Alabama could prosecute women who use abortion pills
Rachel Schilke
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Alabama women who use pills to induce abortions may face prosecution from the state, the state’s attorney general said.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned, Alabama’s Human Life Protection Act went into effect. It made it a felony for anyone in the state to perform an abortion unless the mother’s life is at risk, but it exempted the people receiving an abortion from liability.
However, state Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office said that women could face consequences under Alabama’s “chemical endangerment of child” statute if they use abortion pills.
“The Human Life Protection Act targets abortion providers, exempting women ‘upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed’ from liability under the law,” Marshall said in an emailed statement to the Washington Post on Wednesday.
“It does not provide an across-the-board exemption from all criminal laws, including the chemical-endangerment law — which the Alabama Supreme Court has affirmed and reaffirmed protects unborn children.”
Jessica Valenti reported on Jan. 9 that Marshall told an 1819 News reporter that using abortion pills is not exempt from other criminal laws, such as the endangerment law.
FDA TO ALLOW RETAIL PHARMACIES TO OFFER ABORTION PILLS
The chemical endangerment law was passed in 2006 to protect children from home-based methamphetamine labs. Prosecutors began using it against women who were using drugs, such as marijuana, on the basis that it could potentially harm a fetus, according to a September 2022 Washington Post report.
On Jan. 4, the Food and Drug Administration ruled that it would allow retail pharmacies to carry abortion pills for women who have a prescription. The pill, mifepristone, is used with misoprostol to end a pregnancy. Previously, the FDA only allowed prescribed abortion medication to be distributed at clinics, hospitals, medical offices, or under a health provider’s supervision.
Some states have already taken preventive measures against the abortion pills. In Tennessee, doctors must be physically present for the administration of abortion medication, and the state outlaws mailing the drug or allowing pharmacists to dispense it. An Indiana law bans abortion medication after 10 weeks of pregnancy, and Texas has banned it after seven weeks.
Marshall said the FDA’s ruling on abortion pills in pharmacies will not affect Alabama, saying that people who prescribe the pills should be on their guard.
“Elective abortion — including abortion pills — is illegal in Alabama. Nothing about the Justice Department’s guidance changes that,” he said. “Anyone who remotely prescribes abortion pills in Alabama does so at their own peril: I will vigorously enforce Alabama law to protect unborn life.”
Pregnancy Justice, an organization fighting to decriminalize abortion, tweeted a statement in response to Marshall’s comments.
https://twitter.com/PregnancyJust/status/1612530788536295573
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“When we say prosecutors have no shortage of laws to prosecute abortion, this is exactly what we mean,” the organization tweeted.
“The AG of Alabama, the state that prosecutes more pregnant people than any other, has admitted that existing law can be used to prosecute people who take abortion pills.”