Ajit Karn
Washington, United States: Wyoming became the first state in the United States to prohibit the use of abortion pills on Friday, the latest salvo in a campaign by states led by conservatives to restrict access to abortion.
After signing the ban on abortion pills, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon urged legislators to add a complete prohibition on abortion to the state constitution and submit it to electors for approval.
The Republican governor said in a statement, “I believe this question must be decided as soon as possible so that the issue of abortion in Wyoming can be finally resolved, and the best way to do that is through a vote of the people.”
The Wyoming action is part of a nationwide surge of anti-abortion groups seeking a total moratorium on abortions in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling last year.
A decision is also imminent in a federal courtroom in Texas, where a judge is due to rule on a potential national ban on a widely used abortion drug.
The FDA approved mifepristone for use more than a decade ago, and it has been available legally for years.
Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Texas could order the nationwide removal of abortion pills from the market.
Legislators in Texas are also contemplating a bill that would require internet service providers in the state to block access to websites that offer abortion medications for mail-order sale.
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Gordon, the governor of Wyoming, stated that he would not retreat in the struggle against abortion.
Gordon wrote in a letter to the secretary of state on Friday evening, “I believe that all life is sacred and that every person, including the unborn, should be treated with dignity and compassion.”
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1973 ruling that established abortion as a constitutional right last year, anti-abortion activists have sought to establish a nationwide ban.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organization, about 15 states already restrict access to mifepristone by requiring a physician to provide it.
