A bill in Iowa would ban mail-order abortion pills and require hospitals to report complications from medication abortions to the state.
Iowa Republicans on a Senate panel on Monday advanced the bill (SSB 3115), which would require providers to only dispense abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol in person, rather than through telehealth or by mail, Iowa Public Radio reported. The bill would allow providers who break the law to be sued “for all damages caused by the abortion-inducing drug suffered by” the woman who took the abortion pills, the father of the unborn baby, or the woman’s immediate family.
“This drug has virtually no restrictions and can be shipped through the mail directly to the woman’s home with no oversight or physical examination from a doctor,” said Maggie DeWitte, executive director of Pulse Life Advocates. “This bill would restore some of the initial safeguards, such as an in-person, physical examination by a physician.”
In 2021, under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed the in-person dispensing requirement for abortion pills and allowed them to be sent via mail. That action, combined with shield laws in blue states, has allowed abortionists and activist organizations to mail abortion pills into red states with laws protecting the unborn. The policy has also empowered abusers to get ahold of abortion pills to drug their partners or coerce their partners into medication abortions.
Pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) have contended that scrapping in-person requirements and other safety measures for abortion pills is necessary in order to increase access to abortions, especially in wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Roe had created the constitutional right to abortion for 50 years before the high court released its Dobbs decision in 2022, sending the issue back to states and their elected representatives.
The American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG) counters that relaxing regulations around mifepristone puts women at risk. Specifically, they warn a lack of in-person evaluation could put women at risk of having undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies or miscalculating how far along they are.
