The Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill last week that would protect abortionists who mail the abortion pill out of state by allowing them to leave their names off of pill bottles.
According to a state website, Senate Bill 25-129 “authorizes a prescription label for mifepristone, misoprostol, and the generic alternatives to those prescriptions to include only the name of the prescribing health-care practice instead of the name of the practitioner.” It has further provisions to shield and protect law-breaking abortionists in the state by prohibiting local entities from participating in out-of-state abortion investigations.
Colorado already has a shield law meant to protect its abortionists, as it outlaws abortion-related arrests, extraditions, search warrants, and court summons or subpoenas related to abortionists who violate the law in other states. This current Senate bill seeks to strengthen that law by making it harder to identify the abortionist responsible for a crime.
“With these out-of-state attacks, and again trying to cross borders, we want to be sure that doctors and providers feel comfortable at every level. So, if they don’t feel comfortable having their name but rather just the name of the practice on a prescription bottle, that feels like a reasonable accommodation so that they can feel a little bit safer,” said Sen. Lisa Cutter, one of the bill’s sponsors.
READ: Federal law prohibits sending abortion drugs by US mail… so why isn’t it being enforced?
The ability for an abortionist to keep his or her name off of abortion pills is similar to legislation recently put into effect by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. That provision was put in place after a New York abortionist, Margaret Carpenter, mailed abortion pills to women in both Texas and Louisiana, prompting legal action from both of those states. Hochul strengthened her state’s shield law to protect abortionists like Carpenter who mail abortion pills into states where abortion is restricted by law; Colorado now appears willing to do the same.
Though many states have abortion pill restrictions to protect preborn children’s lives, these laws are also in place to protect women. The abortion pill comes with numerous risks, including severe cramping, contractions, and heavy bleeding, as well as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and headaches. Published percentages for emergency room (ER) visits on the drug’s insert indicate that 2.9 to 4.6 percent of women who take abortion drugs end up in the emergency room. A “no-test protocol” in which a woman does not first meet with a physician in person prior to taking the pills increases the risk. As lawmakers promote laws that protect abortionists who injure women in this manner, they are solidly saying that they do not care for women’s health.
The bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a vote of 5-2 along party lines and will next be heard before the full Senate.
