Franklin Pierce
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A Mexican Network is Smuggling Abortion Drugs to American Women
One day late last month, as new abortion restrictions began taking shape in US states, three Mexican women quietly crossed into the country at different points along the border, dozens of abortion-inducing pills hidden in their belongings.
The medication, an FDA-approved two-drug combination, had traveled across the interior of Mexico in the previous days, handled by an underground network of some 30 organizations in the country.
"The medications are arriving in a thousand ways, in creative ways, into the hands of women," said Verónica Cruz Sánchez, a prominent Mexican abortion activist whose group, Las Libres, helps run the network.
Abortions in Texas, including the distribution of medication abortion -- the most commonly used abortion method in the country -- have been effectively banned following the June high court ruling.
Though traveling to other states for an abortion is an option, it's not simple. Women who undergo the multi-day medication abortion treatment are often told to stay in the state where they began the process -- making such trips prohibitively expensive for some.
So the Mexican network's daring -- and illegal -- operation has emerged as one few avenues for women seeking abortions in south Texas and beyond, drawing on a model of activist-led abortion access that already exists in Mexico.
A Mexican network is smuggling abortion drugs to American women
One day late last month, as new abortion restrictions began taking shape in US states, three Mexican women quietly crossed into the country at different points along the border, dozens of abortion-inducing pills hidden in their belongings.
The medication, an FDA-approved two-drug combination, had traveled across the interior of Mexico in the previous days, handled by an underground network of some 30 organizations in the country.
"The medications are arriving in a thousand ways, in creative ways, into the hands of women," said Verónica Cruz Sánchez, a prominent Mexican abortion activist whose group, Las Libres, helps run the network.
Abortions in Texas, including the distribution of medication abortion -- the most commonly used abortion method in the country -- have been effectively banned following the June high court ruling.
Though traveling to other states for an abortion is an option, it's not simple. Women who undergo the multi-day medication abortion treatment are often told to stay in the state where they began the process -- making such trips prohibitively expensive for some.
So the Mexican network's daring -- and illegal -- operation has emerged as one few avenues for women seeking abortions in south Texas and beyond, drawing on a model of activist-led abortion access that already exists in Mexico.
A Mexican network is smuggling abortion drugs to American women