Wyoming Passes First-of-Its-Kind Law Banning Chemical Abortion Drugs

The law has exceptions for Plan B and abortifacient birth control drugs

Wyoming has passed a first-of-its-kind law banning the sale and distribution of drugs used to perform chemical abortions.

Republican Governor Mark Gordon signed the legislation on Friday that makes it illegal to "prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion."

The law would appear to largely apply to the widely-used drug protocol used to abort first trimester abortions, which accounts for roughly two-thirds of the abortions in the United States.

There are notable exceptions for drugs "administered before conception or before pregnancy” to prevent the development of the fetus in the womb, "treatment of a natural miscarriage according to currently accepted medical guidelines" and "Treatment necessary to preserve the woman from an imminent peril that substantially endangers her life or health."

“Imminent peril” in this case is defined as "only a physical condition” and won’t apply to “psychological or emotional conditions."

"No medical treatment shall form the basis for an exception under this paragraph if it is based on a claim or diagnosis that the pregnant woman will engage in conduct which she intends to result in her death or other self‑harm," the bill also reads.

While folks over at the pro-abortion group NARAL Pro-Choice America called the bill “alarming,” the National Right to Life Committee President Carol Tobias praised it for protecting “mothers and their babies from this deadly drug."

"In a chemical abortion, a perfectly healthy mother of a perfectly healthy baby ingests a drug that takes the life of the unborn child and has the potential to endanger the life of the mother," she said in a statement.