As of Thursday, Dec. 2, a new anti-choice abortion law goes into effect in Texas, as reported by The Texas Tribune. This law specifically restricts access to medical abortions (as opposed to surgical abortions), a common type of abortion in the United States. Medical abortions typically involve a person taking one or two pills, usually spaced apart by about a day or two, to terminate a pregnancy. Patients often prefer to take the second pill at home (or wherever they are safe outside of a physician’s office or clinic), even aside from the pandemic. Two of the most popular pills you might have heard of are mifepristone and misoprostol, which in simple terms stop the pregnancy and empty the uterus in two steps. Medical abortions are widely considered to be safe and effective for most patients who need them. This medication is different from emergency contraception, sometimes called the “morning-after pill,” which is not an abortion. Senate Bill 4, signed into law by anti-abortion Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Sept. 24, makes it a felony to prescribe the medication once the pregnancy passes just seven weeks. This shortens the window from the current 10 weeks, for no real reason outside of cruelty. Mind you, many, many people do not even realize they are pregnant by seven weeks. And even if they do, that’s still an extremely tight scramble to get an appointment, make sure you can literally get to the provider’s location, get time off of work, and so on. The law also attacks a method known as “self-managed” abortions provided by either courier, mail, or delivery service. Read more