Alabama AG says he may prosecute women for taking abortion pills

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is warning women in his state to not think they can get around the state's laws against abortion by taking abortion pills.

AL.com reports that Marshall said that he was open to prosecuting women who take abortion pills even though Alabama's abortion law explicitly targets abortion providers for prosecution and says that women who receive abortions should not be subject to criminal charges.

However, Marshall's office thinks it's found a way around this so that women who take abortion pills can be potentially thrown in jail.

“The Human Life Protection Act targets abortion providers, exempting women ‘upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed’ from liability under the law,” Marshall told AL.com. “It does not provide an across-the-board exemption from all criminal laws, including the chemical-endangerment law — which the Alabama Supreme Court has affirmed and reaffirmed protects unborn children.”

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The chemical endangerment law was passed back in 2006 to protect children whose health was potentially damaged by inhaling fumes from meth labs, but Marshall believes he can apply it successfully to a woman taking an abortion pill.

This is not the first time that Marshall has staked out a particularly extreme position against legalized abortion, as he has said in the past he is open to prosecuting doctors with U.S. Veterans Affairs who perform abortions for rape victims.