NEW ORLEANS (AP) 鈥� First-of-its-kind legislation that as controlled and dangerous substances was signed into law Friday by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
The Republican governor announced his signing of the bill in Baton Rouge a day after it gained final legislative passage in the state Senate.
The measure affects the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, which are used in medication abortions, the most common method of abortion in the U.S..
Opponents of the bill included many physicians who said the drugs have other critical reproductive health care uses, and that changing the classification could make it harder to prescribe the medications.
Supporters of the bill said it would protect expectant mothers from coerced abortions, though they cited only one example of that happening, in the state of Texas.
The bill passed as abortion opponents await a final decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on an effort to restrict access to mifepristone.
The new law will take effect on Oct. 1.
The bill began as a measure to create the crime of 鈥渃oerced criminal abortion by means of fraud.鈥� An amendment adding the abortion drugs to the Schedule IV classification of Louisiana's Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law was pushed by Sen. Thomas Pressly, a Republican from Shreveport and the main sponsor of the bill.
鈥淩equiring 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," Landry said in a statement.
Current Louisiana law already requires a prescription for both drugs and makes it a crime to use them to induce an abortion, in most cases. The bill would make it harder to obtain the pills. Other Schedule IV drugs include the opioid tramadol and a group of depressants known as benzodiazepines.
Knowingly possessing the drugs without a valid prescription would carry a punishment including hefty fines and jail time. Language in the bill appears to carve out protections for pregnant women who obtain the drug without a prescription .
The classification would require doctors to have a specific license to prescribe the drugs, and the drugs would have to be stored in certain facilities that in some cases could end up 小蓝视频 located far from rural clinics.
In addition to inducing abortions, mifepristone and misoprostol have other common uses, inducing labor and stopping hemorrhaging.
More than 200 doctors in the state to lawmakers warning that the measure could produce a 鈥渂arrier to physicians鈥� ease of prescribing appropriate treatment鈥� and cause unnecessary fear and confusion among both patients and doctors. The physicians warn that any delay to obtaining the drugs could lead to worsening outcomes in a state that has one of the in the country.
Pressly said he pushed the legislation because of what happened to his sister Catherine Herring, of Texas. In 2022, Herring鈥檚 husband in an effort to induce an abortion without her knowledge or consent.
Kevin Mcgill, The Associated Press
