Louisiana Classifies Abortion Pills as “Controlled Substances”

Earlier this month, state legislators overwhelmingly adopted the law by a vote of 27-9 in the Senate and 63-29 in the House. The law criminalizes possessing the two-drug regimen without a valid prescription adding it to the state’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances list. In addition, the measure also makes it a crime to coerce “criminal abortion by means of fraud,” which is the act of giving Mifepristone to an unsuspecting pregnant woman to induce an abortion.

The law specifically exempts pregnant women from any prosecution for possessing the drugs for her own consumption. For all others, the measure levies steep penalties for violations including potential jail time and fines up to $5,000 for possession. Punishments for coerced abortions can carry up to five to 10 years’ worth of jail time and fines between $10,000 and $100,000 depending on the gestational age of the child during the crime.

Louisiana already protects women and unborn babies with a near-total abortion ban, with exceptions to preserve the mother’s life and for fetal anomalies where the baby is unlikely to survive outside the womb. Under these exceptions, Mifepristone and Misoprostol could be prescribed. 

But under the drugs’ new classification, doctors will need a special license to prescribe for both the noted abortion exceptions and as well as treating women suffering from miscarriage complications, for which Misoprostol can also be prescribed. In addition, the abortion drugs will need to be stored in special facilities. The law will take effect October 1, 2024.

State Senator Thomas Pressly, the law’s chief sponsor, named the bill “The Catherine and Josephine Herring Act” after his sister was unsuspectingly given Mifepristone by her then-husband. He had obtained the drugs in Mexico. The drugs caused Catherine serious, lasting side effects and the premature birth of her daughter, Josephine, who survived. Pressly noted his sister discovered the “poison” attempts and then took the abortion reversal pill to save Josephine’s life. Mason Herring later pleaded guilty to assaulting a pregnant person and injuring a child and was sentenced to 180 days in jail.

Upon signing the bill into law, Gov. Landry stated, “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.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill stated the new law does not prevent the drugs from being prescribed for “legal and legitimate reasons,” but rather could help curtail illegal shipping of the drugs from outside the state and country to women and girls in the state.

The enactment of the bill comes ahead of an expected U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding Mifepristone that may affect the drug’s nationwide availability. The High Court heard oral arguments in March 2024 involving the FDA’s sweeping deregulation of Mifepristone allowing the drug to be used through the 10th week of pregnancy and allowing the drug to be prescribed by non-physicians, through telehealth appointments, and sent through the mail. 

A group of pro-life doctors challenged the FDA’s removal of critical safeguards that allowed near-unfettered access to Mifepristone despite the drug’s questionable safety record.

In September 2023, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily reversed the FDA’s deregulation of Mifepristone after determining that the FDA violated federal law, ignored science, and failed to put the health and safety of women first while evaluating and deregulating the drug. The FDA appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court and the forthcoming decision may determine how Mifepristone is prescribed and distributed in the future.

According to the latest study produced by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, chemical abortions accounted for 63 percent of all abortions in 2023. That is 642,700 of the estimated 1,026,690 abortions tracked by the U.S. health care system last year, an increase from 53 percent in 2020.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Chemical abortions harm women and cruelly kill defenseless children in the womb. Abortion clinics have attempted to thwart the laws of the states by distributing abortion drugs that contravene the clear intent of the duly passed legislation. This is a commonsense law will protect women and children.”