In the United States, the resistance is organized after the reversal of the judgment Roe v. wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion in the country. States have banned the procedure on the spot and the abortion pill, which can be mailed out, will be a decisive battleground to watch as it could facilitate clandestine abortion.
When the news broke on Friday, June 24, Plan C, a US-based website that vies with each other in helping women get a pill in their mailbox, felt the impact immediately.
“Our web traffic has gone from 3,400 visits on Thursday to 209,000 visits on Friday”, points out to the To have to co-founder, Elisa Wells. Despite states that ban the pill and criminalize, like Louisiana, its mailing, it does not intend to cease its activities. Quite the contrary.
“Our role will only grow in importance as states unfairly restrict access to abortion pills,” she insists. Providing information is protected by our right to freedom of expression”.
The abortion pill has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States for over 20 years. It accounted for 54% of abortions in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
You usually need to have a telemedicine or in-person appointment to get it in the United States. This prerequisite will complicate the lives of millions of women.
To avoid breaking the law, a woman would need to drive to a state where abortion is legal, have a telemedicine consultation there, and then receive the pills before returning home. Or use a virtual mailbox to receive the pills in that state, then have them delivered home, as Plan C suggests.
The organization also offers a list of online pharmacies that mail generic pills without a prescription or consultation throughout the United States, in discreet envelopes. Prices fluctuate between US$200 and US$500. Most have been lab tested by Plan C to ensure they are good quality pills and there are no scams when ordering, says Elisa Wells. But the manufacturers are not certified or inspected by the FDA.
More than half of US states could ban or severely restrict abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The pill presents itself as an advantageous option, but which is not without legal risks.
Aid Access, founded by Dutch doctor Rebecca Gomperts, skirts the risk of lawsuits. The group offers online medical consultations to American women with doctors based in Europe. The organization then sends abortion pills (composed of one pill of mifepristone and another of misoprostol) by post. At a cost of US$110, they are dispatched from a pharmacy based in India, within a period varying from one to three weeks.
Next big battle
When Texas passed a law in September to restrict abortion to six weeks, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin analyzed requests to Aid Access and found that demand for the abortion pill rose sharply in that week. State. “With Friday’s decision, it is expected that this same phenomenon will happen,” underlines Andréanne Bissonnette, researcher in residence at the Observatory on the United States of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair.
A battle is brewing around mailing. The FDA changed its protocol last December and it is now possible to receive mifepristone by mail, without having to go to a clinic. This raises important legal questions. “If a State prohibits abortion and the abortion pill, would the fact that the federal government authorizes the mailing of this medication take precedence over these laws”, points out Andréanne Bissonnette.
The Biden administration is forceful in its desire to act on this front. “Since January, several bills have been proposed in various conservative states to make the abortion pill the next big battle. This will be an issue to watch, ”thinks the researcher.
Richard E. Levy, a law professor at the University of Kansas, believes that federal law takes precedence over state law when they conflict. “The question here would be whether there is a conflict,” he said. Although the FDA has allowed it, that could only mean that federal law allows it, not that states are barred from banning it. »
“In this case, the FDA has decided that these drugs are safe and effective, and a state could not ban them because it disagrees with that ruling. On the other hand, the State could prohibit them for other reasons”, he believes.
Mobile clinics
Many women will choose to go to a state where abortion is permitted.
The nonprofit Just The Pill, which operates in four states and offers the abortion pill, will set up a fleet of mobile clinics to travel to states bordering those that ban abortion. A project called “Abortion Delivered”.
“By operating at state borders, we will reduce the movement of patients, underlines the medical director, the DD Julie Amon. Our mobile clinics can adapt quickly to courts, state legislatures and markets, going where the need is greatest. The organization hopes to expand its fleet to 30 vans and will also offer surgical abortions.
A state cannot prevent women from traveling to another state where abortion is legal because there is a federal right to travel between states, law professor Richard E. Levy points out. “A more complex question would be whether the state can prosecute the woman or the provider after the abortion has been performed,” he says. The courts will have to resolve this issue. »