Abortion by Mail. The New War Between the States

Doctors in six states where abortion is legal are using new laws to send abortion pills to tens of thousands of women in states where it is illegal.

Washington State is one of those six states.

The New York Times is calling it "Abortion Shield Laws: A New War Between the States."

Be Informed, not misled.

Pam Belluck has written a feature story about the use ---misuse, in my opinion--of "abortion shield laws" to prop up the flailing abortion business and continue the killing of unwanted unborn children.

Pam Belluck spent time with abortion providers sending pills to states that outlaw abortion and talked with patients receiving those pills.

Frankly, I'm surprised the New York Times published the article, given their biased, pro-abortion views.

But they did.

So here is an overview of their considerable research with my commentary.

The operation is secretive---much like the early days of Margaret Sanger's work to give birth to Planned Parenthood.

The Times begins:

RE: the operation

Behind an unmarked door in a boxy brick building outside Boston, a quiet rebellion is taking place. Here, in a 7-by-12-foot room, abortion is being made available to thousands of women in states where it is illegal.

The patients do not have to travel here to terminate their pregnancies, and they do not have to wait weeks to receive abortion medication from overseas.

Instead, they are obtaining abortion pills prescribed by licensed Massachusetts providers, packaged in the little room and mailed from a nearby post office, arriving days later in Texas, Missouri, and other states where abortion is largely outlawed.

This service and others like it are operating under novel laws enacted in a half-dozen states — Massachusetts, Washington, Colorado, Vermont, New York, and California — that have sought to preserve abortion access since the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion in June 2022. The laws have been in use only since the summer and have not been tested in the courts, but they are already providing abortion access to tens of thousands of women in states with bans, especially low-income patients and others who cannot travel.

Circumventing the law?

Called telemedicine abortion shield laws, they promise to protect doctors, nurse practitioners, and midwives licensed in those six states who prescribe and send abortion pills to patients in the nearly two dozen states that ban or sharply restrict abortion.

The story gives a lot of support for these clandestine practices, basing their information on research by the Guttmacher Institute. 

Keep in mind the Guttmacher Institute was funded originally by Margaret Sanger's work and was connected with Planned Parenthood. Over time, because of strong criticism from the public, the abortion complex decided it would be better if they separated Guttmacher to be a stand-alone research organization.

Guttmacher's research always supports Planned Parenthood's agenda.

The laws stipulate that officials and agencies of their states will not cooperate with another state’s efforts to investigate or penalize such providers — a stark departure from typical interstate practices of extraditing, honoring subpoenas, and sharing information, legal experts on both sides of the abortion issue say. Many expect them to ultimately be challenged in federal court.

Abortion opponents see the laws as a brazen infringement on state sovereignty.

“You have states not just picking their own strategy but really trying to completely sabotage the governing efforts of their neighboring states,” John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life, said.

This is true. The threat of shield laws is one reason that three states — Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri — petitioned to join a case the Supreme Court will hear next month that seeks to bar the mailing of abortion pills and to require in-person doctor visits instead of telemedicine. The petition from the three states was denied.

Seago said, "Abortion opponents see the laws as a brazen infringement on state sovereignty." Yes, we do. And I believe that when this scheme comes before the High Court, it will not stand.

Takeaway

With shield laws, “some people who might not have gotten an abortion if they had to take off work and go to a clinic, or wait three weeks and all of that, are doing it now,” said Dr. Linda Prine, a New York shield law provider.

A woman from Texas ordered her abortion pills. Although they were mailed from Massachusetts, she said she was afraid that people would find out about it.

Lauren Jacobson, a nurse practitioner who sometimes writes 50 prescriptions a day, assured her she couldn't be caught in the scheme. 

The woman who was afraid to share her first or last name said of her abortion by mail, "That’s been very scary, but I was like, you know what, I have to trust it.”

She said several weeks later, she planned to visit a doctor for birth control but worried about being asked if she’d taken abortion pills.

Lauren Jacobson, who prescribed the abortion, assured her, noting that there was no medical reason to disclose having taken abortion pills.

“The symptoms that the abortion pills cause are exactly the same as those that a miscarriage causes, so there is no possible way for a provider, a doctor, to look at you, do any test, and know that you took the pills.” 

Jacobson summed up the attitude and spirit of newly created, probably illegal, "Abortion Shield Laws" with this:

 “We’re a free country," she reassured her. 

Then she said, “We’ve helped a lot of people navigate situations in places like Texas. So let’s put that to the test. Here we are and we’re not going to be intimidated, and we have our states backing us.”

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Engaged. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.