FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — A new Kentucky bill would classify abortion inducing drugs as controlled substances and allow law enforcement to charge people who bring those drugs into the state.
House Bill 646 would allow law enforcement to charge anyone who "knowingly and unlawfully prescribes, distributes, supplies, sells, or traffics in any quantity of an abortion-inducing drug" with trafficking a controlled substance.
Anti-abortion groups are pushing for the legislation, saying it is needed to stop abortion pills from being mailed to women in Kentucky.
"These drugs that terminate, intentionally terminate, human life illegally in Kentucky," Addia Wuchner with Kentucky Right to Life said.
"(The bill is) going after those who target vulnerable Kentuckians, who are determined to break our laws, who ignore our laws by trafficking these drugs anyway that they can," Wuchner said.
Some medical providers have raised concerns that the bill could impact access to proper medical care because doctors use some of the same drugs to assist in miscarriages.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Nancy Tate, said her proposal would not affect miscarriage care because Kentucky law currently defines abortion and miscarriage differently.
"It would continue to communicate to those healthcare providers specifically what is a miscarriage and what is an abortion," Tate said.
Tate said the bill would not target women seeking an abortion or taking drugs to induce one, but would instead go after those involved in getting the drugs to that woman.
Questions have been raised about whether that could include delivery drivers, mail carriers, and delivery companies. Tate said delivery companies already have experience and precautions in place to stop other controlled substances, such as fentanyl, and know what steps to take to show they are not participating in distribution.
"At UPS, we would have drug seeking dogs in port and throughout our facility. So whenever our dogs spotted those, or sniffed those drugs, then those would be reported through the proper government officials," Tate said.
While anti-abortion groups and lawmakers work to strengthen Kentucky's abortion laws, others are pushing to roll back the state's existing bans. Earlier this year, a Kentucky lawmaker filed bills to restore abortion access to the standard that existed under Roe v. Wade, and some doctors urged lawmakers to undo the state's abortion bans.
