By Cheryl Sullenger

Washington, DC – Since the passage of several state laws that ban abortion either entirely, as in the Alabama ban, or early in pregnancy at six to eight weeks gestation, as in Ohio, Georgia, and Missouri, there has been much talk of how the U.S. Supreme Court will take up one or more of these new laws and finally overturn Roe v. Wade. 

Barring some unexpected Supreme Court declaration that pre-born babies should be treated as “persons” under the Constitution, simply overturning Roe would revert the decision whether or not to allow abortion to each state. 

In anticipation that the newly conservative Supreme Court may nullify Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood and other abortionists have been carefully laying out a backup plan in the event that Roe falls — one that has already been partially implemented. 

It involves the interstate dispensing abortion pills by mail.

Aid Access

One group that is being promoted as a back-up if abortion becomes illegal in some states is Aid Access.  It boasts of selling 21,000 American women abortion pills from March 2018 through March 2019.

Aid Access, the latest project of Rebecca Gomperts, a registered physician in Austria, who began her career providing abortion drugs to women in countries where it was illegal by operating a ship under the Dutch flag that would dispense abortion-inducing drugs in international waters.

Gomperts and her staff “evaluate” women over the internet then order abortion pills mailed from a pharmacy in India.

The FDA has sent Gomperts a warning letter telling her to stop dispensing “misbranded and unapproved new drugs” in the U.S. in violation of U.S. laws, but so far, she has deviantly refused to end her efforts to mail abortion drugs to American women.

Gomperts uses knock-off brands for mifepristone and misoprostol that are cheap and unapproved in this country and may pose unknown health hazards.  They also lack the warning labels that are required on drugs sold in the U.S.  

Aid Access sells these unapproved drugs in the U.S. for just 80 Euros, or about $90.00 – a huge savings over FDA-approved abortion drugs sold here that run an average of $590. 

Other online retailers

There is no end to online sites that will sell abortion drugs under various names such as the “MTP Kit,” “Korlym,” and “Mifegyne.” Some “online pharmacies” appear to be different businesses, but are often connected to the same phone number in India. The sites are not reliable and likely to be dangerous.

These drugs are not approved by the FDA and there is no way to know whether the pills are really as advertised. Even some abortionists warn against obtaining pills online from overseas suppliers.

“The popularity of these overseas abortion suppliers may be due more to the cheap price than lack of access in the United States. Who would pay nearly $600 for something they can get for $90?” asked Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, who opposes shipping abortion drugs by mail. “There is no doubt if the state abortion bans hold or Roe is overturned, women will be encouraged by misguided abortion activists to avail themselves of this dangerous option.”

Planned Parenthood

Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood has been testing an abortion-by mail scheme since 2016, for a globalist population-control group called Gynuity Health Projects.  It involves a woman downloading a smart phone app where she would then submit blood test and ultrasound results obtained elsewhere. After a brief interview with an abortionist over the app, abortion pills would be mailed.  Follow-up after the abortion is up to the woman. 

With this scheme, Planned Parenthood’s only responsibility is putting a stamp on an envelope of abortion pills and dropping it at the post office.

This app-to-mailbox abortion pill scheme is already available in five states: Hawaii, Oregon, Washington State, New York, and Maine.

Planned Parenthood has long dominated the abortion drug market in the U.S.  While about 30 percent of all abortions in the U.S. are done through chemical means, 43 percent of all Planned Parenthood abortions are by abortion-inducing drugs and that percentage is increasing every year. 

There is little doubt that Planned Parenthood will ultimately oppose the distribution of abortion drugs into the United States from overseas web retailers because that competition would cut into Planned Parenthood’s bottom line.

Planned Parenthood’s Profit motive

There is a huge profit margin in providing abortion drugs.  Planned Parenthood pays about $82 for the mifepristone/misoprostol abortion drug combination, but sells them for a huge mark-up at an average of $590 at their clinics around the country.  The profit margin for the app-to-mailbox scheme is even greater because there are fewer overhead costs.

Advantages of chemical abortion for Planned Parenthood include:

  • In an increasing number of states, non-physicians can dispense abortion drugs.  Two of those states include the liberal bastions of New York and California where there are large population bases to exploit.  Non-physicians are paid less than licensed physicians, which keeps the costs down and the profits up.
  • Pill clinics generally do not need to go to the expense of purchasing or maintaining abortion equipment and hiring surgical staff.  It takes minimal resources to hand out pills.
  • Abortion drugs are cheap. The mark-up on abortion drugs is around 700 percent, which produces a handsome bottom line.
  • In the majority of states, abortion pill clinics are less regulated or not regulated at all, further reducing costs to Planned Parenthood.
  • Time spent with abortion drug patients is reduced dramatically over surgical abortion patients.  There is no pre-op preparation, no procedure, no recovery room time, no monitoring. 

Currently, using the webcam system, abortionists can already prescribe abortion drugs to women located in other states. 

With the mail distribution option, abortion pills can be mailed to all 50 states, potentially bypassing state laws that might prohibit or restrict abortion.

Safety – or lack thereof

While the abortion-biased media claims the unsupervised use of abortion drugs obtained through the mail are completely safe, there are serious safety issues, especially when obtaining the drugs from overseas online retailers.

The FDA has already expressed its concerns that unapproved drugs containing virtually-unknown ingredients and dubious dosages are being shipped from third-world nations to women in the U.S.

The abortion drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol carry a complication rate of 5-7 percent – much higher than the 0.3 percent complication that is often cited by the Abortion Cartel.

The most common complication is incomplete abortion, which is most often “treated” with a follow-up surgical abortion procedure.  Other common complications include severe bleeding (hemorrhage), failed abortions, and infection. Many women suffer more than one complication.

But with abortion drugs being dispensed through the mail, sometimes without any physical contact with the dispensing agent, women are left alone to deal with their complications with little more that a few online directions. 

Exploitive

Dispensing abortion drugs through the mail provides an increased profit motive while decreasing safety precautions for women.  It exploits weaknesses in current state and federal laws pertaining to the dispensing of drugs, and exploits vulnerable women, especially the poor who are more likely to be attracted to the cut-rate pricing of foreign retailers.

But most importantly, it allows abortion businesses to by-pass state laws prohibiting abortions and ensure that babies continue to die in states that have enacted steps to protect them.  This will become extremely relevant if the Supreme Court ever overturns Roe v. Wade.

“This is a sneaky back-door way of ensuring that babies continue to die and abortionists continue to line their pockets.  It makes any Supreme Court decision that may overturn Roe almost irrelevant,” said Newman.  “Now that we know their back-up plan if Roe v. Wade is overturned, our back-up plan needs to contain Federal legislation that will prohibit the dangerous dispensing of abortion drugs through the mail.”