Imani Gandy, an editor at the radically pro-abortion outlet Rewire News, offered tips this week on how people can apparently be “righteous criminals” by subverting state abortion restrictions and aiding women in getting abortions.
“If you’re going to help your friends in abortion hostile states obtain abortion pills, for the love of the old gods and the new, DO NOT DO IT OVER IMESSAGE OR FB [Facebook] OR INSTA[gram],” she tweeted. She added that followers should “get a burner phone. use library computers. please stop doing criminal sh*t in a way that you’ll get got.”
In a follow-up tweet, she said, “[Y]ou have to think like criminals because that’s what you are. Righteous criminals, sure. But criminals nonetheless. So please do your criminal activity in a way that is discrete.”
you have to think like criminals because that's what you are. Righteous criminals, sure. But criminals nonetheless. So please do your criminal activity in a way that is discrete.
PLEASE.
— ?? Imani Gandy ?? (@AngryBlackLady) March 13, 2023
A man in Texas recently filed a lawsuit against three friends of his former wife who aided her in aborting his preborn child. The four women communicated about the abortion largely through text messages that are now being used in the lawsuit. In August, a mother and her teenage daughter were arrested in Nebraska after the mother gave her daughter abortion pills at 24 weeks — beyond the legal gestational age for an abortion in the state at the time. They then burned and buried the baby. Facebook messages between the two revealed details of the crime.
A bio on the All American Speakers Bureau describes Gandy as a “recovering lawyer” who received her law degree from the University of Virginia. It’s unclear if she is still licensed but she appears to have received plenty of accolades from pro-abortion groups.
She currently co-hosts the “Boom! Lawyered” podcast which discusses “the latest legal battles in the fight for reproductive justice.” Her tweets come at an important time for the abortion pill regimen (mifepristone and misoprostol), which has been viewed as a more covert alternative for women and human traffickers facing broader restrictions on abortion.
The abortion pill regimen posed threats to women’s health even before the FDA’s decision to drop the in-person dispensing requirement. Dispensing them illegally and without proper medical oversight is incredibly irresponsible and, based on pro-life doctors’ comments, could be fatal.
According to the Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in-person medical visits can help ensure the detection of potentially life-threatening ectopic pregnancies, as well as determine whether a woman should take RhoGam, a medication for Rh-negative women to prevent Rh isoimmunization, a reaction that can cause harm to even future preborn children. It can also help women accurately determine their gestational age, which is key for a method that the FDA says is used “to end a pregnancy through ten weeks gestation.” About six percent of women who take the abortion pill will require a visit to the emergency room or urgent care.
Gandy appeared to acknowledge the danger in illegally taking the pill, noting: “And again if you take abortion pills and end up in the hospital and healthcare workers ask you what you took, YOU DON’T HAVE TO TELL THEM. DO NOT TELL THEM.” This leaves doctors without vital information in regard to the woman’s health, and creates inaccuracies in the reporting of abortion complications.
And again if you take abortion pills and end up in the hospital and healthcare workers ask you what you took, YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL THEM. DO NOT TELL THEM.
— ?? Imani Gandy ?? (@AngryBlackLady) March 13, 2023
A dozen states have passed laws protecting most preborn children from abortion, with others applying various restrictions. Mailing the pill is also prohibited under the federal Comstock Act, which many pro-life attorneys general cited in a letter to Walgreens last month. In it, the AGs denounced the Justice Department’s “bizarre interpretation” of Comstock as only applying to situations where the mailer intends to commit a crime by sending the abortion pill.
The post-Roe legal environment has created uncertainty for the abortion pill as a host of lawsuits have challenged rules surrounding its availability.
In January, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finalized a rule allowing retail pharmacies to dispense the drug but more recently, pro-abortion attorneys general sued, alleging that the rule was overly restrictive. Meanwhile, lawsuits in West Virginia and North Carolina have attempted to argue that the FDA’s regulation of the abortion pill has ensured access despite state restrictions on the practice. And a lawsuit in Texas could end mifepristone (abortion pill) access if a judge rules that the FDA erred in its initial approval of the drug.
The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute said in February that “[a]bout 10% of all US counties have an abortion provider that offers either procedural or medication abortion, or both.”
