Arizona clinic has workaround for abortion pill ban

A clinic in Phoenix, Arizona has devised a mechanism for patients who are able to terminate their pregnancies using pills to get their hands on the pills swiftly without breaking a revived state law that prohibits most abortions.

Starting on Monday, patients can have a free ultrasound in Arizona, then schedule a telemedicine consultation with a doctor in California, and finally have their prescriptions shipped to a post office in a border town in California.

Even if it’s not as simple as it was before a court in Arizona determined that a pre-statehood law criminalizing nearly all abortions may be enforced about two weeks ago, it still beats having to spend the night in a hotel just to get an abortion in a big California city. And it’s easier to get a hold of than the prior solution utilized by Phoenix’s Camelback Family Planning, which involved getting a prescription from a doctor in Sweden and having the medication shipped to Arizona through an Indian pharmacy. It may take as much as three weeks to accomplish that.

Clinic nurse Ashleigh Feiring said the Abortion Fund of Arizona, which helps women pay for out-of-state access to abortions, will cover the cost of the tablets. Up until the 12th week of pregnancy, the pill can be used by women to terminate the pregnancy. Prior to the June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, both medical and surgical abortions were permissible up to the 24-week mark.