Texas Governor Greg Abbott Signs Pro-Life Bill Banning Mail-Order Abortion Pills

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 21, 2021   |   11:22AM   |   Washington, DC

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signed yet another pro-life bill into law to help save babies from abortion. He has signed SB4 into law, which would ban mail-order abortion drugs and would place limits on in-person sales of the abortion pill before 7 weeks to protect women’s health.

The new pro-life law would also help support the Texas abortion ban by adding criminal penalties for anyone who sells the abortion pill illegally.

Under SB 4, the charges for “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly,” violating the provisions of the bill would be a state jail felony, which carries fines of up to $10,000 and between 180 days and two years of imprisonment. And those could apply to anyone outside of Texas who sells abortion pills to Texas residents.

The bill, SB 4 authored by Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. (D-Brownsville), passed decisively on a 19-10 vote in the Texas Senate. Under the leadership of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, this is the third time the Senate has passed this bill, including during the regular session last spring and during each of the two special sessions this summer.

Rep. Stephanie Klick (R-Ft. Worth) authored HB 6, the companion bill in the House, and talked about the need for the pro-life legislation.

Klick said: “Safety protocols have existed since the Clinton administration at the federal level for women seeking to use abortion-inducing drugs, including an in-person visit with a doctor. As of April, the FDA is not enforcing this critical in-person doctor visit, which can help avoid serious complications or even death. This bill brings those safety protocols which have been effective for women for decades into Texas statute to ensure the doctor-patient relationship is intact and not at risk of being lost. This will save women’s lives.”

The national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) celebrated the passage of S.B. 4

SBA List State Policy Director Sue Liebel told LifeNews.com: “The passage of vital safeguards on dangerous abortion drugs is a win for Texas women and unborn children. Chemical abortion poses at least four times the risk of potentially serious complications compared to surgical abortion – yet pro-abortion Democrats in Washington are recklessly pushing for a permanent rollback of FDA safety standards that keep them from turning pharmacies and post offices into abortion centers. We thank Governor Abbott, pro-life leaders in the Texas House and Senate, and all our local allies who’ve prioritized this bill. It reflects the will of the people and we look forward to seeing the governor sign it swiftly into law.”

A state pro-life group also applauded the legislature for advancing the pro-life measure.

“We strongly support the chemical abortion safety protocols in SB 4,” said Texas Alliance for Life’s executive director Joe Pojman, Ph.D. “Texas needs this bill to assure that chemical abortions are performed under the supervision of a physician and with adequate safety protocols.”

Pojman told LifeNews.com that not only do abortion pills end the lives of unborn babies but they also hurt women, as dozens of women have died and thousands have been injured.

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He said the need for this bill is demonstrated by the fact that chemical abortions result a 20% complication rate for women, four-time higher than surgical abortions, according to a highly credible study published by the ACOG. Complications include incomplete abortion resulting in baby body parts or placenta remaining in the uterus, future miscarriage and stillbirth from unmanaged Rh factor, and hemorrhaging and death from undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy.

Pojman added that the number of babies losing their lives to the abortion drug is on the rise.

Ever since the Obama-Biden administration relaxed the RU-486 safety protocols in 2016, the numbers of chemical abortion abortions have rapidly increased in Texas — from 5,000 in 2014 to 28,000 in 2020, nearly a six-fold increase. Chemical abortions now account for 53% of all abortions in Texas, according to data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

“Now the Biden-Harris Administration is threatening to remove the FDA’s current in-person dispensing requirement. The physician visit is critically important for protecting the health and safety of woman at abortion facilities,” said Pojman. “Even worse, activist organizations and academic institutions are promoting mail-order abortions, without any direct supervision of a physician, putting women’s very lives at risk. For example, Project SANA at the University of Texas at Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs brazenly advocates for ‘self-managed abortions’ while several online organization will mail abortion pills on demand.”

SB 4 clarifies that only physicians may dispense the abortion-causing drugs, and the bill creates felony penalties for anyone who mails these dangerous drugs.

In his calls for the special session, Abbott called for legislation that “prohibits people from providing abortion-inducing drugs by mail or delivery service, strengthens the laws applicable to the reporting of abortions and abortion complications, and ensures that no abortion-inducing drugs are provided unless there is voluntary and informed consent.”

The abortion numbers may grow even more after President Joe Biden’s administration stopped enforcing another safety regulation on the abortion drugs earlier this year and began allowing them to be sold through the mail without the woman ever seeing a doctor in person.

Several other states also passed laws this year to address the growing problem. These includes laws to inform women of the life-saving abortion pill reversal treatment in Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia, and regulations on abortion drugs that protect mothers and unborn babies in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Montana.

Abortion drugs are dangerous for the mother as well as her unborn baby. In the United States, the abortion drug mifepristone has been linked to at least 24 women’s deaths and 4,000 serious complications. Risks include excessive bleeding, severe abdominal pain, infection and hemorrhage.

A 2009 study “Immediate Complications After Medical Compared With Surgical Termination of Pregnancy,” in Obstetrics and Gynecology found a complication rate of approximately 20 percent for the abortion drugs compared to 5.6 percent for surgical abortions. Hemorrhages and incomplete abortions were among the most common complications.

Texas lawmakers passed several other pro-life laws this year, including legislation to prohibit abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable. However, the abortion industry is suing to block the law.