ARLINGTON, Texas — If you were at Saturday’s Rangers game at Globe Life Field, you might've seen a plane fly past the stadium hours before the game with a banner that read "abortion pills by mail."
Pictures and videos of the banner quickly started to appear on social media, which is exactly what the group who put it there, Mayday Health, was hoping for.
"[Anti-abortion advocates] can try to ban clinics, and they have in many states, but they cannot ban free speech," the group's executive director, Olivia Raisner, told WFAA in an interview Sunday.
Mayday Health is an educational nonprofit.
"We want as many people as possible to know about abortion pills and how to get them by mail," Raisner said.
Raisner told WFAA her group paid to send the banner over Arlington to tell everyone attending the game that they can get pills shipped directly to their home, even in Texas, regardless of ZIP code.
Shipping abortion pills by mail is a felony in Texas. But several online groups will send them here, anyway, relying on what are known as 'shield laws,' Raisner explained.
"There are six states in the US where providers can provide and ship pills to people in states where abortion clinics are banned," she said.
States with shield laws essentially promise to protect licensed providers there who send abortion pills to people here. The laws are relatively new and strongly opposed by anti-abortion groups like Texas Alliance for Life.
"It’s very disappointing that an organization is marketing chemical abortion drugs to a broad audience in such a careless way," Texas Alliance for Life Communications Director Amy O'Donnell told WFAA in an interview Sunday.
Her group advocated to make shipping the pills in Texas a crime in the first place, and O'Donnell said they’re now looking at ways to combat shield laws as well.
"Now here we are in a post-Roe Texas and we’re seeing people try to circumvent our laws, and we’ll continue to do all we can to protect women and babies in Texas," O'Donnell said.
The banner over Globe Life was Mayday’s first of its kind, Raisner said, but as the fight over abortion access continues, Mayday plans to pay for flights over stadiums nationwide.
"Our mission is to make sure every person in a red state knows they can still get abortion pills by mail," Raisner said.