The latest work-around for abortion docs.: into can’t come right out and tell his patients to obtain the ulcer drug misoprostol—or its brand-name variant, Cytotec—but he doesn’t have to. It is common knowledge in the Valley that misoprostol induces miscarriages. And it’s readily available: If you have a passport, you can walk over the border and buy the drug from a Mexican pharmacy without a prescription.
If you can’t cross the border, you can buy black-market pills from bustling flea markets or dusty fortune tellers’ shops.
And if the drugs don’t cause a complete miscarriage, Minto lets his patients know that they can come back for “miscarriage management.” Minto estimates that he has seen over 200 patients since the law went into effect, about 100 of whom have returned to resolve miscarriages with a legal outpatient procedure known as a dilation and curettage or D&C.