Wyoming becomes the first state to ban abortion pills
A bill introduced in Texas, a state that already bans abortion, includes many provisions that seek to shut down any access to the pills, including making it harder for Texas patients to learn about or use out-of-state abortion services. The bill would make it illegal to manufacture, distribute, or “provide an abortion-inducing drug in any manner to or from any person or place in this state.”
It would also make it illegal to “create, edit, upload, publish, host, maintain, or register a domain name for a website, platform, or other interactive computer service that assists or facilitates a person’s effort to obtain an abortion.” drug.”
Many patients learn about abortion options on websites like Plan C, a clearinghouse for medical abortion. And a growing number of patients in states that ban abortion are arranging to receive pills through telemedicine websites such as Aid Access, a Europe-based service that ships pills to any state from India, and Hey Jane, a of various US-based services that will provide pills to patients traveling to a state where abortion is legal and where they can receive the medication by mail in those states.
In addition to Wyoming’s law banning abortion pills, 15 states restrict access to medical abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. Those restrictions range from requiring medications to be provided by a doctor to requiring the patient to have an in-person visit with a doctor. Several states, including Texas and Arizona, have banned the mailing of abortion pills, and bills to ban the mailing of pills have been introduced this year in at least three other states.
“We are seeing efforts to further ban access to medical abortion because abortion opponents recognize that even with abortion bans in place in 12 states and lack of access in two others, patients can still obtain abortion pills,” he said. Elizabeth Nash, state director. policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute. “Now, opponents of abortion have turned to the courts, attorneys general and state legislatures to further limit access to the pills.”