Wyoming becomes the first state to ban abortion pills
The new law, which makes it illegal to “prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug” for performing an abortion, will take effect July 1.
Wyoming has become the first state to ban the prescription or use of abortion pills, signed into law on Friday by Republican Gov. Mark Gordon. The new law will take effect on July 1.
Gov. Gordon declined to veto the bill, which prompted the ban to automatically become law after it sat unsigned for three days without being returned to the state legislature for review. Included in the law is a provision making it illegal to “prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion.”
Morning-after pills, a contraceptive medication used shortly after intercourse but before a woman can confirm her pregnancy, are exempt from the ban. There also are exemptions when treatment is necessary to protect a woman “from an imminent peril that substantially endangers her life or health” or for a “natural miscarriage according to currently accepted medical guidelines.”
Vilolators will be subject to a criminal misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $9,000, although the woman “upon whom a chemical abortion is performed or attempted shall not be criminally prosecuted.”
Abortion proponents condemned the law.
“There’s no stone that anti-choice extremists will leave unturned as they seek to do everything they can to ensure that abortion is banned across the nation,” said Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “This first-of-its-kind ban on medication abortion, as well as the total ban, are just the latest proof.” Medication abortions, which typically consists of a two-pill regimen of mifepristone and another pill called misoprostol, make up half of all abortions in the U.S.
Related: California ends $54 million Walgreens deal over abortion pill
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Texas could rule soon in a case seeking to overturn FDA approval of a drug used in medication abortion. The lawsuit seeks to block access nationwide to mifepristone, the first of two drugs used in the process. If the lawsuit is successful, 40 million more women of reproductive age would lose access to the drug, according to NARAL.
The debate also is taking place on the national level. Nearly 20 Democratic U.S. senators recently called on Walgreens to provide more details about its recently announced plans to restrict access to abortion pills in certain states and pressing other major chains to make it clear where they stand on the issue.
Walgreens announced its earlier decision this month after it came under pressure from a group of Republican attorneys general who said in a letter that it could face legal consequences if it sold abortion medication in their states. The attorneys general sent similar letters to CVS, Rite Aid, Albertsons, Costco, Kroger and Walmart.
“I believe now more than ever that if the legislature seeks final resolution on this important issue, it ultimately may have to come through a constitutional amendment,” Gordon said in a letter to the Wyoming secretary of state.