Texas Aims to Crack Down on Abortion Pills Sent by Mail

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

AUSTIN, Texas—Texas is aiming to crack down on abortion drugs prescribed remotely and delivered by mail, a practice that ticked up during the pandemic and has surged since the state passed a restrictive new abortion law.

Such medication, which is FDA-approved for in-person physician distribution, accounts for at least half of all early-term abortions in the U.S.

A new bill that takes effect in December will make it a felony punishable by jail in Texas to provide abortion pills through mail or other delivery. It is one of several recent measures to limit abortion access in the state. The Texas Heartbeat Act, which went into effect Sept. 1, bans abortions in Texas after “cardiac activity” can be detected, at about six weeks of gestation, before many women know they are pregnant.

Together, the new laws make it increasingly difficult for a woman to terminate a pregnancy after six weeks. Under the Heartbeat Act, doctors can be civilly prosecuted for providing the abortion pills after a heartbeat is detected. And anyone who mails such pills to a woman in Texas can now be prosecuted for a felony and face jail time, under the most recent bill.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-aims-to-crack-down-on-abortion-pills-sent-by-mail/ar-AAP4lLA

[Autumn]

1. What are they going to do? Open every bit of mail that comes into the fucking state of Texas?

FREEDUMMMMMMM

[dlk]

2. Their misogyny has no limits

They want to take American women back to the days of being chattel.

[qazplm135]

3. so it comes from overseas

easy peasy.

[Diamond_Dog]

4. How can one state regulate interstate commerce?

Isn’t that Federal purview? And the pills are FDA approved so they’re not illegal.

[lastlib]

8. States have no power over US Mail.

Period.

To your point, no, they cannot regulate interstate commerce. So, two reasons this cannot stand.

[LeftInTX]

9. That's not true

Citrus does not ship to citrus producing states - Does not ship to AZ, CA, Fl, GA, LA, TX

[url=https://postimages.org/][img][/img][/url]


States also ban specific pesticides via mail order. - Does not ship to AK, ME, NY, PR, CT.
[url=https://postimages.org/][img][/img][/url]


Doctors in other states can be prevented from prescribing to pharmacies in Texas and mail order pharmacies will refuse to send to Texas.

Although Texas can't prevent "discrete brown wrappers" sent from friends etc, it can prevent legit mailing of abortion pills via doctors in other states. The doctor in another state will say, "You're in Texas, I can't sent pills to Texas". Prescriptions are tracked and they are tracked much more than pesticides and citrus.

[MFM008]

15. Then discreet

Brown wrappers it will have to be.

[Hekate]

5. Of course they are. That was their intent all along.

[Grins]

6. OK. So how is Texas going to enforce it?

"..a felony punishable by jail in Texas to PROVIDE abortion pills through mail..."

So, not the buyer? Just the provider.

If the providing company is NOT in the state of Texas, and what the provider is doing happens to be legal in its state of manufacture and distribution, how will Texas enforce that? How will they even know an order has been placed? Or delivered? Will Texas prosecute the U.S. Postal Service?

Do Texas legislators even ask these questions before going all-Taliban?

[LeftInTX]

10. The same way they enforce pesticide and citrus sales

[url=https://postimages.org/][img][/img][/url]

Prescriptions are now tracked in a nationwide database. If a pharmacy in another states see an order to Texas, they will refuse to send it. If they do, the pharmacy can be prosecuted.

[keithbvadu2]

7. Send two aspirin to every republican legislator with a return address that says abortion pills inc.

Send two aspirin to every republican legislator with a return address that says abortion pills inc.

[marble falls]

12. Not a bad idea. Call is a pre-intercourse abortiant, instruct them to hold one aspirin ...

... between the knees of both 'participants'.

[marble falls]

11. So he's planning to interfere with the post office and federal laws and regulations. This will be ..

... entertaining as it will be futile.

[LeftInTX]

13. That's not true. See post 9

He's not interfering with the post office.
This is aimed at providers and pharmacies in other states.

Citrus cannot be sent to Texas
[url=https://postimages.org/][img][/img][/url]

Certain pesticides can't be sent to certain states
[url=https://postimages.org/][img][/img][/url]

Providers in other states will need to follow Texas laws.

[MFM008]

16. This can be gotten around

And they will find a way.

[keithbvadu2]

17. Gotten around by Abbot's supporters as well.

Gotten around by Abbot's supporters as well.

They will use his earlier laws to sue the mailman who delivered it and the truck driver who transported it between postal facilities.

Set up a round for the house!

$10,000 all around.

It sure does get complicated.

[MFM008]

21. well then delivery by self service mail or Fed Ex

and others will set up an interesting legal challenge.
what you can have delivered to your own home that is not forbidden federally.
There has got to be a way and someone will find it.

[LeftInTX]

22. This case will go to the Supreme Court

Unlike the other law, this one actually involves criminal charges for doctors and pharmacies.
The USSC can't say, "Well everyone has standing and no one has standing"..

This case will have a clear plaintiff and they will have standing.

[LeftInTX]

20. Doctors will have to be very sneaky. Everything is in databases these days

Every time a doctor prescribes something, it goes into a database. Doctors in other states will refuse unless the meds can be mailed to an address that is not in Texas.

Additionally, mail order pharmacies will refuse.

Of course, there is no stopping a friend to mail something.

Years ago, they did not have all these databases. Docs are watched like hawks. My doc will stop prescribing pain meds if you don't follow a certain pattern with regards to refill requests. He is watched.

*****************
I'm sure abortion pill prescriptions are more closely watched by the FDA than many controlled substances. As a matter of fact, it was illegal to mail the pills or have them at retail pharmacies anywhere in the US until April 12th of this year.
It has been controlled as an "inpatient drug", like chemo. Could only get them at the doctor's office. No retail or mail order pharmacies were allowed until April 12, 2021.

When COVID hit, the Trump administration lifted FDA restrictions on most drugs so patients could access them without in-person visits to doctors, but not the abortion pill. So advocates and health care providers sued. In July of 2020, a Maryland federal court ruling suspended the FDA requirement that patients make in-person visits to medical providers to get the abortion pill. U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang ruled the FDA requirement of in-person visits during the pandemic imposed a “substantial obstacle” to abortion health care that is likely unconstitutional. Judge Chuang’s order allowed doctors to mail mifepristone to their patients.

But the Trump administration appealed the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court, twice. The second time, on January 13, 2021, six members of the Supreme Court granted a Trump administration request to reinstate an FDA rule requiring patients seeking medication abortion to make an unnecessary in-person visit to their health care provider just to pick up the medication and sign a form. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Breyer dissented.

With President Joe Biden in office, the FDA issued new guidance on April 12 lifting a restriction on mifepristone for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Then on May 7, the Biden administration announced that the FDA would undertake a review of the REMS restrictions on mifepristone. The announcement came as part of a joint legal filing in the ACLU lawsuit Cheslius v. Becerra, challenging the restrictions.

But while the FDA now allows qualified providers to mail the abortion pill to patients—at least for now—19 states prohibit medication abortion via telemedicine and mailing pills.

https://msmagazine.com/2021/09/27/fda-approval-abortion-pill-anniversary-medication-abortion-biden-texas-ban/

[NCjack]

14. I'm feeling the need to bake some brownies and send them to a friend.

[jmowreader]

18. You know what's next

Any woman who wants to leave the state will have to submit to a pregnancy test before crossing the state line or boarding a plane, and will have to submit to another one three weeks after returning. If you come back less pregnant than you were when you left, you have some explaining to do.

[Brainfodder]

19. Relabeled horse dewormer, got it!