When Abortion is a Crime, part 2.

Anti-abortion groups are laying the groundwork to criminalize contraception.

Photo by Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition on Unsplash

Yesterday, I wrote about just some of the ways in which the anti-abortion movement is already laying the groundwork to put women in prison for abortion — and how the global anti-abortion movement is already doing just that, with nary a peep of dissent from the American pro-lifers who swear up and down they don’t want to put women in jail.

But it’s not just women they’re seeking to prosecute. It’s doctors, obviously — they don’t try to hide that. And now that a majority of abortions in the US are carried out with pills, it’s pharmacists, too.

In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem has threatened to jail pharmacists if they fill prescriptions for mifepristone or misoprostol, or so much as stock abortion-inducing drugs in their pharmacies. The FDA recently issued new guidance allowing retail pharmacies to stock and dispense the drugs, and anti-abortion leaders want to be absolutely sure they don’t do that.

Importantly, the manufacturer of mifepristone is suing over state laws that ban the drug, arguing that individual states should not be able to outlaw drugs that have been approved by the FDA. This is a really important case to watch, and the argument is a good one. It basically amounts to this: If a state law directly conflicts with a federal law, the federal laws take precedence (this is called the supremacy clause); also, states are generally not permitted to interfere with interstate commerce under the commerce clause of the Constitution. Banning a drug approved by the FDA violates both of these provisions.