Despite abortion bans, abortions increase thanks to the internet and telehealth..Texas trying to change that

[Demovictory9]

Last edited Thu May 1, 2025, 04:07 PM - Edit history (1)

https://19thnews.org/2025/04/texas-bill-medication-abortion-providers/


Thousands of people still get abortions in states with bans. This Texas bill aims to stop it.
The bill’s backers have said they intend to target the medical professionals mailing abortion pills, which could provide a blueprint for other states.



Abortion is illegal in Texas, so Sarah searched Google, browsed Reddit and even asked ChatGPT about her options. Her research led her to Aid Access, an online mail-order service that would connect her to health professionals in states where abortion remains legal. She verified her identity, paid $150 and received abortion pills in a few days.


For Sarah, whose full name is being withheld because of the legal risks of ordering abortion pills in Texas, the process of terminating her pregnancy was isolating and arduous. She kept getting positive pregnancy tests after she took the abortion pills, and weeks later, a visit to a local reproductive health center confirmed her suspicions: Hers was one of the 2 to 5 percent cases in which a medication abortion had failed. But Sarah couldn’t find any medical professionals who would talk to her about her options — or even whether it was safe to stay pregnant after a failed abortion. Every time she brought up abortion, she said, they said it was something they couldn’t discuss.


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Her only source of support, she realized, was the internet — the people online who shared their stories and resources with her, and websites like Aid Access, which told her where and how to find pills, what the process felt like and the signs that might indicate if the abortion had worked.

“Reddit was my doctor,” she said. “That was the scariest thing about this all. That was my only source of information.”

Sarah, like hundreds of thousands of Americans living in states with abortion bans, would ultimately find her way around her state’s law, relying once again on Aid Access and her community on Reddit to terminate her pregnancy safely and successfully. Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, online services such as Aid Access and the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Project have emerged as pivotal abortion suppliers for people living in states with bans — which helps illustrate why, despite 12 states banning abortion almost entirely, the number of abortions in the United States has continued to rise. An October report from the Society of Family Planning estimated that close to 10,000 abortions per month were the result of health care providers in states with “shield laws” — statutes meant to protect them from prosecution under bans like Texas’ — mailing pills to people in states with restrictions.

This telehealth “loophole,” as abortion opponents would call it, has vexed the anti-abortion movement. But now in Texas, the largest state to have banned abortion in most circumstances, state lawmakers are championing a bill that would target those same provider networks Sarah relied on. Senate Bill 2880 received approval from the Texas Senate on Tuesday night; a companion bill is working its way through the House, with weeks to go before the state’s June deadline.

[walkingman]

1. Hillbilly bastards 👿

[Vogon_Glory]

2. This sort of outrage is to be expected from Texas Republicans

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: when it comes to reproductive rights and access to contraceptives, the Texas Republican legislators will do what the anti-abortion fanatics tell them to do. The anti-abortion faction OWNS the Republican legislature, and Republican politicos who seek to defy them will have their careers cut short.

I suppose there are still a few pro-choice Republican politicians here and there. In private, they’ll tell constituents and fund-raisers that they still support reproductive rights.

THAT. DOESN’T. MATTER. ONE. BIT.

It doesn’t matter because when it becomes time to vote, they’ll fall in line and vote like their anti-choice colleagues.