U.S. Clinicians Can Now Mail Abortion Pills to States Banning Abortion, Thanks to Shield Laws in Fi

U.S. Clinicians Can Now Mail Abortion Pills to States Banning Abortion, Thanks to Shield Laws in Five States
7/24/2023 by Carrie N. Baker

Telemedicine abortion provider shield laws have led to quicker shipping times for abortion pills for people living in restrictive states—from several weeks to several days.



Abortion rights activists rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on April 14, 2023, after the Court temporarily preserved access to mifepristone, a widely used abortion pill, in an 11th-hour ruling preventing lower court restrictions on the drug from coming into force. (Probal Rashid / LightRocket via Getty Images)

In June, New York enacted a shield law to protect clinicians offering telemedicine abortion services to patients in states banning abortion. The law shields licensed clinicians from criminal and civil litigation, as well as loss of a medical license and malpractice insurance relating to any legally protected healthcare activity in the state, including prescribing and sending abortion pills to patients living anywhere in the United States. As soon as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed the new law in mid-June, telemedicine abortion provider, Aid Access, began serving patients living in states banning abortion. “It’s nice to be playing offense, not defense,” said a New York physician working with Aid Access, which was founded by Dr. Rebecca Gomperts and is based in Austria.

Massachusetts was the first state to pass a telemedicine provider shield law, later followed by Washington, Colorado, Vermont and most recently New York. Between mid-June and mid-July, seven Aid Access clinicians located across these five states mailed pills to 3,500 people located in states banning abortion. “Seeing the number—3,500 patients—treated since the New York shield law took effect surprises even those who are experienced in doing this work. It shows what people want,” said Julie F. Kay, co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine Access, which works to expand the number of states with telemedicine abortion provider shield laws.

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Rebecca Gomperts, second from right, leads supporters at a rally on May 31, 2018, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The group ROSA—Reproductive Rights Against Oppression, Sexism and Austerity—had earlier risked arrest after distributing abortion pills from a touring bus. (Charles McQuillan / Getty Images)

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The new telemedicine provider shield laws stand on very firm constitutional and legal grounds, said Kay. “They don’t conflict with constitutional law or interstate law. They’ve been very well researched and carefully crafted by law professors and reproductive rights attorneys and legal counsel of the state governments. The amount of kicking the tires and looking under the hood that went on in New York alone has been significant, and certainly way more than a lot of other legislation that has been passed.”



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Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine Access was the key engine behind passage of the New York telemedicine provider shield law, along with the New York State Academy of Family Physicians. “Aid Access is mission driven first and foremost. I see that in the risk that the abortion providers are taking. They are putting themselves and their families at risk because they feel that it is important to provide these services,” said Kay. “It is such an abomination to see what has happened in this country post-Dobbs and even pre-Dobbs. Abortion is a human right. It’s not subject to state boundaries.”

https://msmagazine.com/2023/07/24/usa-mail-abortion-pills/