Iowa House panel advances bill to outlaw mail-order abortion drugs

Lawmakers in an Iowa House subcommittee advanced a bill on Tuesday that would make it illegal to mail abortion-inducing drugs, including the abortion pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol, into the state.

Key Takeaways:

House File 2563 would make it illegal to distribute abortion-inducing drugs by mail in Iowa.
The bill passed a House subcommittee on Tuesday.
The bill includes a requirement that the Department of Health and Human Services put information about "abortion pill reversal" on its website, but some want this provision removed.

The Details:

House File 2563 would outlaw mail-order abortion pill distribution and require that abortion pills only be distributed in-person by a licensed physician.

The bill specifically prohibits the mailing of "abortion-inducing drugs" which it defines as mifepristone, misoprostol (together known as the abortion pill), or "Any other drug, measure, or chemical approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration when prescribed or administered with the intent to terminate the pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant. 'Abortion inducing drug' includes off-label use of a drug known to have abortion-inducing properties, which is prescribed with the intent of causing an abortion."

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Currently, the legislation also includes a requirement that the Department of Health and Human Services offer information about "abortion pill reversal" on its website, though some lawmakers are pushing for an amendment to remove that section.

"Abortion pill reversal" consists of the administration of bioidentical progesterone (a hormone necessary to sustain a pregnancy) in an attempt to outcompete the progesterone-blocking effects of mifepristone.

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This is the second bill regarding abortion pill distribution that Iowa lawmakers are considering this session. A similar bill passed through committee earlier this year, but failed to come up for floor debate.

The bill passed a House Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday, and next heads to a committee meeting.

Commentary:

Lori Stiles, an ultrasound technologist, testified in favor of the legislation, noting that in her experience, many women are completely unprepared for the reality of what the abortion pill does.

“I cannot tell you how many women I saw — middle of the night, callbacks, or any other time of the day — who had used an abortion pill and were absolutely blindsided at how it played out,” Stiles said according to News From the States. “… I have seen that, and I applaud the informed consent part of this for sure, because those women were absolutely not informed.”

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Ryan Benn of The Family Leader also spoke of the importance of the legislation, noting the lack of oversight occurring with mail-order abortion pills.

“Since the Dobbs decision and the passage of Iowa’s heartbeat law, the abortion industry has developed a network of abortion drug dealers to operate outside of the medical system," Benn said. "They’ll provide abortion drugs to anyone for little or no fee. Boyfriends who don’t want to be a dad, human traffickers who stand with his money, literally anyone can get these pills."

The Bottom Line:

All women deserve to be protected from injury, harm, and coercive or forced abortions — all of which have risen with the implementation of mail-order abortion pills.

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