Since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs, which held that the “right” to abortion does not exist, 21 states have enacted laws that restrict or ban abortion earlier than the viability standard previously in place under Roe v. Wade. Of those, 14 states have instituted near-total prohibitions on abortion and 3 states have passed “heartbeat bills” that do not permit abortion after a baby’s heartbeat can be detected – usually about 6 weeks gestation.
We have been warning Americans about the efforts of pro-aborts to reverse these pro-life laws by circumventing state legislatures and gathering signatures to put expansive abortion initiatives on state ballots. But abortion amendments are not the only threat to unborn children. Well over half of all abortions are now committed in private homes using the abortion drug cocktail of mifepristone and misoprostol. The Biden administration removed restrictions on these drugs so that they are now widely available by mail. As a result, abortion peddlers are prescribing and mailing abortion pills directly to women in states where abortion has been outlawed.
Through an extensive network of providers, abortionists are sabotaging life-saving laws with impunity. For example, Dr. Linda Prine, a member of the abortion provider group Aid Access, has been running an abortion pill hotline and makeshift pharmacy from her Manhattan apartment since the Dobbs ruling in 2022. In January of this year alone, Prine mailed abortion pills to 10,000 women living in states where abortion is restricted. She reports that this number has increased by a few thousand every month since then.
In upstate New York, a doctor working with the same group operates an assembly line in her basement, where she prepares bottles of mifepristone to send to women residing in Texas, Georgia, and Florida. The only prerequisite for women seeking these pills is a virtual consultation in a format similar to texting, asking about gestational age and possible symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy. Women and girls of any age can request and receive abortion drugs. Abortion for American women is now as easy and anonymous as online shopping.
New York proudly established itself as a haven for the abortion telehealth industry by passing a telemedicine abortion shield law last year. The law stipulates that New York officials and agencies will protect New York abortionists from legal action in states where abortion is banned. Abortion shield laws flout the usual telehealth model that requires practitioners to be licensed in the same state as patients seeking medication. These laws, which have been enacted in seven states, blatantly disregard state sovereignty and – more importantly – human life.
While facilitating abortion even where it is illegal enjoys unwavering legal protection in New York, trying to help women in crisis pregnancies exposes one to liability. New York Attorney General Letitia James just announced that she is suing Heartbeat International and eleven New York pregnancy care centers for false advertising related to the abortion pill reversal regimen. The Attorney General is not only trying to prevent the centers from informing women about the possibility of reversing the effect of the abortion pill to save their baby’s life; she also wants the court to impose crippling fines of $5000 per supposed “violation” of the false advertising laws.
But that’s not all. Attorney General James is also suing peaceful protesters such as long-time pro-life advocate Laura Gies. The lawsuit claims that Gies violated the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act when she entered a Long Island abortion clinic to give women roses and share information about alternatives to abortion. Gies was convicted of trespass and served time in jail for that incident – but Attorney General Letitia James is not satisfied with this punishment. James is seeking thousands of dollars from Gies and other pro-lifers and arguing that they be ordered to stay 30 feet away from every abortion clinic in the state.