People who distribute, or intend to distribute, an abortion-inducing drug in Mississippi could face criminal charges and up to 10 years in prison if convicted, under a bill lawmakers are sending to Republican Governor Tate Reeves.
Experts say decriminalization could land desperate Mississippians in jail scare the doctors Prescribing these drugs in clinical settings for non-abortion purposes, such as stopping postpartum hemorrhage and reducing abortion symptoms.
Lawmakers add ban on abortion-inducing drugs drug trafficking bill Which was passed 76-38 in the House and 37-15 in the Senate on Tuesday. Republicans control both houses.
“I think we’re going to trap a lot of people in the criminal justice system simply because they want autonomy over their own bodies,” said Rep. Zakiya Summers, Democrat of Jackson, who voted against the bill.
Rep. Celeste Hurst, a Republican from Sandhill, said she introduced the amendment to prevent abortion drugs like mifepristone and misoprostol from entering Mississippi.
“The intent is to prevent out-of-state doctors from circumventing our existing law,” Hurst told Mississippi Today.
But according to Mary Ziegler, an abortion law expert and professor at the University of California at Davis School of Law, Mississippi has virtually no way to prosecute providers who ship abortion pills at the state level. Ziegler told Mississippi Today that in states where abortion is legal, the laws protect abortion providers, patients and attendants from out-of-state investigations, lawsuits and prosecution.
“I think lawmakers are envisioning that this will be used primarily against doctors or drug manufacturers in blue states,” Ziegler said. “But it will be much more difficult for prosecutors to actually bring those people to court than it will be for them to catch someone whose partner has these drugs.”
What makes this law particularly harmful, Ziegler said, is its vagueness. The bill states that possession would only be criminalized if there was intent to distribute, but Ziegler hopes Mississippians who use the drugs for their own purposes could be prosecuted.
The language around clinical settings is also vague. The bill states that Mississippi providers would only be prosecuted if they prescribed abortion-inducing medications with the intent to cause an abortion, not in cases where those medications were prescribed to aid an abortion or stop bleeding. Despite this exemption, the bill is sure to have a devastating impact on health care, Ziegler said.
In both cases, Ziegler said, “there is differential intent, which is actually very difficult to prove.”
Such legislation is based primarily on the fact that abortion opponents are frustrated that abortions have increased in recent years, Ziegler said.
In 2022, the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in the Mississippi case overturned constitutional protections around the right to abortion. At the time, this was considered a major victory for the anti-abortion movement. But there is a contradiction in abortion increased throughout the country In the years since, this has largely been due to the increased accessibility of mail-in abortion medications.
“If that happens and then the number of abortions doesn’t go down then it’s a hollow statement for the state,” Ziegler said. “It’s like, what did you really achieve?”
Senator Daniel Sparks, a Republican from Belmont and one of six lawmakers who released the final details of the legislation, told Mississippi Today that he supported the amendment as a way to enforce Mississippi’s abortion ban.
“The state of Mississippi has been very clear about where they stand with their pro-life position,” Sparks said. “If people are avoiding it through the mail or through other mechanisms, I think we’re trying to stay compliant with the law.”
Senator Bradford Blackmon, a Democrat from Canton who voted against the bill, said mixing abortion pills with scheduled drugs is “outrageous”, “ridiculous” and “unnecessary” and allows the state to impose a prison sentence of one to 10 years for the crime. In the end, Blackmon said, it’s just going to hurt poor women.
“Wealthy Mississippians will still be able to go where they want to get an abortion,” Blackmon said.
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This story was originally published by mississippi today And distributed through a partnership with the Associated Press.
