Louisiana Governor Signs Bill to Classify Essential Pregnancy Care Pills as Controlled Dangerous Substances

Louisiana GOP Gov. Jeff Landry signs bill to reclassify abortion drugs into Schedule IV controlled dangerous substancesputting the pills in the same category as narcotics and depressants.

The first-of-its-kind law makes it a felony to possess misoprostol and mifepristone without a prescription and was signed by the governor a day after he won a final legislative vote in the state Senate.

Hundreds of doctors in Louisiana protested the bill, citing fears the law would affect patient care given how often misoprostol is used to save lives in pregnancy care. “Placing mifepristone and misoprostol on the controlled substance list is harmful and malicious,” state Rep. Maddy Landry said before the governor's signing. “It is purely a product of Louisiana Right to Life and their policy. Doctors and common sense are all against it.”

While the bill contains an exemption for pregnant women in possession of the drugs, anyone else without a prescription can be convicted of a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Louisiana has a near-total abortion ban effective August 2022, with no exceptions for rape or incest, and narrow exceptions for the life of the pregnant woman and “medically futile” pregnancies.

Misoprostol and mifepristone both have other clinical uses, but have come under increased scrutiny because the pills can be taken to cause an abortion. Gynecologists in the state argue that since abortion is illegal, they do not use the pills for this purpose and rarely use mifepristone at all. They emphasize that misoprostol is used daily to treat miscarriage, to induce labor, to stop postpartum bleeding, and to prepare the cervix for medical procedures. Health care workers have expressed concern that the reclassification will be harmful to their patients and potentially delay care in life-or-death situations.