Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
The Republican Governor of WyomingMark Gordon, signed on Friday a law mandating a blanket ban on the use of abortion pills in the statein what appears to be the first ban on the drug in a U.S. state and a severe restriction on the right to abortion.
The new law prohibits the sale of “any medication, drug or other substance with the specific intention of causing or instigating an abortion.”
Fifteen other states restrict access to medical abortion, including North Dakota, which has no abortion providers, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nongovernmental organization that advocates for better access to reproductive care.
Wyoming’s abortion pill law would go into effect on July 1 and would make it illegal to “prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell, or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion.”
Physicians or anyone else found guilty of violating this law would be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in prison and a $9,000 fine.
Another new law restricts abortions in Wyoming
The Republican politician also signed on Friday a law restricting most abortions in the state, except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is at risk, according to local media reports.
Gordon’s decision comes as the US waits for a judge in Texas to rule in a case that will decide national access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
An anti-abortion association of doctors filed a lawsuit before Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk with the goal of forcing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revoke the approval of the drug andin the country
Mifepristone, which was approved by the FDA in 2000, has been at the center of the US abortion debate in recent weeks.
The Walgreens pharmacy chain decided in early March that it will not distribute abortion pills in states with Republican governments or where Republican officials have threatened to sue if the drugs are offered.
The company’s decision came after the FDA issued a regulation that would allow the sale of abortion drugs in its establishments.
Mifeprostone is usually used together with misoprostol to terminate the pregnancy before the end of the third month of gestation.
Abortions with this type of medication have accounted for 54% of the interruptions of pregnancies in the US. in the last two years, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.
A court ruling banning abortion pills would be one of the biggest controversies on reproductive rights and abortion rights in the United States since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year.
With information from EFE, The New York Times and The Washington Post
Keep reading:
• Texas judge will hear arguments for and against the abortion pill
• They propose in Puerto Rico 25 years in prison for women who abort after 10 weeks of pregnancy
• Walgreens will not sell abortion pills in 20 red states