The effort is being led by Tim Griffin, the Arkansas attorney general.
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Griffin said overturning Roe v Wade in the landmark Dobbs ruling "properly placed authority" over the legality of abortion with individual states.
"Arkansas and many other states have since outlawed abortion, but we have faced a problem of abortion pills such as mifepristone, which are taken to induce chemical abortions, being shipped into our state illegally," said Griffin.
The abortion pill is really two steps. The first medication, mifepristone, kills the fetus by blocking the hormone progesterone. That forces the fetus to detach itself from the lining of the uterus. The second medication, misoprostol, creates pregnancy-like contractions that force the uterus to expel the fetus, much like a miscarriage.
The attorneys general are asking federal legislators to consider whether they can act at the federal level to address this issue.
After the Dobbs ruling, some abortion-defending state legislatures passed laws to “shield” abortion providers from liability and prosecution for performing abortions in pro-life states, said Griffin. "These laws are blatant attempts to interfere with states' ability to enforce criminal laws within their borders and disrupt our constitutional structure,” he argued. “Therefore, we are asking Congress to consider passing legislation that preempts shield laws."
David Cox, of Arkansas-based Family Council, tells AFN one way to support Griffin and other attorneys general is to urge your congressman or congresswoman to take action.
“As Attorney General Griffin said, states need to respect each other's laws,” Cox says. “So no matter where you live, I think we need to ask our elected officials at the state level, at Congress, to make sure that states are respecting each other's law.”
Griffin also announced cease-and-desist letters to two entities that he said are shipping abortion pills to Arkansas or "advertising the availability of abortion pills to be shipped to Arkansas."
In addition, Griffin issued two cease-and-desist letters to two companies, one domain registry and one domain host, the stated concern being that they "support a website that promotes the abortion-inducing drugs."
"This is not the first time I have sent letters to providers and advertisers who were openly defying Arkansas's laws, and as long as it continues, I will continue to seek to hold these companies accountable," said Griffin.
According to the Arkansas Attorney General's Office, the letters were sent to Possibility Labs of San Francisco; Mayday Medicines Inc. of New York; Dreamscape International of Singapore; and Cloudflare of San Francisco.
