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.
The Iowa bill would additionally require doctors to inform women seeking medication abortion about “abortion pill reversal,” and would also require hospitals to report medication abortion complications to the state. The reporting requirement would combat the FDA’s 2016 action removing a requirement for abortion pill prescribers to report serious adverse events other than deaths.
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In Iowa, most abortions are restricted after cardiac activity is detected, which usually happens around six weeks of pregnancy.
“In-state dispensing of abortion pills is highly regulated, with patients required to have an ultrasound at least 24 hours before receiving abortion-inducing drugs,” according to the report.
In 2023, medication abortions accounted for 63 percent of all abortions within the formal U.S. healthcare system — meaning an estimated 642,700 unborn babies died in medication abortions, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. The percentage was up from an estimated 53 percent in 2020 and 39 percent in 2017. The report did not account for abortion pills obtained through underground national and international networks, including those that send pills to women in states with abortion restrictions.
In a medication abortion, mifepristone blocks the action of progesterone, which the mother’s body produces to nourish the pregnancy. When progesterone is blocked, the lining of the mother’s uterus deteriorates, and blood and nourishment are cut off to the developing baby, who then dies inside the mother’s womb. The drug misoprostol (also called Cytotec) then causes contractions and bleeding to expel the baby from the mother’s uterus.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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