Legislation that would allow Alaska pharmacists to dispense chemical abortion pills advanced in the state House of Representatives Feb. 16, heading to the Finance Committee for a last hearing before potentially being approved for a final House vote.
HB 195, along with its companion bill SB 147, would permit pharmacists to prescribe and administer drugs and devices “to achieve outcomes related to the cure or prevention of a disease, elimination or reduction of a patient's symptoms, or arresting or slowing of a disease process.” The legislation allows abortion to be considered a medical condition, thereby permitting pharmacists to provide women with abortion drugs, Alaska Watchman reported.
Alaska Right to Life has raised concerns over the legislation, saying it would pose heightened risks to unborn children and their mothers’ health through the increased prescription of abortion pills. According to Alaska Watchman, the organization’s director, Pat Martin, stated in an email action alert that abortion pills currently are available at two Planned Parenthood sites in Anchorage and Fairbanks. He said the two locations — together with a third site in Juneau, which closed last year — were jointly responsible for the deaths of 720 unborn children through chemical abortions in 2024.
In addition to obtaining the pills at Planned Parenthood, Alaska women can receive them from licensed physicians under current law, according to Alaska Watchman. However, the legislation would expand access to the pills across the state. According to Martin, the bills could result in more than 300 new locations, such as pharmacies, clinics, and hospitals, that can prescribe and dispense the pills.
The Alaska Medical Board also criticized the legislation and called for lawmakers to vote against it, raising concerns that it would effectively elevate pharmacists to physicians.
“The authority to broadly prescribe any medication would mean pharmacists would have the ability to diagnose and therefore treat any medical condition,” the board stated, according to Alaska Watchman. “The diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions is the practice of medicine. The State Medical Board opposes pharmacists being granted the ability to practice medicine in Alaska.”
If the bill advances to a final House vote, it would then head to the Alaska Senate for approval.