“The battle for life is far from over,” reads a complaint filed by Louisiana’s attorney general. The state opposes mailing abortion pills without an in-person meeting with a doctor. A federal court on Tuesday considered a request for an injunction aimed at immediately suspending these remote prescriptions across the country.
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In Tennessee, two Republican elected officials have suggested the death penalty for women who voluntarily end their pregnancies, treating the procedure as homicide. The proposal is in its embryonic stages, but illustrates ongoing debates in state legislatures, as the Trump administration delays action on this particularly divisive issue. Anti-abortion activists have openly expressed impatience with the status quo in Washington, threatening to withdraw their support for Republicans in the midterm elections.
All in a context where the number of voluntary terminations of pregnancies has increased for three years, despite the restrictive measures adopted by almost half of the states since the 2022 ruling of the Supreme Court. This decision delegated to each state the responsibility of legislating for its territory.
Telemedicine
However, telemedicine has expanded the boundaries. Its use for abortions is increasing, according to the #WeCount report from the Society of Family Planning.
“There are more and more options and more and more affordable options available to people,” explains Venny Ala-Siurua, executive director of the Montreal-based Women on Web International Foundation, which helps women around the world access abortion. The organization puts women in contact with American pharmacists and doctors who practice telemedicine, without sending medications from Canada, she explains.
Requests from the United States are on the rise, notes Mme Ala-Siurua.
Networks
Networks created by pro-choice activists have grown in recent years.
These groups, and the health professionals they work with, are in the crosshairs of abortion opponents. In the case led by Louisiana, supported by the attorneys general of around twenty states, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is called upon to withdraw the authorization granted in 2023 for the prescription of mifepristone, an abortion pill, without in-person consultation with a doctor.
These postal mailings make it possible to circumvent the laws prohibiting the practice of abortions on their territory, deplore the States which support this request.
If federal court judges approve the request for a preliminary injunction heard Tuesday, shipping of the drug without face-to-face consultation would be suspended across the country, pending a final decision.
“More than two-thirds of abortions in the United States are performed only with medication, without surgical intervention, so it would certainly be a considerable obstacle, especially in states that ban or restrict abortion,” underlines Carrie Baker, of Smith College, in Massachusetts.
Trump administration
But the author ofAbortion Pills: US History and Politics doubt that the plaintiffs will obtain the requested injunction. Especially since the US Department of Justice has requested a suspension of the legal process, pending the review of the authorization for mifepristone already announced by the FDA. The drug, approved in 2000 in the United States, is considered safe by credible scientific studies.
The new conclusions are expected after the mid-term elections on November 3, according to the Bloomberg agency. This delay would not be accidental, the subject being a hot potato for the Trump administration.
According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in June, 63% of Americans believe that terminations of pregnancies should be legal in most or all cases.
But those who oppose it carry significant weight for President Trump’s party, the majority of which is at stake in the midterm elections. For example, 71% of conservative Republicans believe that abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.
The influential group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has also called on the Trump administration, inviting it to act against remote prescriptions to maintain its support. The mail-order sale of abortion medications “prevents states from protecting women and children, thus creating a serious public health crisis, but it is also in total contradiction with the expectations of the electorate who brought Trump and Vance to power,” reacted the president of the organization, Marjorie Dannenfelser, in a press release published last week with the results of a survey carried out by Cygnal. The poll concluded that 84% of those who describe themselves as “pro-Trump Republicans” believe that abortion drugs should not be prescribed without an in-person consultation.
Baker. She recalls that mifepristone is generally prescribed in combination with misoprostol, which could be used alone in the event of new restrictions.
“I think everyone is preparing for changes and looking at different scenarios, but I am sure that doctors, the community and activists will largely continue to provide services, but in a different way,” notes Venny Ala-Siurua.
