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House OKs restrictions on pills that can be used for abortions, sends bill back to Senate
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BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana House has approved a bill that would classify a pair of drugs used in medical abortions as controlled substances, rejecting claims that restricting their distribution could harm women who live in rural parishes or have limited access to doctors and pharmacies.
The proposal was billed as a way to prevent attempts to induce abortions in unsuspecting women. State Sen. Thomas Pressley of Shreveport said his ex-brother-in-law had slipped an abortion-inducing drug into his sister's drink without her knowledge. The contamination prompted the woman to give birth to a child 10 weeks early. Mingling dangerous substances is already against the law, and the man was sentenced to jail for a half-year.
Following the 64-29 vote Tuesday, the bill was sent back to the Senate for concurrence in a minor amendment. The bill would go into effect this fall.
Rep. Mandie Landry, on the House floor, sought to amend the bill to remove the drugs' addition to Louisiana's Schedule IV list of controlled substances, which also includes Xanax. Drugs that are often subject to abuse are listed by the state, though through Tuesday's debate few suggested that misoprostol and mifepristone are habit-forming.
Landry also argued that, with tighter restrictions on the drugs, women needing them for a legitimate use might have trouble obtaining them if they lived miles or hours from a pharmacy that carries them. Misoprostol, for instance, can be used to induce labor in pregnant women, and treat ulcers.
Most abortions are illegal in Louisiana, and have been since 2022, whether surgical or with the combination of misoprostol and mifepristone.
The names of patients who receive controlled drugs, and the doctors who prescribe them, are kept on lists at the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy.
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