Louisiana Republican Says Criminalizing Possession of Abortion Pills Is “Good for Women”

Louisiana Republicans voted on Thursday to classify mifepristone and misoprostol, the medications prescribed for abortions, as dangerous controlled substances. They did so under the guise of helping pregnant women though, of course, that is absolutely not what the legislation will do.

The bill, which now heads to Republican governor Jeff Landry’s desk, makes possessing the drugs without a prescription a crime that could lead to jail time and thousands of dollars in fines. Louisiana is already home to one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country; lawmakers there recently rejected a plea for child rape victims to be able to end their pregnancies. Currently, virtually all abortions are prohibited, except in certain situations where the mother’s life is in danger, or the fetus is not viable—but even then, the medical procedure can be difficult to obtain.

By classifying mifepristone and misoprostol as dangerous controlled substances, critics of the bill say it will make it unnecessarily difficult for doctors to get the drugs to people who need them. Michelle Erenberg, executive director of reproductive rights group Lift Louisiana, told The New York Times that in cases of bleeding during a miscarriage, “things can change for the worse very quickly,” and medical professionals fear they might not be able to “quickly call in a prescription for these medications the way that they currently are able to do.” Doctors have also stressed that the drugs in question have other uses beyond abortion, including stopping postpartum hemorrhages, which just so happens to be one of the top causes of maternal mortality. “What it’s going to do is make it harder to use these drugs safely and legally,” Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the director of the New Orleans Health Department, told the Times. “It’s going to create confusion, fear, barriers to using these drugs for all of their non-abortion indications,” she added. (Misoprostol is also used to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal ulcers and to induce labor in people who are ready to give birth.)

In the understatement of the century, State Senator Thomas Pressly, who sponsored the bill, told colleagues Thursday: “I understand that it may give some in this body some heartburn. But I truly believe this is the right step for making sure that the criminal action on the front end is stopped.” Meanwhile, State Senator Heather Miley Cloud told lawmakers, “The benefit of this bill far outweighs the risk,” adding, “This is good for women.”