cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/83405

According to Kobach, Walgreens’ plan violates both federal law and state statute. Kansas statute requires that abortion-inducing drugs such as mifepristone “be given to the patient by or in the same room and in the physical presence of the physician who prescribed, dispensed or otherwise provided the drug or prescription to the patient.” Furthermore, though Biden’s FDA approves of sending mifepristone through the mail for DIY chemical abortions, Kobach notes that under Title 18, Section 1461 of the United States Code, “every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion” is considered “nonmailable matter” and thus cannot be mailed.

“Ordinarily, the national government’s steadfast determination not to enforce the law would be the end of things,” Kobach wrote. “But §1461 is not a normal criminal statute because it can be enforced by an ordinary private-party lawsuit,” meaning, according to the attorney general, that private parties are authorized under Title 18, Section 1964 to sue entities that violate Section 1461, among other statutes.