s pill has climbed dramatically since the ruling, with requests climbing by almost 60%, according to Abigail Aiken, lead investigator of the self-managed Abortion Needs Assessment Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
Providers are eagerly waiting for the shield law to pass in California.
