Tenn. governor signs bill regulating medication abortions

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Tenn. governor signs bill regulating medication abortions

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI
May 6, 2022

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee will soon strictly regulate the dispensing of abortion pills, including imposing harsh penalties on doctors who violate them, under legislation recently signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee.

The measure, which Lee signed on Thursday, will go into effect Jan. 1, 2023. Once enacted, a medical clinician will be required to be physically present when abortion pills are administered to a patient even though federal regulations now allow mail delivery nationwide.

The issue has become even more important as the U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision as suggested through a recently leaked draft opinion. Notably, Tennessee is among the 13 states with a so-called trigger law that would make abortion illegal should Roe be overturned.

To date, 19 states have placed strict restrictions on accessing medication abortion. Under the Tennessee version, delivery of abortion pills by mail would be outlawed and anyone who wanted to use abortion pills would be required to visit a doctor in advance and then return to pick up the pills.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-business-health-tennessee-medication-4de8afa5d6d2923c41d13f16b103155b

[cbabe]

1. Please explain how one state can make federal mail illegal?

[Ray Bruns]

2. I'm sorry, but isn't the postal service a federal institution and

interfering with that is a federal crime?

[LeftInTX]

12. No, it's about mail order pharmacies refusing to fill a prescription

The mail order pharmacy will not fill it.

You can order pills from outside the US.
However, the feds often seize meds shipped from overseas.

It appears the only country we have a possible agreement with is Canada. (Any agreement is very new!)
https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-basics/it-legal-me-personally-import-drugs
https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/10-faqs-on-prescription-drug-importation/

Abortion meds ship from India. (We don't have an agreement with India)
I used to order meds from India. However, the feds shut down the US middle man and I must now deal directly with India. They don't accept credit cards and I must speak to an Indian pharmacist first. Even then, I will run the risk of having a package seized by the feds/customs.

This does not mean you cannot obtain abortion meds from India. I believe the group in the Netherlands works with India's pharmacies. (Acting as a middle man. The feds can't shut the Netherlands down) However, you still run the risk of having a package seized when it arrives in the US.

The FDA does not support importing meds, mainly because there have been issues with counterfeits, expired, quality control, contaminated, higher amounts of inert ingredients, labeling etc (The risk is low, but the FDA is the FDA and they are strict as hell)

[gratuitous]

3. "Don't be so dramatic! Once Roe is overturned, the Republicans will stop"

So, how are you recovering from being kicked in the head by that horse?

Link to high-larious post at Wonkette.

And the money quote from a Peggy Noonan column:

Advice now, especially for Republican men, if Roe indeed is struck down: Do not be your ignorant selves. Do not, as large dumb misogynists, start waxing on about how if a woman gets an illegal abortion she can be jailed. Don’t fail to embrace compromise because you can make money on keeping the abortion issue alive. I want to say “Just shut your mouths,” but my assignment is more rigorous. It is to have a heart.

All I can conclude from that drivel is that Peggy Noonan was kicked in the head by a horse.

[11 Bravo]

6. At the Capitol Grille Bar I like to order a Peggy Noonan:

Xanax and Drambuie.

[gratuitous]

11. Do you have to sign a medical waiver?

Copying Noonan's drinking habits isn't for amateurs.

[Cerridwen]

8. Close. She was a speechwriter for ronnie reagan. n/t

[NQAS]

4. Next he'll ban delivery of mail

In effort to prevent delivery of this medication.

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[Alhena]

7. So how do Tennessee women get around this?

Will there be doctors from other states willing to violate this law and mail abortion pills to TN women, knowing they will never go to the state? Will there be internet black market sites where non-physicians sell the pills?

[LeftInTX]

13. Black market

Netherlands for prescribing via phone doc and pharmacies in India which ship the pills

[hedda_foil]

9. Next step is to reverse Griswold and re-implement the Comstock Law.

Making Birth Control a Federal Crime
On March 3, 1873, Congress passed the new law, later known as the Comstock Act. The statute defined contraceptives as obscene and illicit, making it a federal offense to disseminate birth control through the mail or across state lines.

The Comstock Law was enforced until 1965 when the landmark decision of Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) found it unconstitutional to restrict access to birth control because it interfered with a person's right to privacy.

An American Experience Video: Anthony Comstock's "Chastity" Laws

[maxsolomon]

10. Inevitable.

GQP legislatures & governors will cut off every legal avenue available to women seeking abortions. They have deep-pocketed RW think tanks working around the clock writing bills to block every conceivable end run.

They are bound to overreach in their zealotry, but this is going to be an awful, regressive decade.

[Demovictory9]

15. And they have to go after birth control too..taking extra amount works like plan B

[maxsolomon]

16. Plan B is a definite target,

because it prevents implantation of fertilized eggs.

As we know, the God of Abraham creates and implants an eternal soul into the human egg at the moment of conception. That's just a fact. Preventing implantation and therefore gestation and birth by using Plan B is basically murder.


Preventing conception might be tolerable for our new Christian overlords. IUDs, condoms, BC pills might not be targeted.

[IcyPeas]

14. this from the party that claims to want less government regulation.