Abortion Back-Up Plan: Some Women Are Ordering Abortion Pills Online | NBC Left Field

What happens if Roe v. Wade is overturned? As states including Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia pass bills restricting abortion access, and as abortion remains an unaffordable option for many women, experts expect that more American women may turn to other alternatives. Some talk about a return to back-alley procedures and coat hangers, and women taking matters into their own hands. But this overlooks something important: SOME women are already giving themselves abortions at home, away from doctors and clinics.

*A European doctor prescribes abortion pills to U.S. women over the internet — but the FDA is watching*

Necolie remembers taking the pregnancy test in the bathroom and then throwing it at her husband. “I’m not doing this again,” she said.

By then, in late 2018, her husband had been out of work for three months. Necolie, who lives on the Florida Coast and asked that her full name not be used to protect her privacy, was borrowing gas money from friends so she could drive her three kids to school. During her last pregnancy, she had developed a serious liver condition and had to be hospitalized.

Necolie loved being a mother but knew that she wanted, and maybe needed, to end the pregnancy. “It was really difficult to get to that point, especially as someone who has been a Republican voter. … I was Catholic. I just didn’t believe in that for anyone, much less myself.”

Necolie found a clinic in Tallahassee, about three hours away, that would accept her health insurance, but she needed to pay $600 up front for the abortion and then submit the receipt to her insurance company for reimbursement. “There was no money to go there and do that,” she said. Necolie sat down at her computer and started researching ways to give herself an abortion at home.

On abortion-themed message boards and subreddits, she learned about pharmacies abroad that sold abortion pills: The medications mifepristone and misoprostol which, since 2000, have been available in the United States as an alternative to surgical abortion for women who are less than 10 weeks pregnant. Inside the U.S., such abortion pills are approved but heavily regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and can be dispensed only by health care professionals who agree to stock the medication and sign a waiver guaranteeing emergency care for women who need it.

Dozens of websites offer the abortion pills online for less than $100 to more than $500. Some make dubious claims about “pain-free” and “100 percent working” abortions.

As states including Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia pass bills restricting abortion access, and as abortion remains an unaffordable option for many women like Necolie, experts expect that more American women may turn to these websites for alternatives.

“As abortion access at clinics becomes more and more constrained, I would anticipate that more people will look for options, including online options,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

But by selling unregulated abortion pills, these websites are breaking U.S. law, according to the FDA, which last year reportedly raided the home of a New York City woman who was mailing out abortion pills. The FDA declined to comment.

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