Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin is leading a coalition of 15 states urging Congress to block abortion pill shipments into states where abortion is illegal, warning that current efforts by pro-abortion states undermine the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling.
In a July 29 letter to Congress, Griffin argued that so-called “shield laws” in states like California and New York let abortion pill providers evade prosecution in states with abortion bans, effectively violating states’ pro-life laws.
“These shield laws attempt to protect shield-state residents from liability and prosecution when they violate pro-life States’ abortion laws,” Griffin wrote. “By encouraging medical professionals in pro-abortion states to violate pro-life States’ abortion laws, shield laws are antithetical to the spirit of federalism and the Dobbs decision by not allowing each State to regulate abortion as it sees fit.”
He called the laws “blatant attempts to interfere with states’ ability to enforce criminal laws within their borders” and a disruption of the constitutional structure.
Arkansas banned abortion in 2022, yet abortion pills like mifepristone continue to be illegally shipped into the state, Griffin said.
“The law is very clear on this issue,” Griffin said in a July 29 statement, “and regardless of how one feels about the law, it is vital that the law be upheld.”
Attorneys general from Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming joined Griffin in signing the letter.
Beyond the appeal to Congress, Griffin said he sent four cease-and-desist letters to companies that are either shipping abortion pills to the state or support websites promoting them online. His letters target Possibility Labs of San Francisco, Mayday Medicines Inc. of New York, Dreamscape International of Singapore, and Cloudflare of San Francisco.
Pro-life advocates praised Griffin’s efforts, including Dr. Sharai Amaya, an OB-GYN and president of Arkansas Right to Life.
“We can love the mother and protect her and love her baby too,” Amaya said, according to ABC News 4, a local news station affiliated with ABC.
She warned that mifepristone poses serious risks to women, especially when ingested without proper medical oversight.
Amaya recalled treating one woman who believed she was seven weeks pregnant when she took the abortion drug for several days. The woman soon experienced severe pain and bleeding, prompting an emergency visit to Amaya.
“She came in and turns out she had a second-trimester baby,” Amaya said, according to the outlet. “She was 15 weeks pregnant.”
Amaya administered rescue progesterone, and the baby survived.
As CatholicVote previously reported, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Obama and Biden administrations rolled back several safety requirements for mifepristone. Most notably, the FDA waived the need for an in-person visit before prescribing the drug and removed the requirement for a follow-up appointment to monitor the woman’s condition after taking the drug.