Online drug vendors and volunteer traffickers are flooding the nation with black-market abortion pills, putting women’s health and even lives at risk by providing the drugs without medical oversight or Food and Drug Administration approval.
The American Life League said in a newly released report that the FDA’s 2023 decision allowing the two-pill combination to be delivered by mail has resulted in “cartel-style networks” that dispense the drugs in all 50 states, including the 14 states where abortion pills are banned.
“The abortion pill drug cartel is alive and well, especially in so-called ‘abortion-free’ states,” said the report, “Beneath the Surface: Exposing the Abortion Pill Cartel.”
Like fentanyl and opioids, the drugs are being shipped into the country by “community partner networks” like the Mexico-based Las Libres “right under the noses of federal agencies like Border Patrol and DHS.”
“Anyone can buy these unregulated, non-prescribed, abortion drugs,” the league said in a statement. “They are marketed over the internet to unverified customers from unauthorized, unvalidated suppliers, with no oversight as to drug quality, purity, or suitability of recipient.”
— American Life League (@AmerLifeLeague) September 24, 2024
The report comes amid rising safety concerns following last week’s expose on the 2022 death of Candi Miller, a Georgia woman who died after taking abortion pills she reportedly ordered online from Aid Access.
Aid Access, a nonprofit based overseas that works with “a team of U.S. abortion providers” has been hailed by pro-choice advocates as a hero of the post-Roe era, although the FDA posted a warning letter about the group in 2019 for bringing “misbranded and unapproved new drugs” into the country.
Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, the Dutch physician who founded Aid Access, said that since June 2023, abortion pills dispensed by Aid Access are “provided by US providers with USA registered mifepristone and misoprostol products.”
She said she could not disclose information about whether Miller obtained the drugs through Aid Access, but noted that the Georgia autopsy report concluded that Miller died of an overdose of painkillers, including fentanyl.
The report also said the manner of death “could not be determined,” as shown on the document posted by the pro-life group Live Action.
“Aid Access provides the deadly pills in all 50 states with its online form consultation, and it even provides abortion pills ‘for future use,’” the league report said. “In these cases, anyone, regardless of their age or gender, can request abortion pills without having to see and speak directly with a provider.”
Las Libres encourages women who seek emergency medical care after taking the pills to lie to health care providers by “tell[ing] intake staff that you think you’re having a miscarriage,” according to the website.
Many states require minors to notify parents before seeking abortions, but Plan C, a project of the National Women’s Health Network, said that Aid Access provides abortion pills to minors in all states “without parental consent or notification.”
That’s because the online providers are protected by “shield laws” in seven states, including California, that allow abortion pill dispensers to “prescribe and mail the abortion pill to women in states with abortion regulations” with no legal consequences.
“With the easy access to abortion pills from both certified and third-party sources, we must acknowledge that there is not an ‘abortion-free’ state, city, or town in the United States,” the report said.
The FDA has lifted numerous restrictions on the use of mifepristone, one of two drugs in the abortion protocol, since its approval in 2000, but the report shows that even the few remaining safeguards are being flouted by online distributors.
For example, the FDA Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy program requires women seeking a mifepristone prescription to consult with a program-certified healthcare provider, which can be done via telehealth, and only allows certified pharmacies to ship the drugs.
On the Las Libres link, however, it says that “No medical consultation is provided, no prescription needed.” The organization asks women to list the first day of their last menstrual period, adding that “No other information is needed.”
In addition, the FDA restricts the use of mifepristone to women less than 10 weeks pregnant, but Plan C says on its website that “[i]f you are less than 13 weeks pregnant (counting from the first day of your last period), you can get abortion pills mailed to you from Aid Access.”
The free-for-all has already attracted bad actors. Since 2022, at least two men have been charged with slipping the abortion pills obtained online to their pregnant wives or girlfriends.
A Florida woman was charged last year with attempted murder after trying to convince her ex-boyfriend to sneak the drugs procured online to his pregnant current girlfriend.
“It’s clear that the FDA has dropped the ball on this,” Katie Brown, ALL national director, said. “As the government agency charged with oversight of drugs coming into this country, they have failed. And where is the USPS? The post office is supposed to screen packages for illegal items, yet black-market abortion drugs are being mailed into every state.”
The report also urged U.S. Customs and Border Protection to get involved with more vigilant screening of packages crossing the border.
The pro-choice Guttmacher Institute estimated that abortion pills now account for 63% of U.S. pregnancy terminations, but the league said the number may be closer to 80% or even 90%, given that the Guttmacher figure comes from “in-network health systems.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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