Recently updated on October 5th, 2024 at 01:08 pm
Louisiana Republicans didn’t think they’d gone far enough—the abortion ban wasn’t draconian enough—that they had to go farther. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill that adds the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol to Schedule IV of the state’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law. The bill passed 64-29 and will now go to the Senate for approval before landing on the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
Louisiana’s Abortion ban
The abortion ban has no exceptions for rape or incest. The only exception is for the life of the mother in extremely limited cases. The text of the bill states that the doctor must to everything possible before resorting to an abortion. In cases where the fetus has died, there must be an ultrasound and medical record entry as proof before an abortion can be performed. There are criminal charges for any pregnant woman who has an abortion after 15 weeks and for the physician who performs an abortion after 15 weeks, Both charges could result in a fine of $10,000 – $100,000 and/or 1-10 years in prison,
The new Abortion pill law
They say they won’t prosecute a pregnant woman who is in possession of the pills. According to NBC News:
The legislation would make possession of the medications without valid prescriptions or orders from medical professionals punishable by up to five years in prison. Pregnant people who obtain the medications for their own consumption would not be subject to prosecution, according to the legislation.
If you’ve ever gone to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for a controlled substance, you know the hoops you need to jump through to get it. Keep in mind that most states have a database of people who have been prescribed controlled substances that can be accessed by any pharmacist or doctor in the state. Will Republican officials be monitoring the database? Is that why they’re doing this? It would be a sly way of getting around the backlash and privacy concerns around other methods of monitoring women.
Medical professionals disagree with the move
Doctors and medical professionals in Louisiana, the only state to make this move, are speaking out against the bill. From NBC News:
Medical professionals have spoken out against the measure, saying the medications have critical uses outside of abortion care, including aiding in labor and delivery, treating miscarriage and preventing gastrointestinal ulcers.
“They are safe and effective, and they are not dangerous drugs of abuse to be on a schedule of a controlled dangerous substance list,” the director of the New Orleans Health Department, Dr. Jennifer Avegno, an emergency medicine physician, told NBC News on Tuesday. “From a medical standpoint, health care providers think this is bad science and not well-informed.
“This is not about abortion. This is about using these drugs, routinely, for many, many other things. Mainly, number one, to facilitate safe childbirth, number two, miscarriage management,” she said.
Dr. Avegno’s statement about this bill being “bad science and not well-informed” has been one of the points made by opponents of abortion bans. Government officials are not medical professionals and should not be passing laws on the health care of women in America; a free country.
