HOUSTON, Texas — Texas’s new abortion law has been in effect for more than a week now, and it’s left some women looking for other options when it comes to ending their pregnancy.
One nonprofit says some of those women are going online.
In the days leading up to Texas's new abortion law, a group of pro-choice supporters hit the road in Texas.
“To spread the message that we’re taking this road trip so you don’t have to," Co-founder of Plan C Elisa Wells said.
Wells says their website shares information on how pregnant women can get access to abortion pills, and after Texas's new law went into effect, traffic to the website increased.
“We saw our website traffic through plancpills.org just skyrocket, with most of that traffic coming from Texas. People are looking for ways to access these pills," Wells said.
She says abortion pills are safe and can be taken up to 10 or 11 weeks into a pregnancy. It’s a total of five pills, taken one or two days apart.
“After taking the second set of pills, you would expect to have bleeding and cramping, similar to a very heavy period," Wells said.
Because Plan C only offers information, she says they’re not concerned about any possible legal actions taken against them.
“We provide research based information which is free speech," Wells said.
And says she hasn’t heard of any online abortion pill providers backing away from Texas either.
But Vice President Elizabeth Graham of Texas Right to Life says it’s sad and scary that women are going online.
“This is a very careless effort by physicians in another state who are offering people long distance chemical abortions," Graham said.
Texas Right to Life says the new abortion law does not apply to physicians who are out of state, but they’re hoping a new bill, Senate Bill 4, which bans the mailing of abortion pills will take effect soon and would stop those out of state providers.
“The penalty under this law allows for extradition so holding those out of state providers still accountable to our law," Senior Legislative Associate with Texas Right to Life Rebecca Parma said.
But even then, Wells believes online providers will continue to send their pills to Texas.
“They will continue to try and help people access care in any way they can, and I am sure the online pharmacies will continue," Wells said.