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| Photo credit: Wheeler Cowperthwaite / Flickr |
Abortion pills require a prescription to purchase in the United States, but this woman purchased them from overseas and used an online jewelry store as a front to resell the drugs in the US to people without prescriptions. “Unjust laws should not be respected,” she told the website Mother Jones. She went on to say that she hopes others follow her example, saying, “I want some copycats. There’s not enough people doing this.”
One customer who purchased abortion pills from her was Jeffrey Smith from Grand Rapids, Wisconsin. He is now accused of first-degree murder for dissolving abortion drugs into his girlfriend's water when she refused to abort their child. She took her water bottle to the police after she noticed residue inside, and they confirmed the presence of the abortion drug mifepristone. His trial is scheduled for December.
Abusive men often use abortion as a tool to control women and remove themselves from the consequences or responsibilities that can come with fathering a child. Access to abortion pills without a prescription allows men like Smith to use them against women who do not want to kill their children and poses danger to both the mother and her child. Abortion pills can have dangerous side effects such as hemorrhaging, infection, and potentially death if a mother has an undiagnosed pregnancy condition such as ectopic pregnancy.
