My pregnant friend is being harassed by one of her family members online. What kind of action can be taken?

[LiquidAves]

My friend is married, and is expecting her first child soon. She has a relative who has always been negative, and always would go out of their way to insult her. This always caused her a lot of stress. So she asked the relative to stop treating her so poorly. This relative went into a verbal rage, and said things that were just appalling and disgusting. Things you should never say to a family member. So my friend said that she did not wish for this person to contact her anymore. My friend's doctor has told her that she should not be under any stress during this pregnancy, so she had to break of contact for the sake of her baby's health. She is at high risk for delivering too early.
Well, a few months have passed and this relative said they wanted to apologize, but had no way to contact her (since my friend had blocked this person from every social networking site). The person managed to get her email address. Taunting her about the abuse she suffered as a child, then telling her that she was crazy and made up abuse allegations to manipulate people into being her friend. My friend never told the world about what happened to her. She only told her husband and 2 close friends (myself included). We have never told anyone about any of it, because she didn't want everyone to know. She has anxiety issues because of past traumatic events in her life, and she has dealt with a great deal of it with the help of her husband and therapy.

Well, needless to say, this relative knew that stress would cause harm to her baby. This relative knew that her baby is at high risk of premature delivery. They chose to do this to hurt her. This person is known to do things like this to other members of her family. The person gets off on causing emotional and psychological pain.
My friend was too sick to go to school today (finishing up college degree stuff). She has been so distraught that she is scared to check her email, she is scare to turn her phone on and she has been puking and suffering from migraines ever since this happened 5 days ago. She even lost 3lbs, which is not good for her unborn child. My friend and her husband are very upset. Her husband is worried about the baby and is having a hard time sleeping as well.

Now that you have the back story, can anyone let me know if there are laws against harassing someone via email? This relative lives in a different state, so I do not know what can be done.
I know you can block people on sites like facebook. She took those actions. She specified that she did not want to be contacted by this person.
- Like I said in the question, my friend had blocked her relative from all social networking sites. We know how to block, I wanted to know what LEGAL actions could be taken. This relative will create new accounts just to be harassing.

-THANKS FOR THE AVVO.COM link! I gave it to my friend!
Actually ,I did not overstep my boundaries. She is at my house right now (we have dinner every Monday). I have known her since I was 2 years old. She and I were talking about this, and since it is late and law offices in town are closed, I said "I can see if there is a lawyer floating around on Yahoo answers" and she said "Let's do that." She was sitting here while I typed up the question. She is sitting here with me reading your answer. So, in response to your question, no boundaries were overstepped. Being friends since we were toddlers, and the fact that she lived with my family for 7 years (age 11-18) because of the neglect she endured makes us pretty close. We may not share DNA, but we are more like family to each other, than her own family that is for sure.