Most undocumented immigrants in Arizona either can’t afford private health insurance or don’t qualify for state insurance programs for low-income families. As a result, many seek alternative ways of meeting their health care needs by tapping into an underground market for medications, including birth control pills.

Maria (who declined to give her last name), buys Mexican-made birth control pills without a prescription from the local Yerberia (herbal medicine shop) where she also works. On other occasions, she gets the pills from her mother who buys them in Mexico and brings them back across the border.