A North Louisiana lawmaker is sponsoring a bill to make common pregnancy medications “controlled dangerous substances.” On Tuesday, the House approved Senate Bill 276 by a vote of 64-29. Now SB276 is headed back to the senate for final passage. As Rosemary Westwood with Louisiana Radio Network reports, the proposed legislation would make possession of the drugs, without valid prescriptions, a crime punishable by fines, jail time or both. The bill by state Senator Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, would make mifepristone and misoprostol Schedule IV controlled dangerous substances in Louisiana. That would make them harder to get — and allow the state to track every prescription to every patient.
The bill is aimed at stopping people from ordering the pills online, despite Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban. But the medications are also routinely used in reproductive medicine: to induce labor, treat miscarriages, or hemorrhaging after birth.
Among the bill’s opponents is the Louisiana Society of Addiction Medicine.
Greg Caudill is the organization’s past president. "That's a biological and medical list with biological and medical underpinnings. And to get away from that, I think it's a mistake.
Scheduled drugs are supposed to be listed based on their potential for addiction — such as opioids. But mifepristone and misoprostol are not considered addictive. Pressly’s bill is supported by Louisiana Right to Life. The proposal actually came as an amendment to Senate Bill 276 after the Senate unanimously approved the original bill. Sen. Pressly had cited a family ordeal that motivated him to draft legislation against abortion by fraud, focusing on people using abortion drugs on pregnant women without their consent.
