US states say they don't know how to crack down on American women buying abortion pills from foreign online suppliers.
This year, nine US states with Republican-controlled legislatures passed new restrictions on abortions ranging from bans at six weeks to bans unless the mother's health is at risk.
In 2018, more than 20,000 US women sought the pills online from providers willing to defy US federal rules over sale of the drugs that induce miscarriage.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has imposed strict rules on distribution and use of abortion pills, but state pharmaceutical regulators said they have no effective way of tracking and policing online orders from foreign doctors and pharmacies.
Between March 2018 and March 2019, nearly 21,000 US women bought abortion pills - many of which are not FDA-approved - online from foreign doctors and pharmacies. Pictured: A pharmacist with pills of the drug Misoprostol in his hand at a pharmacy in Provo, Utah
One of the women who bought such pills online is Kayla, a 24-year-old Mississippi mother-of-two who terminated a pregnancy in January.
She and her husband decided they could neither afford to raise another child nor get an abortion at the nearest clinic in Memphis, Tennessee.
'I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have access to that,' said Kayla, who asked to be identified only by her first name. 'I would probably right now be six months pregnant and miserable. It was my lifesaver.'
Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in the US. Opponents cite religious beliefs about the sanctity of life, while abortion-rights activists say bans rob women of control over their bodies and futures.
Despite strict rules on selling abortion pills, pharmacy boards across the country say they have no way or reliably tracking online orders from foreign doctors.
'We would only know that if someone were to report it to us,' said Larry Hadley, executive director of the Kentucky Board of Pharmacy.
Pharmacy board officials in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio also
