Christian Smith
(The hill) – Louisiana could soon become the first state to criminalize the possession without a prescription of mifepristone and misoprostol, the two medications used to induce a medical abortion.
The move opens a new front in the fight over abortion pills and could threaten to further restrict access in a state that bans nearly all abortions.
It’s the latest attempt by anti-abortion politicians in Louisiana to control access to one of the most common abortion methods in the country. This comes as the Supreme Court is deliberating a case from anti-abortion doctors seeking to limit access to mifepristone.
Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Legislature added a last-minute amendment classifying drugs as controlled substances to a state Senate bill that would create the crime of “criminally coerced abortion through fraud” — where someone knowingly gives abortion pills to a pregnant woman without her knowledge or consent.
The underlying bill was sponsored by Republican State Senator Thomas Pressly.
The amendment added the drugs to Louisiana’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Act, which regulates drugs that can be highly addictive, such as opioids, ephedrine and antidepressants.
The amendment would criminalize possession for anyone who does not have a prescription or is a licensed supplier and would subject offenders to up to five years in prison. It would exempt pregnant women who possessed the pills “for their own use” from prosecution, but anyone who helped them obtain the pills would be at risk.
The change would also apparently make it illegal for a woman to have the pills on hand even if she is not pregnant and plans to take them imminently, a practice known as “advance distribution” that has become increasingly popular in states where abortion is prohibited.
Louisiana already bans surgical and medical abortions except to save a patient’s life or because the pregnancy is “medically futile.” Lawmakers last week rejected a bill that would have added exceptions for rape and incest cases.
In an open letter to Pressly, a group of more than 200 Louisiana doctors strongly condemned the change.
“Neither mifepristone nor misoprostol has been shown to have any potential for abuse, dependence, public health risk, nor high rates of adverse side effects,” they wrote.
“Adding a safe, medically indicated medication for the treatment of miscarriage… to a list of controlled substances creates the false perception that these are dangerous medications that require additional regulation,” the letter noted.
The amended bill has already passed the Senate and will come up for a final vote in the Louisiana House before June 3.
Forced abortion is already a crime in Louisiana, but state Rep. Mandie Landry (D) told The Hill that no one opposed legislation that would make it applicable to abortion pills as well, especially since the issue was so personal to Pressly.
During a Senate hearing last month, Pressly’s sister, Catherine Herring, described how her then-husband secretly slipped an abortion pill into her drink in 2022. Doctors were able to stop the process, but her son was born prematurely with developmental problems.
The ex-husband was sentenced to just 180 days in prison. Under Pressly’s bill, the perpetrator would face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $75,000 fine.
Landry said the addition of the amendment, which was written with the help of Louisiana Right to Life and added after the Senate passed the bill, “caught” Democrats by surprise.
In a statement after the bill was introduced in the House, Pressly said the change was necessary because abortion drugs are being “weaponized and are a public health risk.”
“I recognize that there are legitimate medical uses for these medications beyond elective abortion. Louisiana law is clear that if abortion-inducing medications are used for purposes other than elective abortion, their use is legal. The medical community is very familiar with the use of controlled substances in the course of medical practice,” Pressly said.
Abortion rights advocates have said the legislation will create a chilling effect and make it more difficult for women to access legitimately safe medicines.
Misoprostol has especially broad applications in reproductive health, including in inducing labor, softening the cervix during surgical procedures, and in the medical treatment of miscarriage. It is also on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines.
“It’s an attempt to put misoprostol and mifepristone back under lock and key,” said Kirsten Moore, director of the Expanding Access to Medication Abortion Project. “This will only create more burden and chaos in the health care delivery system. And this is going to fall not just on people seeking abortion care, but also on people who are pregnant and want to get pregnant and are trying to end the pregnancy, doing whatever the doctor wants them to do.”
