Las Libres, a 21 year-old pro-abortion organization based in Guanajuato, Mexico, revealed plans of sending misoprostol and mifepristone by mail to Texas in an effort to undermine the state's pro-life laws.
CBN News said Las Libres Founder Veronica Cruz divulged that they have already began with their plans during an interview with The New York Times even in the face of stricter pro-life laws in place in Texas.
Texas Senate Bill 4 took effect this month after being signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in September. Senate Bill 4 tightens the use of abortion pills by prohibiting medical professionals from prescribing it to pregnant women due to the "significant medical complications" that arise from its use. Texas Senate Bill 1 or Heartbeat Act, on the other hand, came into effect on September 1, weeks before SB4.
Violators of SB4 face a state jail felony and a $10,000 fine since the life of women are placed "at risk" through the use of the abortion pills misoprostol and mifepristone, also known as under the brand name Mifeprex. But Cruz, known for her civil disobedience in Mexico, announced she was not afraid of the legal consequences of her plans.
"We aren't afraid. We are willing to face criminalization, because women's lives matter more than their law," Cruz said.
Cruz pointed out that she was willing to cross the border and hand out the abortion pills to Texans wishing to terminate their pregnancies. Cruz, whose group Las Libres' thrust is allegedly "defending the human rights of women," labeled Texas' pro-life laws as a human rights violation.
"If that's the only way that people will become conscious that what the government is doing is a major violation of human rights then yes," Cruz stressed.
Accordingly, Las Libres' goal is to make every woman an advocate of abortion that could be done in the privacy of one's home using abortion pills. Cruz's organization urges women to pass on unused portions of their abortion pills to others and to act as a guide on how to conduct the abortion.
Some legal experts say that the United States Food and Drug Administration's new policy in the use of misoprostol and Mifeprex would add pressure to states banning its use and would provide such efforts as that of Las Libres a way to circumvent it.
The FDA legalized abortion by mail on December 16 by allowing Mifeprex and misoprostol "to end a pregnancy 70 days gestation" even without in-person consultation - a policy that the agency enforced during the height of the pandemic. Former President Donald Trump successfully appealed to the Supreme Court to have this policy removed, but the Biden administration reinstated it.
Texas Right To Life Legislative Director John Seago raised that Cruz' plans pose a danger in the effective implementation of SB4 to protect the lives of women.
"This is a really terrible, lawless attack on life, (they will) make it absolutely more difficult to do it, to enforce these laws," Seago said.
Texas Alliance For Life Executive Director Joe Pojman agreed on the importance of SB4 in protecting women and expressed hopes the law would be implemented accordingly.
"For the first time, Texas does have a way to protect women, through our criminal law, from people bringing dangerous abortion pills. We'll have to wait to see how well it is enforced in the coming months," Pojman said.
Previously, pro-life giant Charlotte Lozier Institute rebuked claims of pro-choice activists that abortion pills sent by mail would save the lives of women. The Charlotte Lozier Institute pointed to scientific truths that in-person counseling remains the best option of safeguarding "women's health and safety."
The organization highlighted that "large-scale, peer-reviewed studies show chemical abortion is at least four times riskier for women than surgical abortion."
