Advertisers of mail-order pharmaceutical abortions received cease-and-desist letters.
On Tuesday, Tim Griffin, the attorney general for Arkansas, requested that Congress outlaw “abortion shield laws” in states where the operation is still permitted.
“These laws are blatant attempts to interfere with states’ ability to enforce criminal laws within their borders and disrupt our constitutional structure,” Griffin wrote in a letter co-signed by 15 other state attorneys general.
States that allow abortion have enacted legislation shielding abortionists from prosecution if they perform abortions on citizens of states that forbid the procedure or give abortion-inducing drugs to citizens of such states. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, numerous states, including Arkansas, either enacted new prohibitions or permitted dormant bans to reappear.
In jurisdictions where abortion is illegal, several of these shield laws specifically protect abortion physicians who prescribe and send abortion drugs to women, thwarting efforts by anti-abortion officials to bring charges against them.
The first time a provider has been charged with delivering abortion drugs over state borders, Louisiana charged Dr. Margaret Carpenter of New York with a felony earlier this year for prescribing and distributing abortion pills. However, Governor Kathy Hochul of New York declined to detain or extradite Carpenter.
Griffin said during a morning press conference in Little Rock that shield laws are similar to sanctuary laws for illegal immigrants, preventing individuals who disobey Arkansas’s complete abortion ban from being extradited to face criminal charges or punishment.
At the news conference on Tuesday, Griffin stated, “You’re going to protect them from the consequences of operating in your border in a way that violates our law, that specifically and openly flouts our law.”
Griffin stated that he thinks the action he is requesting from lawmakers is distinct from a federal abortion ban, which the sharply divided Congress has shown reluctant to address.
This is more about states upholding their own laws and a constitutional framework. According to Griffin, this is not about me upholding New York law or the other way around. It has to do with one state interfering with the application of another’s legislation.
However, Griffin recognized that requesting action and Congressional action on the issue were two distinct things. According to the Pew Research Center, popular opinion still favors abortion being legal in all or most situations, making it a weak topic for the GOP in the years since Roe was overruled. On the 2024 campaign trail, President Donald Trump declared he would veto a federal ban, but persistent victories in support of abortion access at the polling station came before several Republicans backed off from extreme language.
Additionally, on Tuesday, Griffin declared that he was sending cease-and-desist letters to two organizations that ship abortion pills within the United States as well as to two website companies that supply website services to LifeOnEasyPills.org, a website that ships abortion medication and that Griffin said his office thought was based in India.
Citing research that contend that mifepristone, a medication used in medication-induced abortions, is hazardous, he stated in the letters that website wording claiming abortion drugs are safe may be considered false advertising under state law.
According to Griffin, his agency may file a lawsuit against the organizations for breaking Arkansas’s legislation against deceptive trade practices if they continue to advertise abortion medicines there.
Since its initial FDA approval in 2000, mifepristone has been universally regarded by medical professionals as safe for use in abortions.
Whether any of the websites he targeted with the cease-and-desist letters had shipped pills to Arkansas was something Griffin would not confirm.
Griffin stated, “I believe I could say with certainty that these specific cease-and-desist orders relate to the advertising’s messaging.” We have other ongoing investigations and questions that have nothing to do with this.
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