New Law Lets Texans Sue Abortion Drug Traffickers

A new law designed to combat Democrat laws shielding abortion drug traffickers who take advantage of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s radically expanded mail-order mifepristone allowances went into effect on Thursday in Texas.

Lone Star legislators passed House Bill 7 in September to create a punishment mechanism for illegal interstate abortion pill transactions and the dangerous and deadly consequences they hold for women and their unborn children.

Under the new statute, private citizens are permitted to sue out-of-state mifepristone prescribers, manufacturers, and distributors, such as pharmacies, for “an amount of not less than $100,000” for each violation of the state’s ban on abortion pills. Enforcement is modeled after Texas’ successful 2021 heartbeat bill, which virtually eliminated abortion in the state by granting anyone outside of the government to bring a civil action against anyone who performs or aids and abets ending a life in the womb.

Abortion activists have already dubbed the law a “dangerous” “attack” fueled by “fearmongering and intimidation.” Media such as the Houston Chronicle and The Guardian joined the dogpile with articles framing the law as a “bounty hunter” scheme.

“Abortion pill underground” coordinators, such as the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project (MAP), have also committed in print and online to continue their drug smuggling schemes regardless of potential consequences.

“We can send packages to any address in the US,” MAP’s website brags.

Already, countless babies have died due to the prevalence of mail-order mifepristone. As demonstrated in several recent lawsuits, many women have also suffered abuse, abortion pill poisonings, and coerced abortions due to mifepristone prescribers and distributors’ flouting of Texas’ and other pro-life states’ abortion pill bans.

Approximately 10 percent of women who ingest mifepristone reportedly suffer a serious adverse event such as hemorrhage or infection. Similarly, a majority of abortions, nearly 70 percent, are believed to be unwanted, coerced, or inconsistent with the mother’s values and desires.

Polling suggests a majority of likely voters want the FDA to protect women from the drug responsible for more than half of U.S. abortions. Leaders of both the Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA have repeatedly pledged to review the safety of the popular abortion drug combination.

Yet they did not respond to The Federalist’s questions about who is conducting the review and how long it is expected to take. Instead, the only mifepristone-related activity from HHS and the FDA in recent weeks involved greenlighting a generic version of the abortion pill for sale.

For now, states such as Texas are left to their own devices for preventing further harm. Already, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has tried to sue and fine prescribers who illegally mail abortion pills to women in his state. His attempts to hold abortion drug traffickers accountable for the harm they have caused Lone Star State women and children, however, have been slowed by Democrat states and politicians touting “shield laws” designed to protect mifepristone prescribers from punishment.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.