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First-of-its-kind legislation that classifies two abortion-inducing drugs as controlled and dangerous substances was signed into law Friday by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
The Republican governor announced his signing of the bill in Baton Rouge a day after it gained final legislative passage in the state Senate.
The measure affects the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, which are used in medication abortions, the most common method of abortion in the U.S.
BLUE STATE GOV SIGNS BILL TO HELP DOCTORS EVADE NEIGHBORING STATE’S ABORTION LAW: ‘OPPRESSIVE AND DANGEROUS’
Opponents of the bill included many physicians who said the drugs have other critical reproductive health care uses, and that changing the classification could make it harder to prescribe the medications.
Supporters of the bill said it would protect expectant mothers from coerced abortions, though they cited only one example of that happening, in the state of Texas.
The bill passed as abortion opponents await a final decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on an effort to restrict access to mifepristone.
The new law will take effect on Oct. 1.
Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry speaks in the House Chamber in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Jan. 15, 2024. (Michael Johnson/The Advocate via AP, Pool, File)
The bill began as a measure to create the crime of “coerced criminal abortion by means of fraud.” An amendment adding the abortion drugs to the Schedule IV classification of Louisiana’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law was pushed by Sen. Thomas Pressly, a Republican from Shreveport and the main sponsor of the bill.
“Requiring an abortion inducing drug to be obtained with a prescription and criminalizing the use of an abortion drug on an unsuspecting mother is nothing short of common-sense,” Landry said in a statement.
Current Louisiana law already requires a prescription for both drugs and makes it a crime to use them to induce an abortion, in most cases. The bill would make it harder to obtain the pills….
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