Louisiana becomes the first state to classify abortion pills as a dangerous controlled substance, making possession of the drugs without a prescription a crime punishable by jail time and fines.
A bill to designate the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV substances — a category of medicines that have the potential for abuse and addiction — passed the state's Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday by a vote of 63 to 29. If the Senate follows suit, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, an anti-abortion Republican, would likely sign the bill into law.
The measure would place the abortion pill in the same category as Xanax, Ambien, and Valium, contradicting how the federal government classifies mifepristone and misoprostol. The federal Food and Drug Administration does not consider abortion pills to be addictive or potentially abusive drugs, and decades of medical research have found both to be overwhelmingly safe.
Under the law, possession of mifepristone or misoprostol without a prescription in Louisiana could result in thousands of dollars in fines and up to five years in prison. Pregnant women would be exempt from these penalties. Most abortion bans and restrictions do not punish pregnant women, because most voters are against them.
“Increasingly, these drugs are being shipped to women and girls in our state from outside and abroad,” Republican Attorney General Liz Mulrill said in a statement on social media. “This law does not prohibit the prescription and dispensing of these drugs in Louisiana for lawful and justifiable reasons.”
Louisiana already bans most abortions, except when a woman's life or health is at risk or the fetus is in a fatal condition, so abortion rights advocates and legal scholars say the measure may not actually prevent many Louisiana women from getting abortions. Since the state imposed its strict abortion ban after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, many patients have traveled to states where abortion is legal or obtained prescription medication from doctors or nurses in other states and mailed it to Louisiana. Those situations would not be affected by the new bill, experts say.
“Perhaps the most important part of this, from an anti-abortion standpoint, is to make it seem like these drugs are unsafe and to condemn their use, possession, and access. And, in Louisiana, online “They're trying to make people who know they're getting drugs and people who don't know they're reluctant to do so,” said David, a law professor at Drexel University who supports abortion rights. S. Cohen said.
He said those who could be penalized under the bill would be the informal networks of volunteers who provide over-the-counter medications in some communities, and women who aren't pregnant but order abortion pills just in case.
The bill, supported by the anti-abortion group Louisiana Right to Life, outraged hundreds of doctors and medical students in the state, who signed a letter opposing the bill. Doctors pointed out that mifepristone and misoprostol have many other medical uses. Misoprostol is often used to prevent ulcers and to stimulate labor during childbirth, and both drugs are used to help women who suffer from miscarriage.
“Adding safe, medically indicated drugs for miscarriage management, ulcer prevention, or induction of normal labor to the Controlled Substance Schedule creates the false perception that these drugs are dangerous drugs that require additional regulation,” the letter said. “Overall, this creates fear and confusion among patients, physicians and pharmacists, leading to delayed treatment and poorer outcomes,” the letter added.
Sara Zagorski Jones, spokeswoman for Louisiana Right to Life, said the bill would “give law enforcement more power to stop the abusive distribution of drugs on the streets and online.” said to mean. The bill shouldn't affect prescribing doctors or pregnant women who don't want an abortion but need the medication to deal with complications or labor, she added.
The proposal to reclassify two drugs in Louisiana is a late amendment to another bill that criminalized forced abortion, creating a crime called the “criminal forced abortion by fraud.” Both the bill and the amendment came after her sister's husband pled guilty to secretly putting misoprostol in her water cup in an attempt to end her pregnancy, a state senator said. Submitted by Thomas Presley (Republican of Shreveport). (She gave birth, but her baby was born prematurely.)
In a statement in late April, when the bill was amended, Pressley said that after “considering what other steps could be taken to curb the rampant illegal distribution of the abortion-inducing drugs that harmed my sister,” He said an amendment was proposed.
“My sister's story is clear evidence that these drugs are being used as weapons and pose a danger to public health,” he added. “By placing these drugs on the Controlled Substances List, we will be helping law enforcement protect vulnerable women and unborn children.”
Opponents of the bill said the use of medications such as abortion and ulcer treatments could be more directly affected by the bill than abortion.
“What we're really concerned about is that people will get the false idea that drugs are ultimately dangerous and that doctors are trying to poison them,” said Dr. Jennifer Aveño, director of the New Orleans Health Department, who helped write the letter opposing the measure.
Aveño, the emergency medicine physician, said Schedule IV drugs have certain logistical hurdles that can cause delays, such as the extra step of calling a prescription to a pharmacy and, in some cases, the need for a paper prescription. For example, if a woman who miscarries over the weekend loses a lot of blood and needs misoprostol, she said the new bill would require her to see a doctor and get a paper prescription, and she may have to wait a day or two as her symptoms worsen.
Or as Dr. Avegno put it: “When labor begins and the gynecologist says, “We need misoprostol to ripen the cervix and allow labor to proceed safely,'' the woman says, “Wait a minute, why would you give me a dangerous drug?'' Are you going to administer it?'
Louisiana has already seen confusion over its strict abortion laws, with some mothers being denied abortions because their fetuses had fatal conditions that were not clearly listed as medical exceptions.
Michelle Ellenberg, executive director of the reproductive rights organization Lift Louisiana, said her organization and others are considering possible legal challenges if the bill passes. “I'm concerned that this will be replicated in other states.”
Abortion rights have proven to be a hot political issue for Democrats, who have already used the Louisiana bill as election-year fodder. The Biden campaign held a briefing for journalists on the measure on Wednesday, sending out an email that read, “This is what Trump did: Louisiana MAGA Republicans voted to criminalize possession of abortion pills.”
But in Louisiana, there appears to be little sign that the state's broader electorate will oppose the Legislature's continued efforts to curtail abortion access. Governor Landry repeatedly defended the state's abortion ban in court during his previous role as attorney general and won a landslide victory in last year's gubernatorial election.
After Vice President Kamala Harris slammed the bill on social media as “completely unconscionable,” Landry countered that her criticism meant “we know we're doing the right thing.”
He added: “This bill protects pregnant women while allowing these drugs to be prescribed to anyone with a valid prescription.”
And Louisiana remains home to many anti-abortion Democrats who were recently re-elected, and the state's current abortion ban was signed into law by former governor, conservative Democrat John Bel Edwards.
“In fact, I can't think of a single instance where Republicans lost a Congressional race on an abortion issue,” said John Couvillon, a Republican pollster in Louisiana. “They enacted some pretty strict pro-life legislation with the support of Democratic governors, but it had no effect on the outcome of the election,” he added.
kitty bennett Contributed to research.