Once a bill was signed into law by the governor, Wyoming became the first American state to outlaw the distribution and prescription of abortion drugs.
The violation carries a possible 6-month prison sentence and a $9,000 fine.
Any woman “upon whom a chemical abortion is performed or attempted” will not face criminal charges.
A Texas court was deliberating a case that may essentially ban a common abortion medication across the country as Mark Gordon signed the bill on Friday.
In the United States, terminating a pregnancy with medication is the norm.
It is now unlawful in Wyoming to “prescribe, administer, distribute, sell or utilize any medicine for the purpose of procuring or conducting an abortion,” per a bill enacted earlier this month by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature.
On July 1st, the new regulation will go into effect.
Morning-after medications and other treatments to save a woman’s life are not included.
A natural miscarriage that occurs “in accordance with generally acknowledged medical criteria” is likewise excluded.
According to Wyoming ACLU advocacy director Antonio Serrano, “a person’s health, not politics, should govern vital medical decisions – including the decision to have an abortion.” Serrano was critical of the bill since it would restrict women’s access to safe and legal abortions.
Women’s Health & Family Care Clinic in Jackson is Wyoming’s lone abortion facility.
Sara Sadhwani also tweets about the ban on abortion pills:
Wyoming is supposed to be the “Equality State” for being the first to grant women the right to vote.
Time for a new slogan Wyoming.
via @NYTimes https://t.co/VP7L3mmj49
— sara sadhwani (@sarasadhwani) March 18, 2023
Wyoming Has A Protracted Struggle to Fight
With the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade being overturned, the state is only one of many where legal battles are still ongoing over abortion laws.
Almost a dozen states have passed whole or near-total abortion restrictions, and several of them have been temporarily blocked by the courts.
Mr. Gordon, a Republican, has also stated that he will sign a separate, broader bill banning abortion except in limited instances if it passes the legislature and the Senate on Sunday. Challenges to both this and the abortion pill ban are possible in the courts. When a more extensive prohibition might be implemented is unclear.
Still, other jurisdictions have instituted regulations on abortion pills, such as mandating doctor visits prior to pill purchase.
Meanwhile, in Texas, Trump nominee Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is scheduled to decide soon on whether the sale of the abortion medication mifepristone should be legalized, which could have far-reaching consequences for women’s access to abortion across the country.
Because of its convenience, mifepristone is used in more than half of all abortions in the United States.
A Texas anti-abortion group has asked a judge to rule on their claim that the FDA, which must approve drugs in the United States, never conducted adequate safety testing of the medication in question.
The administration of Vice President Joe Biden has suggested that scientific evidence is sufficient to justify the legalization of mifepristone.
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