Legislation filed on Tuesday would strengthen penalties for violating Arkansas laws concerning abortion-inducing drugs.
Currently, Arkansas law generally prohibits abortion except to save the life of the mother, and the state’s Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act, which passed in 2021, makes it a crime to mail or deliver drugs like RU-486 into Arkansas for purposes of abortion.
Last year Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin issued cease-and-desist letters to New York companies advertising abortion pills in Arkansas. The letters alleged the companies were violating Arkansas law, and the A.G.’s office later announced the advertisements for abortion pills stopped as a result of their cease-and-desist.
However, NPR reported last year that lawmakers in some pro-abortion states have enacted “shield laws” to protect abortionists who ship abortion drugs across state lines. The shield laws give abortionists immunity from civil or criminal liability and prevent them from being extradited to the state where the abortion drugs were sent.
H.B. 1678 by Rep. Wayne Long (R — Bradford) would amend Arkansas’ Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act to help address this problem. The bill would increase the penalty for selling or prescribing abortion-inducing drugs — making the crime a felony and levying a $50,000 fine against doctors, pharmacists, or other individuals who break the law.
The bill also would also make it easier to take a person to court for violating the Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act, and it would clarify that selling or prescribing illegal abortion drugs is considered a form of “deceptive trade” under Arkansas law.
All of this would provide additional options for enforcing Arkansas’ pro-life laws.
Abortion-inducing drugs take the life of an unborn child. They also carry significant health risks for women — including risks of sepsis and death. In some cases, abortion drugs actually can be more dangerous for women than surgical abortion procedures. That is why states like Arkansas have prohibited the delivery of abortion drugs from out of state.
H.B. 1678 would help tighten state restrictions on abortion drugs — which would provide better protection for women and unborn children in Arkansas.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
