It sounds like something from The Handmaid's Tale, but it's happening now: Police in the United States are using drug-sniffing dogs to intercept abortion pills in the mail, according to a recent investigation by The Intercept.
According to the report, in Jackson, Mississippi, a police officer and his K-9 partner were called to a post office after an employee reported someone putting pills into pink envelopes. The dog, Rip, alerted to one envelope, leading to a warrant to open it. Inside were abortion pills labeled "AntiPreg Kit."
The Intercept notes that these pills are not the type K-9s are trained to detect. Experts question why a police dog would alert on abortion medication. One theory is unconscious "cueing" by handlers, where dogs respond to subtle human behaviors rather than actual scents.
The investigation found that "nearly 100 pregnant people did not receive little pink packages containing the medicine they requested" due to this operation.
Previously:
• Drug sniffing dogs are barely better than a coin-toss
• Feds subject drug suspect to vaginal/anal probe, X-ray, CT Scan, without a warrant — find nothing
• White SC cops pull black passenger out of car, take turns publicly cavity-searching him
