Mississippi Republican Governor Tate Reeves said on Sunday that doctors in his state will lose their medical license for prescribing abortion pills.
Reeves shared the comments during an interview on “Fox News Sunday” following the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade and return abortion laws to states.
“If a physician is practicing medicine in the state of Mississippi, they have to have a license to do so and if abortion is illegal in our state, which it is, then those medicines will not be allowed and they will not have a license to practice in our state,” Reeves said.
“Any physician that is practicing, whether it’s through telemedicine or otherwise… that practices in our state is practicing not only based upon the standards of care that we require in our state, but also based upon state law,” he added.
The governor also argued that his state’s board of medical licensure will take away the license of those who violate the ban against abortion pills.
“And so if a physician is attempting to practice medicine in the state of Mississippi and they are violating our law, then our state board of medical licensure will pull the license from them,” he stated.
Reeves was also asked about a potential state bill that would allow abortion after a case of rape.
“I don’t believe that an exception for rape will make it through the Mississippi legislature and make it to my desk,” he responded.
Mississippi is not the only state making new laws regarding abortion pills. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (D-LA) signed a bill into law last month that will make mailing abortion pills a crime in his state.
SB 388 will “prohibit criminal abortion by means of the use of an abortion inducing drug without the prescribing physician being physically present during the administration of the drug,” including a $1,000 fine and a maximum of six months in prison.
The bill, which goes into effect on August 1, does not allow a pregnant woman to be punished under the new policy. Other contraceptive methods, such as Plan B, are also not banned by the law.
South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem signed a bill to ban telemedicine abortion in March.
HB 1318 will “prohibit medical abortion by telemedicine and … increase the penalty for the unlicensed practice of medicine when performing a medical abortion.” The legislation will require mifepristone and misoprostol to be dispensed from licensed physicians and prohibit obtaining the drugs online or by mail for the purposes of a chemical abortion.
“With this bill, we will protect both unborn babies and their mothers from this dangerous procedure,” Noem wrote ahead of signing it into law.
The Guttmacher Institute reported that medication abortion accounted for 54% of US abortions by 2020.