Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall reiterated Wednesday that women inside the state can be prosecuted for taking abortion pills — despite the Biden administration's efforts to expand access with that form of medication.
"The Human Life Protection Act targets abortion providers, exempting women 'upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed' from liability under the law," Marshall's office said in a statement provided to The Hill.
Marshall's office continued: "It does not provide an across-the-board exemption from all criminal laws, including the chemical-endangerment law — which the Alabama Supreme Court has affirmed and reaffirmed protects unborn children."
Alabama's chemical endangerment law, which passed in 2006, was initially designed to protect children from exposure to chemicals and fumes from home meth labs, according to the state AG's office.
And now, in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court, prosecutors argue the above law also applies to women who have consumed drugs or pills while pregnant — or perhaps exposed their fetuses to drugs.
Last summer, after Roe v. Wade had been rescinded, Alabama lawmakers passed a comprehensive abortion ban.
According to the Women's Health Care Center, "Alabama has some of the strictest laws in the nation surrounding abortion. All abortion after the point of conception — the fertilization of an egg — is illegal. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. This does not only include in-office procedures, but also at-home abortions."
Alabama law also stipulates that someone commits the felony of chemical endangerment of a child when he/she "knowingly, recklessly, or intentionally causes or permits a child to be exposed to, to ingest or inhale, or to have contact with a controlled substance, chemical substance, or drug paraphernalia."
Earlier this month, the Biden administration sought to make abortion pills available to patients with prescriptions in retail pharmacies.
In previous years, physicians could only prescribe abortion pills in person.
The Justice Department also asserts the U.S. Postal Service has the legal recourse to deliver prescription abortion drugs — even in states that have curtailed access to abortion.
But state law supersedes the executive-order work of the Biden administration, cautions Marshall.
"Promoting the remote prescription and administration of abortion pills endangers both women and unborn children," Marshall said in a statement. "Elective abortion — including abortion pills — is illegal in Alabama. Nothing about the Justice Department's guidance changes that.
"Anyone who remotely prescribes abortion pills in Alabama does so at their own peril: I will vigorously enforce Alabama law to protect unborn life."
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