A leading abortion pill facilitator told The Dallas Express there is an influx of abortion pills into Texas prescribed by doctors in Democrat-run states.
A series of “shield laws” passed in five blue states in recent months allows U.S. doctors to prescribe abortion pills to women in states that restrict access to the drug and abortion in general.
Elisa Wells, the co-founder of Plan C — a website that allows people to obtain abortion pills online via mail — said these laws have led to an increase in orders from Republican-run states such as Texas.
Concerning abortion pill orders originating from consumers in Texas, Wells told The Dallas Express, “I think the services have seen a significant spike. The demand is very high.”
Katie Daniel, the state policy director for the group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, suggested the most pressing concern over the widespread mailing of abortion pills is not the question of legality but the health of women. She said Plan C is not regulated well enough to ensure those who order the pills are pregnant, female, and not being coerced into aborting their pregnancy. Moreover, they are taken without medical supervision.
“This is not a red state/blue state issue — this is an issue of doctors saying that selling abortion pills is more important than the Hippocratic oath — and women are going to pay the price,” Daniel told The Dallas Express. “These doctors see themselves as having no responsibility. There’s no doctor-patient relationship; they just send drugs through the mail.”
Abortion is banned in Texas from the moment of fertilization.
Abortion pills consist of two drugs: mifepristone, which requires a prescription, is taken first to end the pregnancy, followed by misoprostol, which causes the uterus to contract and expel the fetus. The drugs are generally taken up until 12 weeks into a pregnancy. This became the most common method of abortion for the first time in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
There are very few documented maternal deaths caused by abortion pills, but the drugs have a complication rate four times that of surgical abortions due to hemorrhages and excessive cramping. Women do not need doctor supervision to take the pills and often turn to the emergency room when experiencing complications.
Wells touted the passage of the “shield laws” as an opportunity to improve the safety of abortion pills. Abortion pill providers listed on Plan C often use pharmacies from India that are not regulated by the FDA, but now that U.S. doctors can prescribe the pills to states where they are restricted, women will be sent the FDA-approved version of mifepristone: Mifeprex.
Wells and Daniels both said they expect legal challenges to arise against the “shield laws.”
Aid Access, a leading abortion pill distributor that uses overseas pharmacies, announced last month that it began using U.S. doctors to prescribe the drugs. The group said these doctors sent abortion pills through their website to 3,500 women in states where abortion is banned.
Wells made clear that Plan C does not promise women they will be protected from legal ramifications if they obtain abortion pills using the site. The Plan C website claims there have been at least 61 cases in the U.S. where people have been prosecuted for taking abortion pills. The end goal, Wells said, is to have abortion pills approved by the FDA over the counter.
“There are a number of services that do advance provision — it’s something we recommend,” Wells told The Dallas Express. “Why not, if you can afford that? Get it, and have it in your medicine cabinet.”
Texas lawmakers introduced a bill this year that would ban access to Plan C and other websites that promote abortion information. The bill was referred to the state affairs committee.
Daniel said the coordination of these websites with U.S. doctors in recent months shows how abortion has turned the medical industry against itself, fueled by pressure from left-wing lawmakers.
“We’ve seen the degradation of our scientific and medical institutions for decades now, and abortion plays a major role in that,” Daniels told The Dallas Express. “Policymakers on the left made the decision that abortion access is more important than safety.”