How do anti-choicers in Texas and other extreme states plan to stop mail order abortion pills?

[CTyankee]

threaten to prosecute the mail carrier? the post office?

If the prescribing doctor is out of state how can the state of Texas find him/her? Can they stop a woman simply for ordering the pill?

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Probably the same way early cannabis states prevented shipments to other states

Postal inspections. Lots of probed packages.

[Liberal In Texas]

8. Not the same thing. The USPS is a Federal agency and service.

The mail/package arrives at a Federal facility, put on a Federal truck and delivered by a Federal employee. The state has no jurisdiction to search the mail.

With the cannabis shipments it's still against Federal law. So shipping is an interstate thing. And it's also why pot stores can't use banks.

[bucolic_frolic]

19. Local police can contact US Postal Inspection Service if they suspect crimes

so it's not like they're irrelevant.

[JanMichael]

3. When they get their annual checkup the doctor draws blood.

All they have to do is test for traces of the pill or hormone fluctuation.

I am sure that Dr Mengala will figure something out.

[SharonClark]

4. Abbott will declare that he's in control of

USPS and other delivery companies. He’ll send the TX National Guard to every post office to search parcels. He’ll start a training program for abortion pill sniffing dogs. He’ll demand the medical records for every female between 14 and 60. The possibilities are endless.

[marie999]

12. The Texas National Guard does not have a right to search post offices, trucks, or mailboxes.

If they try, the federal government could probably have them arrested.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. .

How do anti-choicers in Texas and other extreme states plan to stop mail order abortion pills? threaten to prosecute the mail carrier? the post office?

Heavy penalties on people who order them, that's all. Probably some scare laws about somehow fining or prosecuting people out of state who mail pills privately.

If the prescribing doctor is out of state how can the state of Texas find him/her? Can they stop a woman simply for ordering the pill?

For telemedicine, the prescribing doctor has to be in the same state as the patient, no matter the prescription, so that scenario likely wouldn't exist.

[Hoyt]

7. Exactly. Fines on patients, prescribing docs, and pharmacies filing prescriptions.

[Ms. Toad]

24. Not quite accurate -

The prescribing doctor has to be licensed in the state where the patient is physically located at the time of the telemed consultation (uinless the state has an exception for telemedecine).

For Texas (which is not part of the multi-state licensing compact), that is a relatively complete exclusion for doctors outside of Texas. But Texas residents near a border could cross the border and hang out in a parking lot somewhere for a consultation with a physician in the adjacent state (or one licensed there). There may also be physicians licensed in Texas who have moved away and maintained their license. I haven't checked Texas laws, specifically, but the ones I have checked do not bar out-of-state telemed consultations as long as the physician is licensed in the state where the patient is physically located.

(I have a rare agressive cancer, so I explored the possibility of a telemed consultation with MD Anderson in Texas (pretty much the top facility in the US for treatment of this cancer). The only barrier was that the physicians I needed to consult with were not licensed in Ohio.)

[WhiskeyGrinder]

27. Thanks for this.

[Hekate]

6. They want medical records. Also, if someone uses their store card to purchase a pregnancy test...

…they soon start receiving coupons for baby products like formula and diapers. Privacy? Pfft.

Fun fact: Texas has a maternal mortality rate twice that of other states — on par with Third World nations.

[Deuxcents]

9. It would not surprise me..

I think an underground is either in the making or pretty much organized already. If there’s a need, we usually find a way to circumvent the oppressor ..

[multigraincracker]

10. Will they ban metal cloths hangers too?

asking for a friend.

[OAITW r.2.0]

11. Mandatory weekly pregnancy checks!

You can save the Zygotes if you don't know they exist! This will be the next move by Republican state legislators.

[marie999]

13. Doctors can be sued for giving out that information.

[OAITW r.2.0]

14. Republicans will fix that little detail.

HIPPA OK, except on matters of pregnancy...then Republicans need to step in and manage your situation.

[marie999]

15. States can't change HIPAA.

[OAITW r.2.0]

17. Not yet. nt

[LeftInTX]

16. Out of state doctors can refuse to prescribe to women in Texas

It's "right of refusal" and doctors can refuse anyone.
The only way they will be able to get the pills is if they are shipped to an out of state address.

Nowadays there is so much connectivity with every prescription. Every time a doctor prescribes something it's documented electronically.
Although there is HIPPA, they know when things are prescribed.

Pharmacies can also refuse to ship the pills to Texas. (I think that is the most likely scenario)

The only route would be to order from overseas and that option is risky.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

18. They may charge the women with a crime

This is being done in Starr County
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216576849

[Buckeyeblue]

20. They'll use the fear of being arrested for murder

Women will have to be very secretive about using these pills. I'm sure at some point Texas will require an ID for pregnancy tests.

[brooklynite]

21. "Abortion pills" aren't restricted.

The Texas law prohibits abortions after 6 weeks. "Abortion pills" (e.g. "Plan B&quot are intended to be used immediately after sexual activity.

[Crunchy Frog]

26. Plan B is not an abortion pill. That's RW propaganda.

Plan B works by preventing ovulation.

Abortion pills actually end an established pregnancy through hormones or by inducing uterine contractions. They're completely different.

[Mariana]

34. Plan B works by preventing ovulation. It is contraception.

"Abortion pill" is RU-486, which is a completely different thing.

https://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/3914/6012/8466/Difference_Between_the_Morning-After_Pill_and_the_Abortion_Pill.pdf

[FakeNoose]

22. They plan to stop young women from learning about abortion pills

They can never stop the pills from coming in, but if the girls/women don't know about them ... problem solved!

[keithbvadu2]

23. Doctors can prescribe for off-label uses.

Off-label prescribing is when a physician gives you a drug that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved to treat a condition different than your condition. This practice is legal and common. In fact, one in five prescriptions written today are for off-label use.

Maybe like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine?

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=prescribe+medications+off-label

Just be sure to mention side effects.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

25. Today a 26-year-old Texas woman who allegedly self-induced an abortion has been charged with murder.

Link to tweet

[phylny]

28. I just saw a billboard where I live in Virginia

advising pregnant people to get the “facts“ about the abortion pill. Evil new tactics from the party of hate.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

29. Protesters at Starr County Jail after Lizelle Herrera's arrest

It is great seeing boots on the ground in Starr County. A protest was organized very quickly and this protest needs to grow

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

https://delapabb.medium.com/my-interview-with-la-frontera-funds-rockie-gonzalez-on-lizelle-herrera-s-arrest-in-starr-county-b7a747068d14

Rockie Gonzalez is the founder and board chairwoman for Frontera Fund which provides financial assistance to low-income women seeking an abortion in the Rio Grande Valley.
She is on a call with me tonight as this story develops.
Rockie, what was Frontera Fund’s initial reaction to hearing about this case.

Well, our first response was to get on the phone together and begin to strategize. This is, as far as we know, one of the first sort of post-SB8 arrests. And we know that it’s a developing story so we don’t have a lot of the details. They’re kind of coming in as we’re monitoring the situation. But currently, we’re assembling all of our legal teams and our allies and other advocates across the states and nationally for support. And so we’re looking at, you know, trying to get in touch with the family and make sure that she has, you know, supportive legal representation, and we are hosting an action outside the Starr County Jail tomorrow to demand her immediate release.....

Frontera Fund has quickly put together a political action in response to this. You’ll be at the Starr County Jail tomorrow morning protesting Herrer’s arrest. What do you hope to communicate to people tomorrow? What message do you want them to take away?

We would like for people to know that it is unjust for medical staff to betray this kind of confidence and that the legislation that Governor Abbott has put forth and tried to push in this state is making it so that innocent people are being harmed. And we want people to know that this type of legislation impacts low income people of color communities the most when state legislators put restrictions on our reproductive rights. It’s not well-to-do people with health insurance that are most impacted. It’s poor people and low in communities, generally from people of color communities who suffer the impacts of these kinds of legislations.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

30. Texas woman faces murder charge after 'self-induced abortion'

The Chroncile have some additional facts. I do not understand how this lady broke the law

Link to tweet

A 26-year-old woman has been charged with murder in Texas after authorities said she caused “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” in a state that has the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S.....

Delgado did not say under what law Herrera has been charged. He said no other information will be released until at least Monday because the case remains under investigation.

Texas law exempts her from a criminal homicide charge for aborting her own pregnancy, University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck told The Associated Press.

“(Homicide) doesn’t apply to the murder of an unborn child if the conduct charged is ‘conduct committed by the mother of the unborn child,’” Vladeck said......

A 2021 state law that bans abortions in Texas for women who are as early as six weeks pregnant has sharply curtailed the number of abortions in the state. The law leaves enforcement to private citizens who can sue doctors or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion.

The woman receiving the abortion is exempted from the law.

There is no Texas statute that allows for this lady to be charged This case will be dismissed before it gets to trial or this case will not survive a motion to dismiss

[orleans]

31. ("extreme states" --great description; never heard that one before) nt

[jcgoldie]

32. Louis DeJoy

Babies will be born before anyone gets their mail...

[roamer65]

33. Millions of women will emigrate to pro-choice states.

If Roe v Wade is overturned, watch for the demographic shift.

[CTyankee]

35. Not only women, but anyone wanting to start up a new business because for them to suceed they know

they are better off where there is a stable, sane workplace in order for their businesses to succeed and flourish. This means a stable state government, run by sane people, not by a state government in the hands of extremists. It's a simple as that.

[roamer65]

36. +1000

The truth was spoken here.

They also look for a stable and sane workforce.

[CTyankee]

38. What i can't understand is why the people of Texas put up with Ted Cruz, one of the grossest human

beings to walk the earth. And when his state, Texas, was suffering a catastrophe, he was caught on camera trying to sneak off to Cancun.

[roamer65]

39. That's fascism at work.

[bif]

37. They can't