South Fulton Today

Republican lawmakers in Georgia are pushing for a bill that would ban abortion pills from being delivered by mail, requiring patients to seek pregnancy-terminating services through in-person exams.

The bill, introduced by GOP Sen. Bruce Thompson, has been co-sponsored by 23 other GOP senators, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. The bill comes in response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision in response to COVID-19 that temporarily changed a federal rule requiring women to personally pick up abortion pills.

"It puts great risk on those females who make that choice," Thompson said. "What we're asking is that these females have a physician involved."

Should the policy pass in the state Senate, Georgia would be among over a dozen other red states that have restricted access to the pills, with measures including outlawing mail orders. A similar law was passed in Oklahoma last year, suggesting coordination from anti-abortion groups across the country, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

"We need to continue to reframe this issue," Rep. Park Cannon, an Atlanta Democrat refuting the bill, said. "Access to abortion in Georgia is supported by 70% of voters and the elected officials are playing games with health care during a pandemic."

In addition to banning mail-delivered abortion pills, the bill would also criminalize prescribing abortion drugs without following Georgia law, while also expanding on abortion reporting standards in the state. Fines could cost at least $100,000 per violation, and reported violations could result in the revocation of a physician's license or warrant a malpractice suit from their clients, regardless of whether patients experience physical harm, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

Currently, approximately 40% of all abortions in the US are done through medication as opposed to surgery, a number that has increased throughout the pandemic.