Georgia Senate passes bill requiring in-person exams for abortion pills

abortion pills georgia senate
People gather for the March for Reproductive Justice on Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021 in downtown Atlanta. A Georgia woman would have to be examined by a physician in person and sign a consent form before she could be prescribed abortion pills under a bill passed Tuesday, March 1, 2022 by the state Senate. Senate Bill 456, which passed 31-22 on a party-line vote, is part of a nationwide push by anti-abortion groups to limit the ability of physicians to prescribe abortion pills by telemedicine. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

A Georgia woman would have to be examined by a physician in person and sign a consent form before she could be prescribed abortion pills under a bill passed Tuesday by the state Senate.

Senate Bill 456, which passed 31-22 on a party-line vote, is part of a nationwide push by anti-abortion groups to limit the ability of physicians to prescribe abortion pills by telemedicine. It moves to the House for more debate.

The move comes a couple of months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ended a federal rule requiring women to pick up the medication in person. The federal government had already set aside the rule temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic.