Alabama’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, says that he hopes to see people prosecuted for using abortion pills. After years of fence-sitting, the Food and Drug Administration finally expanded access to the drugs in question last week, allowing it to be delivered by mail like other medications.
“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,” Marshall’s statement said.
As the federal law allowing it overrides any state law prohibiting it, Marshall’s claim represents a political challenge to Federal Preemption and the hope that the Supreme Court will chip away at it in support of this particular crusade. All he needs is an exemplary offender to drag before the justices.
