Oklahoma Makes Trafficking Abortion Pills a Felony

Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed legislation making it a felony to traffic abortion-inducing drugs into or within the state, opening a new front in the post-Dobbs fight over mail-order mifepristone even as the U.S. Supreme Court continues to let the pills be shipped during federal litigation.

House Bill 1168 takes effect Aug. 12 and carries up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine for anyone who knowingly possesses or delivers the drugs to a person who intends to use them for an abortion.

Stitt formally approved the measure May 5 and held a ceremonial signing Tuesday alongside the bill's authors and anti-abortion supporters.

The law reaches mifepristone, misoprostol and methotrexate, but it does not apply to pharmacists, manufacturers, or distributors handling the drugs for lawful medical use, and it does not criminalize pregnant women who obtain the pills for themselves.

Contraceptives, in vitro fertilization, miscarriage care, and treatment for ectopic pregnancy are excluded.

Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader, R-Piedmont, the bill's House author, framed the law as protection for women coerced or harmed by pills distributed outside clinical settings.

"This bill is about protecting women from the horrible side effects of these pills," she said.

Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, the Senate author, told colleagues during floor debate that one study counted 4,130 abortion pills trafficked into Oklahoma last year and that 14 states have enacted similar measures.

The Senate passed HB 1168 on April 30 by a vote of 37-10.

State Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, said the measure was added to the floor agenda at the last second and called the debate around it largely campaign material.

Janet Levit, a University of Tulsa law professor, former interim president of the school and vice chair of the Center for Reproductive Rights board, called the statute largely duplicative of Oklahoma's existing near-total abortion ban and warned it could chill care during obstetric emergencies.

The law's practical reach is narrower than its language suggests.

Oklahoma already bans abortion except to save the mother's life, and out-of-state telehealth providers operating under shield laws in states such as Massachusetts, New York, and Washington remain difficult to prosecute.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond joined 15 other Republican state attorneys general in July in a letter pressing Congress to preempt those shield laws.

Stitt's signature came roughly a week before the Supreme Court allowed the Food and Drug Administration's mail-order mifepristone policy to remain in effect during a Louisiana-led legal challenge brought alongside drugmakers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro.

That litigation continues in the lower courts and could return to the justices on the merits of the case.