Arkansas Attorney General Tim Temple is taking another step in his efforts to restrict abortion access in the state. Griffin sent a letter to Congress this week urging lawmakers to address out-of-state medicine providers who advertise abortion-inducing pills in states that ban the drugs.
As the Arkansas Advocate and Little Rock Public Radio report, Griffin says the pills can be shipped directly to a person seeking an abortion, despite state laws forbidding the practice.
At a news conference this week, Griffin said the pill providers, based in states or countries that allow abortion, are protected by so-called Shield Laws. “They make it more difficult to impose liability on the actors, more difficult to prosecute those actors. And they are blatant attempts by some states to interfere with other states’ ability to enforce our laws within our borders.”
Arkansas law forbids distribution of abortion-inducing drugs through the mail. In a letter co-signed by 15 other state attorneys general, Griffin has also sent cease and desist letters to four companies involved with advertising mail delivery abortion medications in Arkansas.
Critics have described Griffin’s efforts as just a different form of a federal abortion ban that he is asking Congress to approve. But Griffin has a different assessment. “This has more to do with a constitutional structure and states enforcing their own law. This is not about me enforcing New York’s law or vice versa,” as Griffin referred to Louisiana criminally charging Dr. Margaret Carpenter of New York earlier this year for prescribing and mailing abortion pills. “It’s about one state interfering … with the enforcement of another state’s law.”
The New York case represents the first time that a provider has faced charges for prescribing and mailing abortion pills over state lines. But New York Gov. Kathy Hochel has refused to arrest or extradite Carpenter.
