What would the end of Roe v. Wade mean for abortion pills in Texas?
As the future of legal abortions becomes more unlikely in Texas, experts are expecting more and more people who want to end their pregnancies to use medication abortion, or the abortion pill.
First approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000, medication abortions have been increasingly more frequent over time.
What is an abortion pill?
Medication abortions, often referred to as abortion pills, are drugs that can taken to induce an abortion in a pregnant person.
In the U.S., most medication abortions involve the use of two drugs, mifepristone and misprostol. The first drug, mifepristone, blocks hormones needed to continue a pregnancy. Misoprostol is taken 24 to 48 hours later.
Mifepristone, the only drug approved to induce abortion in the U.S., was approved by the FDA in 2000. Since then, the frequency of medication abortions has increased dramatically in the U.S., even as the total number and rate of abortions has declined in the last 40 years. Most medication abortions involve the use of two drugs, mifepristone and misprostol. The first drug, mifepristone, blocks hormones needed to continue a pregnancy. Misoprostol is taken 24 to 48 hours later and used to empty the uterus.
Abortion pills are different than products like “morning after” pills, which are forms of emergency contraception that are taken after unprotected sex. Morning after pills can be purchased at drugstores and pharmacies without a prescription. The pills can’t end a pregnancy, but instead work by preventing fertilization from happening in the first place. Most morning after pills are not 100% effective, according to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, so someone can still become pregnant after taking a pill. And some research suggests that morning after pills are less effective for people who weigh 175 pounds or more.
Are abortion pills legal?
Yes, using abortion pills to end a pregnancy remains legal in Texas, as long as it done before fetal cardiac activity can be detected, as stipulated by Texas’ Senate Bill 8. Medication abortions have become an increasing popular option for people seeking to end their pregnancy. In 2020, research from the Guttmacher Institute found that about 54% of all legal abortions in the U.S. were completed via medication.
In Texas, providers are prohibited from mailing abortion pills to patients. Instead, patients are required to be seen and evaluated by a doctor in person before the pills can be prescribed and dispensed. Abortion pills also cannot be dispensed via a pharmacy like other prescriptions, but instead can only be distributed by licensed provided who register with the Food and Drug Administration.
What happened after the six-week abortion ban went into effect in Texas?
An abortion law banning most abortions that happen when fetal cardiac activity can be detected went into effect Sept. 1 in Texas. Fetal cardiac activity can usually be detected at about six weeks of pregnancy, which is why the law is often referred to as a six-week abortion ban.
The law caused a significant reduction in the number of legal abortions performed in Texas clinics. In the first 30 days after Senate Bill 8 went into effect in September, legal abortions in the state dropped by half, according to a group of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin.
But the law also led to an increase in requests for abortion pills from Aid Access, an international nonprofit that will mail abortion pills to people who request them online. Researchers who studied requests to Aid Access found that the requests for pills nearly tripled from October through December, after the state’s six-week abortion ban went into effect.
Will people continue to use abortion pills if Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion is banned in Texas?
Most experts expect that abortion pills will still be available even if abortion is outlawed in Texas, mostly because there is already a network of online pharmacies and nonprofits that will mail abortion pills directly to your home.
“I think what I would anticipate is that people will continue to access (abortion pills) in the same ways that they have been already,” said Farah Diaz-Tello, the senior counsel and legal director at If/When/How, a group that supports abortion access.
No existing law in Texas would criminalize someone who takes an abortion pill. Instead, whoever mails abortion pills could be subject to administrative penalties under existing law. Texas’ trigger law would punish anyone who provides or attempts to provide an abortion with prison time or up to $100,000 in civil penalties.
But legal experts have said it would be difficult for Texas to prosecute nonprofits or online pharmacies that exist out of the state or out of the country.
This story was originally published May 3, 2022 at 6:05 PM.
