Texas needs the ‘Women and Child Protection Act’
By Chelsey Youman, Texas State Director and National Director of Public Policy
Texas has led the way in protecting life, but the fight is far from over. Despite strong pro-life laws, abortion remains a reality in our state. How? Abortion activists and out-of-state abortionists are flooding Texas with abortion pills, exploiting loopholes in federal and state law to bypass our protections. The illicit distribution of these pills ends the lives of Texas children and puts women at serious risk.
It’s time for Texas legislators to close these gaps and hold illegal actors accountable for the injuries and death they cause. A new Texas bill is poised to do just that.[i]
The Rise of Abortion Pills in Texas
Although children in Texas are legally protected from abortion, out-of-state abortion industry actors continue to exploit enforcement loopholes, endangering women and ending the lives of children in the state.
Texas leads the nation in illicit abortion drug distribution. Approximately 2,800 known abortion pills are shipped into Texas each month—illegally flooding the state, posing serious health risks to women, and illegally ending the lives of innocent children.[ii]
In 2022, one abortion pill distributor reported receiving approximately 366 requests from Texas residents in one week—that could add up to17,500 requests in a year.[iii] And that’s just one distributor. Some ship pills from overseas while others take advantage of so-called “shield laws” in radical pro-abortion states like California, New York, Massachusetts, and Colorado, allowing abortionists to mail pills into Texas under legal cover.[iv]
This is not just a legal issue—it’s a massive health crisis for women and their children.
The Dangerous Reality of Abortion Pills
The abortion industry claims abortion drugs are safe while at the same time it has celebrated FDA’s changes making the abortion pill accessible through the mail and removing mandatory reporting of adverse events.[v] And this is true despite the fact that the abortion pill is four times more dangerous to women than surgical abortion.[vi]
In a post-Roe landscape, abortion drugs can be ordered online and shipped to the mother’s doorstep.[vii] When this happens, she is left to have her abortion all alone without care from a doctor—including preventive testing such as a physical exam, diagnostic ultrasound or blood tests. In addition to the death of her child, this is leading to potential complications for women such as undetected ectopic pregnancies, failure to detect Rh factor incompatibility, sepsis, hemorrhage and even fatality.[viii]
In addition to the physical risks of the abortion pill, women report psychological trauma from seeing the body of her child when he or she is expelled from her body.
Illicit abortion pills are also contributing to forced abortion and crimes against women, enabling sexual predators and human traffickers to continue their abuse.[ix]
How Abortion Pills Are Entering Texas
Currently, a Texas resident can obtain illicit abortion-inducing drugs through:
- International drug distributors;
- Out of state abortionists; and
- Networks that aid and abet abortion drug distributors.
Major abortion pill distributors like Aid Access, Cambridge Reproductive Health Consultants, and Telefem Mexico are being openly advertised in Texas. This makes it easy for women—including minors, abuse victims, and their abusers—to obtain these drugs without medical supervision.[x]
One website alone, Wisp, reported a 527% increase in abortion pill demand in 2023.[xi] The floodgates have opened, and Texas women and children are paying the price.
The Devastating Impact on Texas Mothers
Women who take abortion pills are often left unprepared for the trauma they experience. One Texas woman served by Human Coalition shared: “No one told me I would see a baby. I didn’t know what to do… It felt wrong to flush the baby down the toilet.”[xii]
Another, identified as “Monica” in a Washington Post report, took abortion pills mailed to her in a package labeled as cat flea medication to avoid detection. When she delivered her fully formed child in her bathtub at 13 weeks, the sight left her traumatized.[xiii]
These are not isolated incidents. Women and their children deserve better than being lied to about the safety and ease of abortion pills, only to be abandoned in their moment of crisis.
How Texas Can Stop the Abortion Pill Pipeline
We proudly advocate for the Women and Child Protection Act[xiv]to allow victims and their loved ones to:
- sue abortion drug manufacturers, prescribers or distributors for the death or injury of a child and mother who become victims of illicit abortion drug distribution;
- sue the networks who aid and abet illicit abortion drug distributors; and
- recover a minimum of $100,000 damages from each person involved in illegal distribution of the deadly abortion drug regimen, including drug manufacturers.
It’s Time for Texas to Act
Texas has already proven itself as a national leader in defending life. The Texas Heartbeat Act[xv] and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision set the stage, but our work is not finished. Abortion activists will stop at nothing to end the lives of innocent humans in the womb, including harming their mothers.
Vulnerable Texans urgently need the Women and Child Protection Act to safeguard them from the predatory practices of abortion pill distributors.[xvi]
Texas set the blueprint for the rest of the nation with its groundbreaking Texas Heartbeat Act in 2021, and the Lone Star State has the opportunity to do the same with the Women and Child Protection Act by with legislation that will finally and effectively close the massive loopholes in its pro-life protections. As pro-lifers work to further the bill, abortion activists are warning their ranks that this bill could radically change the game for the lawless abortion pill distribution they advocate.[xvii]
The Women and Child Protection Act provides the legal tools needed to stop illegal abortion drug distribution, hold bad actors accountable, and ensure that Texas remains a state where life is valued and protected.
Now is the time for Texas lawmakers to act to end the reckless, illicit distribution of abortion pills in our state. Now is the time for the Women and Child Protection Act.
[i] https://www.humancoalition.org/whoweare/presscenter/human-coalition-applauds-introduction-of-women-and-children-protection-act/
[ii] https://societyfp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/WeCount-Report-8-Press-Release.pdf
[iii] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2797883
[iv] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/health/abortion-shield-laws-telemedicine.html
[v] https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/fda-reaffirms-safety-of-mifepristone-approves-new-label-for-medication-abortion
[vi] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19888037/
[vii] https://www.fda.gov/drugs/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers/information-about-mifepristone-medical-termination-pregnancy-through-ten-weeks-gestation
[viii] https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-risks-and-complications-of-chemical-abortion/
[ix] https://www.heritage.org/life/commentary/abortion-pills-coercion-and-abuse
[x] https://www.plancpills.org/abortion-pill/texas#telehealth
[xi] https://www.foxnews.com/health/abortion-pills-spiked-recent-years-new-report-reveals-substantial-increase
[xii] https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-395/289590/20231115085806881_23-395%20Amicus%20Brief%20of%20Human%20Coalition.pdf
[xiii] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/illegal-abortion-pill-network/
[xiv] https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB2880&ct=t(031425-wcpa-filed)&mc_cid=f130d5a8ae&mc_eid=1716dc965
[xv] https://www.humancoalition.org/impact/blog/hope-for-a-post-roe-v-wade-america/
[xvi] https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB2880&ct=t(031425-wcpa-filed)&mc_cid=f130d5a8ae&mc_eid=1716dc965
[xvii] https://truthout.org/articles/experts-warn-tx-bill-targeting-online-abortion-pills-will-have-widespread-impact/
