Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has signed House Bill 1168 into law, making the illegal distribution of abortion-inducing drugs a felony — one of the stiffest penalties any state has imposed on the underground abortion pill trade.
Anyone convicted of trafficking or attempting to traffic abortion-inducing drugs faces a fine of up to $100,000, up to 10 years in prison, or both — the same penalties as current Oklahoma law imposes on those who perform illegal abortions.
The legislation targets mifepristone, misoprostol, and methotrexate. It applies only to those who knowingly distribute these drugs for unlawful abortions — not to individuals obtaining the drugs for themselves. The law does not affect contraceptives, IVF treatment, miscarriage care, or ectopic pregnancy treatment.
Bill author Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader said that while nearly all unborn children in Oklahoma are already protected by state abortion bans, abortion pills are still being trafficked into the state. “What has happened, however, since that has become law in our state, is that people are trafficking abortion-inducing drugs to women who are already in a vulnerable state,” she said.
Since the FDA eliminated in-person dispensing requirements in 2021, women have been taking abortion pills at home without medical oversight — and abusive men have been ordering the pills themselves to coerce or force women into abortions they did not want. Oklahoma’s law treats the underground abortion pill trade exactly as it should be treated — as a criminal enterprise with real victims.
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