{"id":291793,"date":"2023-05-29T09:45:35","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T14:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=291793"},"modified":"2023-08-07T15:00:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T20:00:36","slug":"abortion-pill-vigilante-dispense-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-pill-vigilante-dispense-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Abortion pill vigilantes’ illegally dispense abortion pill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An ‘abortion pill vigilante’ syndicate has organized in order to violate the law and illegally dispense the deadly abortion drug to women and teens in areas where pro-life laws protect preborn babies from abortion.<\/p>\n

These abortion cartels are often referred to in media reports by soft-sounding terms such as “pill runners,” “old Hippies,” “community providers,” “helpers,” “shepherds,” and “clandestine providers.” Despite these innocuous nicknames, if law enforcement does not step up to investigate these syndicates, their illegal drug dealing could result in women being seriously injured or killed.<\/p>\n

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Abortion Pill Vigilante Syndicate media reports<\/p><\/div>\n

Complicit Media<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abortion pill vigilante syndicates have access to journalists including the Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning<\/a> journalist Caroline Kitchener who authored “Covert network provides pills for thousands of abortions in U.S. post Roe<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Nina Liss-Shultz, author of \u201cInside the Top-Secret Abortion Underground\u201d published<\/a> by Mother Jones, claims<\/a> to have talked to dozens of \u201cclandestine providers.” While Daily Beast’s Decca Muldowney,<\/a> who described these syndicates as ‘vigilantes,’ interviewed several for “<\/strong>Inside the Secretive Network of Abortion Pill Vigilantes.<\/a>”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In a piece for The Atlantic, \u201cA Covert Network of Activists is Preparing for the End of Roe,<\/a>\u201d journalist Jessica Bruder described an “improvised safety net,” writing, “Below the grass roots is the underground: a small network of community providers who connect with abortion seekers by word of mouth. This network, too, is growing. Its ranks include midwives, herbalists, doulas, and educators. When necessary, they are often willing to work around the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

“[…]the idea is a community provider could be anybody who\u2019s willing to connect women with abortion pills who might not otherwise be able to get them, or in some cases, offer alternate options,\u201d Bruder told<\/a>\u00a0NPR.<\/p>\n

Media outlets like the Associated Press<\/a> are reporting on illegal abortion networks in other countries that “use code words, aliases, encrypted messages, burner phones. Most don\u2019t know one another, or any specifics beyond their role in the chain.” In fact, Bruder even described<\/a> a Zoom call she attended in which the “audience had logged on from eight states, as well as from Poland and Peru, to learn about ending pregnancies with legal drugs and without medical supervision. In other words: self-managed abortion by means of pharmaceuticals.”<\/p>\n

Abortion Pill Vigilante Syndicates\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to The Daily Beast<\/a>, since the overturn of Roe v. Wade<\/em>, “a small group of committed activists have built secretive support networks.” It highlighted an activist named ‘Denny’ who is “one of a handful of activists in states with highly restrictive bans who are distributing abortion medication, and risking prosecution everyday” working with “WeSaveUs.<\/a>”<\/p>\n

“Denny\u2019s bedroom is the end of a long covert network that begins thousands of miles away,” DB claimed.<\/p>\n

Las Libres<\/a>, located in Mexico<\/a>, is allegedly behind efforts to smuggle abortion drugs into the United States. The group was founded in 2000 by Ver\u00f3nica Cruz S\u00e1nchez who “began convening meetings in bars and caf\u00e9s,” and it has long been “funded by American nonprofits,” NewYorker.com<\/a> claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to form a cross-border network,\u201d Cruz told<\/a> The Daily Beast. “Each cell in the supply chain would know little about the other cells\u2014safer for everyone that way,” reported NewYorker.com.<\/p>\n

The leader of Red Necesito Abortar, another Mexico-based abortion pill vigilante syndicate, told the Washington Post<\/a> that its elaborate volunteer structure was “like a spiderweb.”<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we get the pills into the U.S., they can distribute them across the whole country,\u201d Sandra Cardona Alan\u00eds, the group’s co-founder said. Her group alone “received more than 70 requests for help from women in the US in the week following the Supreme Court ruling,” CNN reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Walgreens<\/a><\/p>\n

The abortion pill referral website Plan C is also advising<\/a> women how to skirt state laws in states that prohibit online sales of the abortion drug regimen. And, “Like Plan C, Mayday Health provides information about access to abortion pills. But the group has focussed on viral marketing and high-profile stunts. Earlier this year they launched mobile billboards around 14 college campuses in restrictive states, featuring information on how to access abortion pills,” reported the Daily Beast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Distributing Drugs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Las Libres uses<\/a> a \u201cburner phone\u201d and an encrypted \u201cProton Mail account\u201d and it gets clients by word of mouth or Reddit forums. The \u201cdistributor\u201d detailed to the Washington Post how the group offers its network \u201ctips\u201d — even suggesting that women use the addresses of houses that are for sale (which doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they are vacant).<\/p>\n

According to NewYorker.com<\/a>, one ‘pill runner’ who described herself as “part of an ant colony” claimed she “bought…earrings…to camouflage the abortion pills she\u2019d be bringing back to the U.S.”<\/p>\n

“She would put the earrings in cardboard jewelry boxes that had a layer of cotton padding. The earrings would go on top of the cotton, and the pills would be embedded inside, the better to keep a husband or parent from finding them,” NewYorker.com wrote, while another claimed to hide “pills in a packet of seeds.”<\/p>\n

Inside the camouflaged boxes of abortion drugs, are inserted notes which read, \u201cHugs, the pill fairy.\u201d The packages are likely mailed with a fake return address because Post Office officials may become suspicious of packages with no<\/em> return address, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo avoid detection in antiabortion states, the group also mails pills unmarked and unsealed, often in old bottles used previously for other medicines,\u201d wrote<\/a> the Washington Post. The article also described women receiving illegally obtained drugs \u201chidden inside a cat flea medication box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Packing Parties, Clandestine Meetings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Volunteers inside the so-called \u201cabortion pill pipeline\u201d have been described<\/a> as \u201chelpers\u201d recruited to \u201cshepherd\u201d abortion pills, and even so-called legitimate abortion groups are creating a \u201cshadow side\u201d to dispense abortion pills outside the law.<\/p>\n

Others, referred to as “Old Hippies,” are asked<\/a> to raise funds and buy pills in Mexico that would then be distributed in Texas and other states. They will attempt to purchase as many abortion-inducing drugs as possible at “pharmacies gravitated to younger female clerks,” according to NewYorker.com.<\/p>\n

Once a shipment of pills arrived these \u201chelpers\u201d gather for \u201cpacking parties\u201d to package the pills in a way that abortion clients will \u201cfeel like it\u2019s legitimate,\u201d said the Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Under the ‘acompa\u00f1imiento,’ or accompaniment model, community health workers, often related to reproductive rights groups, support women through the medication abortion treatment with information and medical guidance, either virtually or in person, and, in some cases, also provide the necessary pills,” CNN wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n