Abortion Pills Take the Spotlight as States Impose Abortion Bans - The New York Times

In the hours after the Supreme Court released its decision overturning the legal right to abortion in the United States, nearly 100 requests for appointments flowed into Just the Pill, a nonprofit organization that arranges for patients to obtain abortion pills in several states.

Many patients choose medication abortion because it is less expensive, less invasive and affords more privacy than surgical abortions — the pills can be received by mail and taken at home, or anywhere, after an initial consultation with a doctor by video, phone, in person or even just by filling out an online form.

For states that ban all forms of abortion, medication abortion is likely to provide significant enforcement challenges.

The abortion laws beginning to take effect in numerous conservative states ban all forms of abortion, including medication abortion.

So groups and some state governments that support abortion rights are mobilizing to help patients obtain the pills in states where they are legal.

Called “Abortion Delivered,” the clinic-on-wheels program, which will also provide surgical abortions for patients who prefer it or are too far along in pregnancy for a medication abortion, is designed to reach patients from nearby states like Texas, Oklahoma and South Dakota that quickly outlawed abortion after the court decision, as well as other states like Utah that are expected to ban or sharply restrict abortion.

Much remains unknown about how states that ban all or most abortions will try to enforce their laws in cases of medication abortion.

Legal experts said there might be other ways for the Justice Department to become involved in fighting medication abortion restrictions, such as contesting laws that bar mailing pills, since the mail is under federal oversight.

Medication abortion became legal in the United States in 2000, when mifepristone was approved by the F.D.A.

As conservative states began passing more laws restricting access to surgical abortions, more patients opted for pills, especially because they could be taken in the privacy of one’s home.

As patients look for ways to obtain the pills, some are expected to turn to international websites like Aid Access, a European organization that the F.D.A.

has tried — so far unsuccessfully — to stop from mailing pills to the United States, further complicating enforcement efforts

Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, who has written widely on abortion, said in an interview last month that there might be attempts by states that ban abortion to prosecute doctors and other health providers in other states who provide abortion services like consultations and pills to their residents, or to try to block organizations or funds that give financial help to patients to travel to other states

Legislation in California would provide financial assistance to patients traveling from other states to obtain abortions and increase the number of abortion providers

So far, most states that restrict abortion have long adhered to a principle of targeting providers and others who help patients, but not the patients themselves