Mississippi lawmakers sent a bill to Governor Tate Reeves that would criminalize the distribution or intent to distribute abortion-inducing medication in the state. The restrictions on abortion-inducing drugs were added to a drug trafficking bill, which passed the Mississippi House of Representatives by a vote of 76–38 and the Mississippi Senate by a vote of 37–15.

Under the bill, people convicted of distributing or intending to distribute abortion-inducing medication could face up to 10 years in prison. Republicans control both chambers of the Mississippi Legislature. State Representative Celeste Hurst, a Republican from Sandhill, introduced an amendment to keep abortion-inducing medications such as mifepristone and misoprostol from entering the state.

"The intent is to keep doctors from out of state from circumventing our current law," Hurst said.

The bill would prosecute Mississippi providers only if they prescribe abortion-inducing medication with the intent to cause an abortion, not when prescribed to aid a miscarriage or stop hemorrhaging, according to Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law. The bill criminalizes possession of abortion-inducing medication only if there is intent to distribute, but could lead to prosecution of individuals using the drugs for personal purposes, Ziegler said. Determining intent under the bill is what she called "really, really hard to prove."

"I think lawmakers are imagining this will be primarily used against doctors or drug manufacturers in blue states," Ziegler said. "But it will be much harder for prosecutors to actually get those people into court than it will be for them to get someone whose partner has these drugs."

There is virtually no way for Mississippi to prosecute providers who send abortion-inducing pills across state lines, according to Ziegler, who noted that shield laws in states where abortion is legal protect abortion providers, patients and helpers from out-of-state investigations, lawsuits and prosecutions.

State Senator Bradford Blackmon, a Democrat from Canton who voted against the bill, called it "outrageous, ridiculous and unnecessary to lump abortion medication in with scheduled drugs and allow the state to enforce imprisonment of one to 10 years for the offense." Blackmon added: "In the end, it's just going to hurt poor women. The wealthy Mississippians are still going to be able to go where they want to get abortions."

In 2022, the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturned constitutional protections around the right to abortion. Governor Reeves has not publicly indicated whether he intends to sign or veto the bill.