After the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, red states raced to restrict abortion, as Florida did yesterday with a new ban after six weeks of pregnancy. It was reasonable to expect the number of abortions in the U.S. to decline. Instead, it appears to have risen slightly. Why? One factor is pills prescribed online, which now make up one in six abortions.
The dynamic encapsulates a broader trend: The combination of a relatively new technology (the web) and an old one (the mail) has made it easier for Americans to bypass laws that they don’t like.
It’s true about abortion but also other issues, some of which liberals and conservatives see very differently. Drugmakers in China and India often ship the narcotic fentanyl and its ingredients to the U.S. Gun owners assemble untraceable firearms, known as ghost guns, from parts ordered online or made with 3-D printers, another relatively new technology.
Today’s newsletter will cover some of the ways that technology has outpaced the law.
Broader trend
People have embraced these new workarounds. Nearly two-thirds of abortions are carried out with pills (most still from in-person clinics), up from a little more than half in 2020. Fentanyl’s spread has caused overdose deaths to more than double in the U.S. since 2014. The number of ghost guns seized at crime scenes increased more than tenfold from 2016 to 2021.
Officials have enacted measures to stop shipments of abortion pills, fentanyl and ghost gun parts. They have a few tools to inspect the mail, like drug-sniffing dogs and X-ray machines. But they simply don’t have the time or resources to sift through the hundreds of millions of letters, packages and other mail delivered each day.
With abortion pills, states face another hurdle: The federal government runs the U.S. Postal Service and regulates the mail, so states can’t intercept letters or packages on their own. And while the Biden administration wants to control the supply of fentanyl and ghost guns, it has supported access to abortion pills through the mail. (A future administration could take a different approach.)
States with abortion bans could try to get around federal oversight by going after the people sending the mail. But other states have made that difficult by enacting legal protections for abortion providers who ship pills to other states.
Uneven access
New technologies can help Americans get around a restriction, but that doesn’t make the law toothless. Some can’t evade it. Women without much access to the internet or other resources might struggle to get an abortion pill and carry more births to term. Those who can easily get pills online might find abortion more accessible than ever.
Florida’s six-week abortion ban could offer an example of the unequal effects. Until yesterday, the state was among the least restrictive in the Southeast. So women from across the region traveled there, as my colleague Margot Sanger-Katz, who covers health care policy, told me. Now, women in Florida and across the South will have to travel much farther (as these maps show).
Some of those women won’t be able to take time off work or pay for a trip hundreds of miles away to get an abortion in person. And they might not have internet access, a reliable home address or the knowledge to order pills online.
Yet for others, an abortion is now just a few clicks away. And as more groups work to offer the pills at lower prices, more women may gain access. In that scenario, the total number of abortions could continue to increase.
For more
Arizona lawmakers voted to repeal an 1864 law that imposed a near-total ban on abortions. Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill today.
In Florida, Vice President Kamala Harris said that a Donald Trump win would mean “more bans, more suffering, less freedom.”
THE LATEST NEWS
Campus Protests
The police briefly entered a pro-Palestinian encampment at U.C.L.A, hours after they ordered protesters to leave or face arrest. Follow live updates.
Student protesters have linked the Palestinian cause to broader struggles involving policing, discrimination and global warming.
Many of the protesters mask their faces with scarves. University leaders worry that could make it easier for outsiders to infiltrate campuses.
Columbia and Brown chose different paths to end the student protests, but neither seems likely to agree to demands to divest from Israel.
President Biden will speak about antisemitism at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum next week.
War in Gaza
Gustavo Petro, the leftist president of the country Colombia, called Israel’s government “genocidal” and said he would sever diplomatic ties.
Israeli settlers attacked aid trucks headed to Gaza from Jordan, according to Jordanian officials.
The U.S. wants to focus on a cease-fire and on rebuilding Gaza, while Israel pushes for a new offensive.
Congress
Marjorie Taylor Greene said she would demand a vote next week to unseat Speaker Mike Johnson. Democrats have pledged to protect him.
Senate Democrats reintroduced legislation that would legalize marijuana. It is unlikely to pass with Republicans in control of the House.
More on Politics
Biden canceled $6 billion in student debt for 317,000 people who attended the Art Institutes, a defunct for-profit college network.
In Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy proceedings, his financial disclosures have been incomplete and inaccurate. His creditors want to know if he’s hiding money.
As a senator, Biden never faced serious threats to his re-election. His final campaign could be the opposite, Reid Epstein writes.
International
A drought has made cattle farming in the Amazon more difficult. Some companies hope reforestation projects will offer communities a lifeline.
The Biden administration imposed sanctions on Chinese companies that it said had helped Russia restock military equipment in Ukraine.
Days of heavy rain in southern China led to the collapse of an expressway, killing 36 people.
The Solomon Islands has a new prime minister. The nation is at the center of power rivalry in the Pacific, The Washington Post reports.
Other Big Stories
Manhattan prosecutors said they would retry Harvey Weinstein on sex crime charges after a court overturned his conviction.
The United Methodist Church reversed a ban on ordaining gay clergy and will allow L.G.B.T.Q. weddings.
The Fed left interest rates unchanged, and Jerome Powell, the central bank’s chair, signaled rate cuts might not happen soon because of continuing inflation.
China’s government announced that it would send two giant pandas — Yun Chuan and Xin Bao — to the San Diego Zoo.
Opinions
Universities must protect student activism — but only until it infringes on other students’ rights, David French says in The Opinions.
Antiwar protesters’ vandalism is a bad way to support a good cause, Nicholas Kristof argues.
Gardens can be evil or good: We need gardens that cool cities and provide a corridor for wildlife, Olivia Laing writes.
Here is a column by Charles Blow on a microaggression toward Kamala Harris.
MORNING READS
Roll up: Black roller skaters from around America are bringing their regional styles to Atlanta’s rinks.
New Jersey: The most decorated battleship in U.S. history gets an overdue face-lift.
Third Wheel: A Times dating columnist explores whether pictures of an ex should be removed from your Instagram account.
Next trip: Spend 36 hours in Minneapolis.
Lives Lived: Olga Fikotova Connolly won a gold medal in track and field for Czechoslovakia in the 1956 Olympics and watched Harold Connolly of the U.S. win one the next day. They married in 1957 in a Cold War romance that breached the iron curtain. She died at 91.
SPORTS
Basketball: In an interview with The Times Magazine, Brittney Griner discussed her time in Russian prison and her path to recovery.
N.B.A.: Both the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics routed playoff opponents. The Mavericks took a 3-2 series lead over the Los Angeles Clippers, while the Celtics eliminated the Miami Heat.
M.L.B.: The league suspended four players involved in a brawl between the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays.
ARTS AND IDEAS
Gustavo Dudamel, the maestro and next music director of the New York Philharmonic, has vowed to expand the orchestra’s presence in schools, as he did during his time with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He recently led 95 high school musicians for a week of rehearsals, which culminated with a concert. “It’s crazy to think that I’m up here playing with him,” Olivia Okin, a percussion player from Staten Island, said.
More on culture
The artist Jonathan Yeo is about to unveil a portrait of Charles III, the first large-scale painting of the king since he became monarch.
The Athletic’s Hannah Vanbiber needed a hat for the Kentucky Derby. She visited the woman behind the event’s most coveted headwear.
Beyoncé, with her album “Cowboy Carter,” has mainstreamed country styling and defined the look of the moment, Vanessa Friedman writes.
Duane Eddy, a virtuoso who influenced a generation of guitarists with his rock ’n’ roll twang, died at 86.
The late-night hosts mocked Trump for appearing to fall asleep in court.
THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …
Serve oven-roasted chicken shawarma with pita and tahini.
Find relief during allergy season.
Bring a hammock to the park.
Pick a good online flower delivery service.
GAMES
Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was conclude and concluded.
And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.
Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German
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