Tate Reeves, the Republican Governor of Mississippi, stated that doctors across his state stand to lose their medical licenses if they choose to prescribe any abortion pills.
Reeves issued these statements as part of an interview that took place on “Fox News Sunday” in the wake of the ruling from SCOTUS to officially overturn Roe v. Wade and hand the power to govern abortion laws back to the individual 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,” stated Reeves.
“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 continued.
Reeves also put forth the argument that the board of medical licensure for his state will take action to revoke the licenses of anyone who choose to violate the ban levied 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 explained.
The Governor was also questioned about a potential bill from the state that would create an exception for abortion in regard to rape cases.
“I don’t believe that an exception for rape will make it through the Mississippi legislature and make it to my desk,” he stated.
Mississippi is not the first or only state that has pushed through new laws adding heavy regulations about abortion pills. John bel Edwards, the Governor of Louisiana, signed into law a bill just last month that will now label the mailing of abortion pills a crime throughout 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 to go along with the six-month stint in prison.
Slated to go into effect as of August 1st, the new bill does not allow a pregnant woman to be punished as part of the new policy. Other methods of emergency contraceptives, such as Plan B, are also not included as part of the new law.
Additionally, South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem also put her signature on a bill that bans telemedicine abortions back 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 new law will force both mifepristone and misoprostol to be administered directly by a licensed physician and cannot be obtained online or via mail.
“With this bill, we will protect both unborn babies and their mothers from this dangerous procedure,” stated Noem just before signing the bill.