Some providers of medication abortion, an FDA-approved regimen intended to terminate a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks, are working around state laws by providing the pills without clarifying where the patient lives, The New York Times reported Sept. 3.
Nearly 30 states require physicians to administer the regimen's two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, and some states ban the use of drugs to induce an abortion, according to Guttmacher Institute, a left-leaning research group.
Organizations that work outside brick-and-mortar pharmacies are required to follow local laws before mailing the pills, but some are employing workarounds by not documenting a patient's home address or selling the product to people who aren't pregnant.
"As these new practices are developing, it is likely that they will be in a legal gray area," John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, told the Times.
Texas prohibits the use of medications to induce an abortion, but the state's abortion law specifies this applies to pregnant women, not anyone who could become pregnant.
If someone lives in a state that bans abortion but orders the pills for delivery across state borders, police could find difficulty tracking the practice, according to the Times.
Access to abortion pills and contraceptives can be complicated on mulitple fronts outside of legislation, including illegal online pharmacies and retail pharamcies' policies on whether workers can refuse to sell condoms or fill prescriptions for emergency contraceptives.