Mississippi House passes bill to outlaw mail-order abortion pill

A Mississippi bill classifying distribution of the abortion pill regimen as felony drug trafficking passed the state House on February 11 and will now head to the Senate for consideration.

Key Takeaways:

• An amendment to HB 1613 would prohibit the "creating, distributing, dispensing, prescribing, or possessing with intent" of abortion-inducing drugs without an in-person physical examination.

• Nearly all preborn children are protected from abortion by Mississippi law; the in-person physical examination requirement allows distribution of the abortion pill drugs for reasons other than abortion (such as miscarriage care).

• The legislation would help protect women from predatory men who secure the drugs and then use them to coerce or force abortions.

The Details:

According to the Mississippi Free Press, House Bill 1613's initial intent "was to clarify under the law that a person possessing 200 or more grams of illegal drugs would constitute an aggravated drug trafficking charge." An amendment to the bill added “abortion-inducing drugs,” to the list of illegal drugs.

The amendment's inclusion will mean that any abortionist who provides or distributes the abortion pill regimen of mifepristone and/or misoprostol without first offering an in-person physical examination will be guilty of a felony drug trafficking charge. “So, that creating, distributing, dispensing, prescribing, or possessing with intent, is treated like other illegal drug content with a clear penalty,” explained Rep. Celeste Hurst, the amendment's author.

The in-person doctor visit requirement is meant to ensure that mifepristone and misoprostol are still available for other uses, as they can be prescribed for miscarriage management. Mississippi law protects nearly all preborn children from abortion, so a doctor would not be able to legally prescribe the abortion pill for reasons of abortion, even if an in-person visit were first conducted.

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“Right now, it’s being mailed out without any doctor oversight and without any age verification whatsoever — they’re not even verifying if the person they’re communicating with via form is a woman,” Hurst said.

The legislation passed the House with a vote of 77 to 39, and next heads to the Senate for consideration.

Zoom In:

Mississippi lawmakers are not alone in working to curtail the flow of illegal abortion pills into their state. In the past several weeks, Iowa, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Indiana have all advanced legislation in an attempt to stop the flow of mail-order abortion pills into their states in one way or another.

In defending the amendment, Hurst explained that without an in-person examination, there is no way for an abortionist to know exactly who they are sending the abortion pills to.

“They’re coming in from out of state without a physician’s oversight. They’re being shipped in. You could go on, as a man, and get this drug by just filling out a form,” she said during debate on the legislation.

This, unfortunately, is a scenario that is happening with alarming frequency. Since the Biden administration repealed the requirement for the abortion pill be distributed in-person, predatory and abusive men have taken advantage of the opportunity to secure these pills and then use them to coerce or force women into aborting their preborn children.

Many of these stories can be found here.

The Bottom Line:

The abortion pill is not only deadly to preborn children, but has been found to be dangerous to women, too. Allowing the abortion pill to flood states will not help women or preborn children; it only helps the abortion industry.