Louisiana could become the first state to classify abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances and make possession of the pills without a prescription a felony punishable by jail time and fines.
A bill that would classify the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV drugs – a category of drugs with the potential for abuse or dependence – passed the state’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday by a vote of 63-29. If the Senate Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican and vocal abortion opponent, will follow suit and likely sign the law into law.
The measure — which would put abortion pills in the same category as Xanax, Ambien and Valium — contradicts the way the federal government classifies mifepristone and misoprostol. The federal Food and Drug Administration does not consider abortion pills to be drugs with the potential for addiction or abuse, and decades of medical studies have found both to be exceedingly safe.
Under the legislation, possession of mifepristone or misoprostol without a prescription in Louisiana could be punishable by 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 oppose them.
“These drugs are increasingly being delivered from outside our state and country to women and girls in our state,” Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, said in a statement on social media. “This legislation does NOT prohibit the prescription and dispensing of these medications in Louisiana for legal and legitimate reasons.”
Louisiana already bans most abortions except when a woman’s life or health is in danger or a fetus has fatal medical conditions. As a result, abortion rights advocates and legal scholars said the measure might not, in practice, prevent many abortions among Louisiana women. Since the state imposed its strict abortion ban after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade repealed, many patients have traveled to states where abortion is legal or have received pills under shield laws from doctors or nurses in other states who prescribe the drugs and ship them to Louisiana. Experts say such circumstances would not be affected by the new draft law.
“The most important part of this is probably from an anti-abortion standpoint is creating the impression that these drugs are unsafe and stigmatizing their use, possession and acquisition – and trying to ensure that people in Louisiana who “You know, get pills online and others are just more reserved,” said David S. Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University who supports abortion rights.
He said those who would face penalties under the law would be informal networks of volunteers who supply over-the-counter pills to some communities, as well as women who are not pregnant but order abortion pills just in case.
The measure, supported by Louisiana Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, has infuriated hundreds of doctors and medical students in the state who signed a letter opposing the law. Doctors noted that mifepristone and misoprostol have many other medical uses. Misoprostol is commonly used to prevent ulcers and also to aid labor during childbirth. Both medications are used to help women who experience miscarriages.
“Adding a safe, medically indicated drug to treat miscarriage, prevent ulcers, or induce normal labor to a narcotic regimen creates the false belief that these are dangerous drugs that require additional regulation,” it says the letter. “Overall, this creates fear and confusion among patients, physicians and pharmacists, delaying treatment and worsening outcomes,” the letter continued.
Sarah Zagorski Jones, a spokeswoman for Louisiana Right to Life, said the bill means “giving law enforcement more authority to stop abuses of street and online pill distribution.” The bill should not impact prescribers or pregnant women who are not seeking an abortion but need the drug to manage complications or labor, she added.
The proposal to reclassify the two drugs in Louisiana was a late change to another bill that would criminalize forced abortions and create a crime called “forced criminal abortion by fraud.” Both the bill and the amendment were introduced by state Sen. Thomas Pressly, a Republican from Shreveport, after his sister’s husband pleaded guilty to secretly putting misoprostol in her water cups in an unsuccessful attempt to terminate a pregnancy. (She gave birth, but the baby was born prematurely.)
In a statement in late April when the bill was amended, Mr. Pressly said it came about after “trying to figure out what other steps I can take to control the rampant illegal distribution of abortion drugs that ultimately harmed my sister.” have.”
“My sister’s story is clear evidence that these drugs are being used as weapons and pose a threat to public health,” he added. “By adding these drugs to the controlled substance list, we are helping law enforcement protect vulnerable women and unborn children.”
Opponents of the measure said the use of the drugs for conditions such as miscarriages and ulcer treatment may be more directly affected by the legislation than abortions.
“What really worries us is that people will have the false idea that a drug is now ultimately dangerous and that their doctors are trying to poison them,” Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the director of the New Orleans Health Department, who helped organize the letter opposing the measure.
Dr. Avegno, an emergency medicine physician, said Schedule IV drugs come with certain logistical hurdles, such as additional steps for picking up prescriptions at pharmacies or potentially requiring paper prescriptions, which could cause delays. For example, if a woman who has a miscarriage on a weekend is bleeding heavily and needs misoprostol, the new law could require her to see a doctor and get a paper prescription, forcing her to do so for a day or two depending on her illness waiting makes things worse.
Or, said Dr. Avegno: “Imagine you’re in labor and your gynecologist says, ‘Oh, you need misoprostol to ripen your cervix so we can advance labor safely,’ and this woman thinks, Wait, why is she giving me the dangerous? Drug?”
Louisiana has already seen some confusion over its strict abortion laws, including a case in which a mother was denied an abortion because her baby had developed a fatal condition that was not specifically listed as a medical exception.
Michelle Erenberg, executive director of Lift Louisiana, a reproductive rights organization, said her group and others are exploring a possible legal challenge if the measure passes, saying she has “concerns about this being repeated in other states.”
Abortion rights have proven to be a major political issue for Democrats, and they have already used the Louisiana bill as a campaign issue. The Biden campaign held a briefing for reporters on the measure on Wednesday and sent out an email that read, “Trump did this: Louisiana MAGA Republicans vote to criminalize possession of abortion drugs.”
But in Louisiana, there appears to be little sign that a broad swath of the state’s electorate will turn against state lawmakers for their continued efforts to restrict access to abortion. In his previous role as attorney general, Gov. Landry repeatedly defended the state’s abortion ban in court before overwhelmingly winning his race for governor last year.
When Vice President Kamala Harris condemned the bill on social media as “totally unreasonable,” Mr. Landry fired back, saying her criticism meant “you know you’re doing something right.”
He added: “This bill protects expectant mothers while allowing these medications to be prescribed to those with a valid prescription.”
And there are still a number of anti-abortion Democrats in Louisiana who have won re-election in recent years. The state’s current abortion bans were signed into law by its former governor, John Bel Edwards, a conservative Democrat.
“I actually can’t think of a single race where a Republican lost because of the abortion issue,” said John Couvillon, a Republican pollster in Louisiana. “When we passed a fairly strong pro-life law with the help of a Democratic governor, it had no impact at all on the election results,” he added.
Kitty Bennett contributed to the research.
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2024-05-23 01:57:38
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