By Elizabeth White
LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE–The Louisiana Senate Thursday approved a bill that would classify abortion
pills as dangerous controlled substances, sending it to Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk for his signature.
The Senate voted 29-7 to concur with a controversial House amendment on the bill, Senate Bill
276, despite pushback from some lawmakers, healthcare workers and women’s advocates.
Sen. Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, said his goal in writing the legislation was to protect
women from abortions coerced by fraud. He said his sister, Catherine Pressly Herring, was
slipped abortion-inducing drugs by her ex-husband without her consent.
Pressly’s original version of the bill, which created penalties such as prison sentences and
monetary fines for abortion coerced by fraud, passed the Senate with bipartisan support.
However, when the bill returned to the Senate, it received pushback due to an amendment
added by the House that would reclassify the drugs–mifepristone and misoprostol– s Schedule
IV drugs under the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law.
Landry’s signature on the bill would make Louisiana the first state to classify the drugs as
controlled substances. It also would make possession of them without a prescription a crime
punishable with jail time.
“Mischaracterizing misoprostol, a drug routinely and safely used on labor units throughout
the state, as a dangerous drug of abuse creates confusion, misinformation and harms
women seeking high-quality maternal care,” Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, said.
Physicians and healthcare providers have said reclassifying the drugs would make it harder
for them to prescribe them and could delay treatment, especially in rural areas. Since the
drugs are also used for reproductive health care needs, not just abortion, providers say
delays could cause more issues for the mother and the child.
Supporters of the amended bill disagreed, saying that it would not change how the drugs
are prescribed and that they would still be available to anyone with legitimate health care
reasons.
“Louisiana has been very clear: We do not prosecute women when they are seeking an
abortion, but we’re also very clear that abortion is not legal in Louisiana, and this bill does not
change that,” Pressly said. “What we’re simply doing is stating that we should be protecting
women like my sister from harmful bad actors that are trying to kill an unborn child and harm the
woman.”
Some lawmakers also raised concerns that providers would need a special license to prescribe
a Schedule IV drug. Pressly said that most health care providers already have the license, but
others have disagreed with him, saying most gynecologists do not have it.