State senators in West Virginia passed a bill on Friday that would outlaw sending abortion pills into the state.
Lawmakers approved Senate Bill 173 with a vote of 31 to 1 and two members absent, West Virginia Watch reported.
West Virginia has a near-total abortion restriction and also bans abortion via telemedicine. Senate Bill 173 is designed to close a loophole in state law enabling out-of-state organizations and abortionists to mail abortion pills to people in the state.
The bill’s lead sponsor, state Sen. Chris Rose (R), said the bill would show “bad actors” that West Virginia will not tolerate those who shirk the state’s laws protecting unborn babies, according to the report.
“We will fight from the womb to the tomb to preserve every human being,” Rose said. “And we will defend the constitutional rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness even for the unborn.”
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Under the bill, non-medical professionals could face three to ten years behind bars for the felony charge of sending abortion drugs by mail to a person in West Virginia. A medical professional who does so would face losing their license, according to the report.
The bill contains an exception for physicians who prescribe the drugs for other legitimate medical reasons besides abortion, per the report.
Lawmakers approved at least two amendments to the bill, including one from state Sen. Eric Tarr (R) that would require the state attorney general’s office to report how many lawsuits are filed on behalf of women who use the abortion drugs.
“Lawmakers also approved amendments from Sen. Ryan Weld ,R-Brooke, that would prohibit the state from contracting with manufacturers or wholesale distributors that send abortifacients into West Virginia and another amendment that would allow women to sue those who send abortifacients in the circuit court of the county where they receive the drugs, not only the county where the abortion took place,” according to the report.
The bill will now go before the state’s House of Delegates.
If passed, the law will likely face off against “shield laws” passed in Democrat-run states that protect abortionists from investigations and extradition to states with pro-life laws.
In 2023, medication abortions accounted for 63 percent of all abortions within the formal U.S. healthcare system — meaning an estimated 642,700 unborn babies died from medication abortions, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. The percentage was up from an estimated 53 percent in 2020 and 39 percent in 2017. The report did not account for abortion pills obtained through underground national and international networks, including those that send pills to women in states with abortion restrictions.
In a medication abortion, mifepristone blocks the action of progesterone, which the mother’s body produces to nourish the pregnancy. When progesterone is blocked, the lining of the mother’s uterus deteriorates, and blood and nourishment are cut off to the developing baby, who then dies inside the mother’s womb. The drug misoprostol (also called Cytotec) then causes contractions and bleeding to expel the baby from the mother’s uterus.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.