Doctor Keeps Prescribing Abortion Pills to Texas Women Despite New Law: 'I Don't Care About 6 Weeks'
A doctor in Europe who runs a telehealth service that serves residents in Texas has vowed to continue prescribing women abortion pills in violation of a new state law.
Abortions in the Lone Star State are now barred after the detection of the child’s heartbeat, which is usually at six weeks gestation. After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to strike down the law earlier this month, Texas became the epicenter for out-of-state outrage.
That outrage has not changed the fact that women can’t legally terminate a pregnancy after a certain date.
But one woman who provides health services for women from out of the country said Wednesday she will simply ignore the law.
During an interview with CBS News, Netherlands-based physician Dr. Rebecca Gomperts said she will help her patients in Texas abort their children from home at up to 10 weeks’ gestation. Without having to face any consequences, Gomperts explained, she simply does not care about what the new law says.
European doctor says she’ll keep prescribing abortion pills in Texas: “I don’t care about 6 weeks” https://t.co/OPGJ5Zxh41
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 23, 2021
“I don’t care about six weeks,” Gomperts, who runs the pro-abortion organization Aid Access, told CBS News. “It’s another law that is not based on any scientific evidence, human rights, common sense.”
“I will provide [prescriptions for abortion pills] until 10 weeks of pregnancy like I’ve always done,” she added.
The oral medications mifepristone and misoprostol are commonly prescribed to trigger a miscarriage up to 11 weeks into a pregnancy. The two medications have been in use for years, and Aid Access uses them in other U.S. states, including California and Massachusetts.
It isn’t clear yet if Texas will respond by revoking Gomperts’ ability to practice medicine in the state. It’s also not clear yet what, if anything, state officials can do.
CBS News reported the doctor currently has a way to skirt around the law: She sends her patients to internet-based pharmacies.
Once Gomperts prescribes them abortion pills, they can receive them by mail.
The doctor told CBS News she is not concerned about jurisdiction issues since she is on another continent. She directly sees patients remotely in Texas as well as in Austria.
“Where I work from, it’s legal to prescribe the medications. And so I’ll do that,” Gomperts said. “And the pharmacy that I refer to is allowed to mail the medicines, on a prescription of a doctor, to the women.”
“So [the new Texas law] has no impact on what we do,” she added.
A U.S.-based Aid Access employee described to CBS News how easy it is for women to take abortion pills and then avoid detection in the event they visit a hospital after complications.
“If there’s ever a legal concern or just, you know, a concern of stigma, or they don’t want their family to know, then patients can always just say that they think that they’re having a miscarriage,” Christie Pitney said. “There’s no way that [the hospital] will ever be able to tell the difference between a miscarriage and abortion.”
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