KY attorney general subpoenas gas stations over abortion ads

Attorney General Russell Coleman has subpoenaed six gas stations in three Kentucky counties over ads for a national nonprofit that offers information about abortion resources. 

Gas stations in Christian, Logan and Simpson Counties have posted advertisements that say “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Learn more at Mayday Health,” Coleman’s office said in a Friday press release. 

It did not list which gas stations will be investigated under his suspicion they “could be participating in the unlawful mailing or delivery of abortion pills into Kentucky.” They have 20 days to respond to his subpoenas. 

Kentucky Today reported in August that Mayday Health launched the ad campaign at rural gas stations in Kentucky and West Virginia. 

Liv Raisner, the executive director of Mayday Health, said in a statement provided to the Lantern that “abortion pills are safe and available.”

“It turns out Attorney General Russell Coleman doesn’t like free speech as much as he says,” Raisner said. “This just happened when we put up signs at gas stations in South Dakota. We won a temporary restraining order against the South Dakota Attorney General. We think everyone in Kentucky, and South Dakota, and around the country, should know that abortion pills are safe and available.”

Reuters reported on Jan. 20 that a federal judge had blocked the attorney general in South Dakota from preventing Mayday from advertising in that state.

“Out-of-state activist groups who are targeting the vulnerable here should be on notice: Keep your illegal pills out of our Commonwealth or face the full weight of the Attorney General’s Office,” Coleman said in a statement. “These deadly and unlawful pills cannot be allowed to continue flooding into Kentucky through the mail, and we will thoroughly pursue every lead to hold bad actors accountable.”

A 2022 law passed by the Kentucky General Assembly says abortion medication can only be provided by a physician who is “a nonsurgical abortion provider.” 

“It shall be unlawful for any manufacturer, distributor, physician, qualified  physician, pharmacy, or any other person to intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly dispense, prescribe, or distribute any abortion-inducing drug … to a pregnant person via courier, delivery or mail service,” that law says. 

This story may be updated.