Abortion-by-Mail Pop-Up Store Opens in Bastrop, Texas

Most people, including legislators, think that abortion is completely banned in Texas. But a pro-abortion organization just demonstrated how false that assumption is.

Mayday Health didn’t appear to be concerned about any conflict with Texas laws when they opened a pop-up store in Bastrop, Texas on June 23, 2023 to inform women that abortion is still available to them, even in Texas. The display was an opportunity to educate and invite others to set up similar displays across the country, even in states where abortion is supposedly banned.

Mayday wasn’t flying under the radar of law enforcement either. They applied for permits from local authorities (which were granted) and publicly invited state officials Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton to visit their store while it was open. 😲

The question is: In Texas, which supposedly has a total ban on abortion, how is this possible?

The answer is simple.

It’s not illegal for women in Texas to kill their own babies by abortion.

While it’s illegal for doctors and clinics to perform abortions in Texas, it’s not illegal for women to get abortions. And women in 2023 no longer need brick-and-mortar clinics to get abortions.

What does the law say?

Texas is a leader in Pro-Life legislation. No one is likely to argue that fact.

Across the country, states continue to file legislation modeled on Texas laws like the Heartbeat Act (SB 8). And Texas has arguably the strongest “Trigger” legislation (HB 1280) that took effect after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe.

Texas is leading by example in many ways.

But is this a good thing?

With so much groundbreaking Pro-Life legislation in place, you would think that, an entire year after Roe was overturned, abortion would be completely illegal in our state.

But it isn’t.

I’ve explained before how the Texas homicide code exempts women from being subject to legal penalties for their involvement in killing their own preborn children.

The Texas Heartbeat Act, the trigger law that went into effect after Roe was overturned, and other Pro-Life legislation all provide women with complete legal immunity when they abort their own children themselves.

Unfortunately, these laws are what the media, legislators, and lobbyists are referring to when they claim that abortion is banned in Texas.

But these laws don’t treat everyone equally. They ban some people from committing abortions, but not others. Texas law has one set of protections for the lives of born people and another set of lesser protections for preborn people.

The Bible calls this partiality, and God hates it.

Current law shows partiality toward mothers who abort their own children by giving them complete legal immunity no matter how knowing, willful, and premeditated their actions may be, which means preborn babies are denied the equal protection of the laws.

God’s command is clear: “You shall not show partiality in judgment.”

And now we are starting to see clearly how embedding partiality into the law has paved the way for an entirely new abortion landscape.

Abortion isn’t what it used to be… but it’s still killing babies

Medication abortion has been rising in popularity in recent years and already accounted for more than 50% of REPORTED abortions in the U.S. even before Roe was overturned.

Instead of surgery, these abortions are often done using a two-pill regimen. Prior to the overturn of Roe, they were usually done in a clinical setting where a medical practitioner prescribed one medication to kill the baby and another for the woman to take at home to induce labor so she could deliver her dead baby, normally into the toilet.

In a post-Roe environment, an increasing number of women are self-managing their own abortions at home without ever going to a clinic. Women simply follow instructions on sites like Mayday’s to order abortion pills online and have them delivered to their mailbox.

The New York Times reports that at least 6,500 requests for abortion pills are being made online each month and none of these abortions are included in the reported numbers that are often cited to show that current abortion laws are saving babies.[1]

The Mayday Health display in Bastrop, Texas shows what an insignificant obstacle existing laws are to this method of abortion.

Our review of available data indicates that in Texas as of February 2023, since the 2021 Texas Heartbeat Act and 2022 Dobbs decision, studies indicated that overall abortions for Texas women had declined by at most about 5.4% (52,177 estimated annually down from 55,175 in 2020). Of these, an annual estimate of 32,916 (63%) were taking place at out-of-state clinics, while at least 19,260 (37%) were happening in Texas using abortion pills ordered online.[1]

Did you catch that?

Even now that Roe is gone…

Even with the Texas Heartbeat Act and our Trigger Bill in force…

It is still estimated that over 19,000 babies will be legally killed by abortion on Texas soil this year. That’s more than 50 babies every day.

But don’t existing abortion bans save some babies?

A recent report suggests that as many as 9,799 additional live births occurred in Texas in the year after the Texas Heartbeat Act went into effect. Though study authors acknowledge that they don’t know why the estimated extra live births occurred, they do believe the data strongly suggests that some women who would have aborted were unable to do so. While this report doesn’t seem to align with other available data, if it is correct, we certainly rejoice for every precious life saved.

But we still need to look at the larger picture. Prior to the Texas Heartbeat Act, 50,000 to 55,000 abortions were occurring annually in Texas. Yet in the nine months included in this report, fewer than 10,000 additional births were estimated. That means likely 40,000 to 45,000 abortions of Texas babies are still happening, even though Texas probably has the strongest abortion bans in the country.

Is that success?

And we can see that while the live birth numbers have increased a bit in the short term, we can also note that the fluctuation is still within the range of existing patterns.

The truth is that available data is not comprehensive and we need to understand this when evaluating numbers. It is extremely difficult to say exactly what number of babies are being saved by current Pro-Life laws, if any.

We know that thousands of women in Texas are still getting abortions by traveling to other states, and thousands of others are requesting abortion pills by mail for self-managed abortions right here on Texas soil.

Then how do we know if we’re winning?

No matter what the next study or report suggests, as abolitionists, we know that following God’s commands is always the best thing to do and the only winning strategy. If God is for us, who can be against us?

We can run the numbers all day to try to find out if we’re winning, but in the end, if God isn’t on our side we will never have the victory. Reports and numbers can be helpful, but they cannot tell you what course of action will bring God’s blessing. That’s why we commit to always doing God’s will God’s way and trust Him for the results.

Our strategy isn’t complicated:

• Pass laws to make murdering anyone illegal for everyone.
• Don’t violate God’s commands along the way.

We love others by protecting them with the same laws we want protecting our own lives.

This is practicing the Golden Rule toward precious preborn babies, and it is our duty before God.

Friend, we are committed to the fight for equal protection for Texas babies, but we can’t do it alone. We need people like you to invest in this work and keep us on the frontlines of this battle as a strong voice for equal protection.

For life, for justice, and for the glory of God,

Bradley Pierce
President
Abolish Abortion Texas
Foundation to Abolish Abortion

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1. See Aiken, Abigail RA, Jennifer E. Starling, James G. Scott, and Rebecca Gomperts. “Requests for self-managed medication abortion provided using online telemedicine in 30 US states before and after the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.” JAMA 328, no. 17 (2022): 1768-1770. See also White, K., A. Dane’el, E. Vizcarra, L. Dixon, K. Lerma, A. Beasley, J. E. Potter, and T. Ogburn. “Out-of-state travel for abortion following implementation of Texas Senate Bill 8.” Tex Policy Eval Proj (2022).