Texas GOP Wants to Ban Websites With Abortion Info, Reclassify Abortion Pills

Texas’ legislative session doesn’t start until January. But Republicans are frothing at the mouth to make abortion somehow even less accessible. Last week, lawmakers filed two key anti-abortion bills: one inspired by Louisiana’s law that reclassifies the pills as dangerous “controlled substances” without any basis, except to further restrict them, and another that would ban internet providers from hosting the websites of abortion funds or sites that offer any information on abortion, including abortion pills. Mind you, this is a state that already imposes a total ban that threatens abortion providers with life in prison.

In October, Louisiana became the first state to criminalize mifepristone and misoprostol, the two most common medication abortion pills, through a new law that reclassifies them as a Schedule IV drug. (This ignores how a substance must be addictive to be classified as such.) Anyone who possesses the medications without a prescription could face prison time. The law offers an exception for pregnant people who are about to use the pills to end a pregnancy—but as one legal expert warned Jezebel, the process to determine this would be “incredibly invasive and intrusive,” if not impossible.

Texas’ pre-filed version of Louisiana’s bill currently offers little detail into who would or wouldn’t be criminalized. It also doesn’t specify the new restrictions on abortion pills if they’re reclassified—only that medication abortion would become a Schedule IV drug under the Texas Controlled Substances Act. Under that law, possession of some controlled substances is punishable with prison time.

Louisiana’s law reclassifying mifepristone and misoprostol has predictably been a disaster, as hospitals struggle to both follow the law and be prepared for emergency pregnancy complications like postpartum hemorrhage, which requires instant access to misoprostol. (Under the reclassification, a doctor would need to call in a prescription in order to access the medication.) Anti-abortion lawmakers are increasingly, falsely equating medication abortion with deadly narcotics like fentanyl, even as all data shows abortion pills are highly safe. Texas is the first state to copy Louisiana’s law, but it won’t be the last.

Texas Republicans also introduced the “Women and Child Safety Act,” a 41-page bill that would allow citizens to sue internet service providers for at least $10,000 if they host pro-abortion rights websites. The bill seems modeled, in part, after Texas’ SB 8, the state’s six-week abortion ban from 2021 that’s enforced by civil lawsuits. Eerily enough, the new Texas bill specifically identifies abortion funds and websites that offer information on abortion pills. It names sites like Plan C Pills, Aid Access, and Hey Jane, which help people get medication abortion by mail.

Earlier this month, I spoke to Plan C Pills’ Elisa Wells, who told me the website went from receiving about 500 visits per day to 82,000 the day after the election. Trump’s second presidency throws abortion access—particularly through abortion pills—in jeopardy: Project 2025, an agenda written by the far-right Heritage Foundation and some of his former advisers, outlines how Trump’s FDA can revoke approval of abortion pills. It also outlines how Trump’s Justice Department could enforce the Comstock Act of 1873 to ban mailing abortion pills or abortion-related supplies in any state.

Plan C Pills is trying to get the word out that people who can become pregnant should buy the pills in advance as soon as possible while they still can. But this has been challenging due to censorship, primarily from social media companies. Bills like Texas’ could make public education about abortion pills—at a time when this information is more crucial than ever—almost impossible.

Texas’ proposed Women and Child Safety Act is also similar to the federal KOSA (the Kids Online Safety Act) bill, which claims to protect children on the internet, but could instead be used by anti-abortion attorneys-general to block online abortion information. Texas and South Carolina both unsuccessfully considered bills to ban internet providers from hosting websites with abortion information last year. Whether it’s attacks on internet providers, baseless lawsuits against abortion funds, or laws criminalizing the mere act of helping a minor learn about out-of-state abortion, censorship is a core piece of the anti-abortion movement’s post-Roe v. Wade operation. Clearly, anti-abortion leaders are no longer only trying to ban abortion on the state level, they’re trying to stop people from having access to abortion information, everywhere.