Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry on Friday signed into law the state’s first bill to classify two abortion-inducing drugs as controlled and dangerous substances.
The Republican governor announced he had signed the bill in Baton Rouge, the day after the bill received final passage in the state Senate.
The measure affects the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, which are used in medical abortions, the most common form of abortion in the United States.
Democratic governor signs bill to help doctors circumvent neighboring states’ abortion laws: ‘Repressive and dangerous’
Many doctors who opposed the bill argued that the drugs also have other important uses in reproductive medicine, and a classification change could make it harder to prescribe them.
Supporters of the bill argued that it would protect pregnant women from forced abortions, but they cited only one case in Texas.
The bill was passed as abortion opponents await a final U.S. Supreme Court decision on efforts to restrict access to mifepristone.
The new law will come into effect on October 1st.
Republican Governor Jeff Landry of Louisiana speaks on the House of Representatives floor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on January 15, 2024. (Michael Johnson/The Advocate via Associated Press, Pool, File)
The bill began as a measure to create the crime of “inflicting abortion by fraud.” The amendment to add abortion drugs to Schedule IV of Louisiana’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Act was pushed by Sen. Thomas Pressley, a Republican from Shreveport and the bill’s lead sponsor.
“Requiring abortion-inducing pills to be available without a prescription and making it a crime to administer them to unsuspecting mothers makes complete common sense,” Landry said in a statement.
Current Louisiana law already requires a prescription for both drugs and makes it a crime in most cases to use them to induce abortions. The bill would make it even harder to obtain these drugs. Other Schedule IV drugs include the opioid tramadol and a group of sedatives known as benzodiazepines.
Knowingly possessing drugs without a valid prescription carries criminal penalties, including heavy fines and imprisonment. The bill’s language appears to provide protections for pregnant women who obtain drugs without a prescription for their own consumption.
This classification would require doctors to obtain special licenses to prescribe the drugs, and the drugs would have to be stored in specific facilities, which might in some cases be located far away from local clinics.
In addition to inducing abortions, mifepristone and misoprostol are also used for other common purposes, including treating miscarriage, inducing labor, and stopping bleeding.
More than 200 doctors in the state signed a letter to lawmakers warning that the measure would “create barriers for physicians to prescribe appropriate treatment” and could cause unnecessary fear and confusion for patients and doctors alike. They warn that any delay in accessing the drugs could lead to worse outcomes in a state with the highest maternal mortality rate in the country.
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Pressley said she was inspired to push for the bill after what happened to her sister, Katherine Herring, of Texas: In 2022, Herring’s husband secretly gave her seven misoprostol pills in an attempt to induce an abortion without her knowledge or consent.
