ATLANTA — Some Georgia lawmakers want to make it illegal to send abortion pills through the mail or dispense them at state colleges and universities.

They say it should only be prescribed after visiting a doctor.

Critics say lawmakers shouldn’t be telling doctors how to treat their patients.

A Senate committee passed that bill Wednesday along party lines.

The medication at the center of the bill is not the morning-after pill, known as RU-486.

It’s a pill prescribed by doctors to terminate a pregnancy.

The federal government recently lifted the restrictions on telemedicine regarding this medication. Those lawmakers want to put them back.

State Sen. Ben Watson, himself a Savannah doctor, kept a tight lid on the hearing on the bill.

“Let me just say, if you’re going to click or express your opinion, and that includes my committee, we have security right outside the room, and I don’t want to do that,” Watson said during the hearing.

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Bartow County state Sen. Bruce Thompson wrote the bill and said he believes doctors should do an in-person examination before prescribing that pill.

“This bill is simply to be able to protect the women in our state, not to restrict the abortion bill, but to make sure it’s taken in accordance to the way it was designed,” Thompson told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot.

Lawmakers got an earful from both sides of the argument from those who support the measure and those against it.

“Telemedicine abortion is absolutely reckless,” said Suzanne Guy, who supports the bill.

“This is nothing but a performative bill in the middle of an election year,” said Stacy Fox with Planned Parenthood.

The bill passed out of committee right along party lines.

Gwinnett state Sen. Michelle Au, also a doctor, opposes the bill, saying lawmakers have no business dictating patient care.

“I don’t think the legislature should be in the practice of telling clinicians and physicians how to practice medicine and how to take care of their patients,” Au said.

Au also accused the bill of pushing what she says is pseudo-science.

The bill will now head to the full Senate for a vote.

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