On Friday, Family Council sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas respectfully asking the office to enforce federal law as it applies to mail-order abortion drugs.
Arkansas law generally prohibits abortion except to save the life of the mother, and it is a crime for an abortionist to mail abortion drugs like RU-486 into the state.
But under President Biden, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration loosened its safety protocols to allow mail-order abortion drugs. Pro-abortion states have also enacted “shield laws” for abortionists who mail abortion drugs into states like Arkansas.
All of that has created a dangerous industry of mail-order abortion in Arkansas and across the nation.
However, the federal Comstock Act of 1873 makes it a crime to mail “every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.” Family Council’s letter to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas argues that the federal Comstock Act should prevent abortionists in other states from mailing abortion drugs into Arkansas in violation of state law.
The letter says:
“Since the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization returned abortion policy to the states, a disturbing workaround has emerged: the mass mailing of mifepristone directly to patients across state lines, including into states where the people’s elected representatives have enacted strong protections for unborn children.
“Arkansas Code Annotated §§ 5-61-304 and 5-61-404 prohibit abortion except to save the life of the pregnant woman in a medical emergency, and Arkansas Code Annotated § 20-16-1504 says it is unlawful for ‘any manufacturer, supplier, physician, or any other person to provide any abortion-inducing drug via courier, delivery, or mail service.’ The Arkansas General Assembly enacted these laws via the legislative process. However, Aid Access, Plan C, and a constellation of other organizations openly advertise the shipment of mifepristone into states where abortion is restricted or prohibited. This is not a secret operation. It is a deliberate, coordinated effort to circumvent the democratic decisions of states like Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and others that have enacted protections for the unborn. These providers are not merely skirting state law; they are willfully violating federal law.”
Family Council has also recently joined amicus briefs in federal court arguing that mail-order abortion drugs violate the Comstock Act.
Abortion drugs should not be available at all — much less through the mail.
We now know drugs like mifepristone and misoprostol are much more dangerous than the FDA originally thought.
A recent study by the experts at the Ethics and Public Policy Center found nearly 11% of women experienced serious health complications from abortion pills — including sepsis, infection, and life-threatening hemorrhage.
These drugs hurt women and end the lives of unborn children. That’s why we hope our federal officials will take the necessary steps to stop the flow of dangerous abortion drugs across state lines.
You can read the entire letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office here.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
