Julie Amaon wanted to make the process as easy as possible.
Her organization Just the Pill began facilitating abortions by mail in October. After they scheduled a call with a doctor, patients in Minnesota would typically receive their pill in the mail within a few days. Amaon, a family medicine doctor and medical director for Just the Pill, always followed up with a care package: Oreos, sanitary pads and a bag of peach mango herbal tea.
The entire operation screeched to a halt Tuesday night, when the Supreme Court lifted a national injunction that allowed women to access the abortion pill remotely during the coronavirus pandemic. Since July, patients had been able to request an abortion pill without ever setting foot in a clinic or a doctor’s office, an accommodation instituted to protect patients from the virus.
The decision reinstates a federal requirement that women seeking a pill to terminate pregnancy in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy must do so in person.
The case was the first abortion-related decision faced by the new conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court after Justice Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in last year.