The bill categorizes them as Schedule IV, meaning possession would be illegal for anyone who doesn’t have a prescription or is a licensed provider.
Violators would be subject to up to five years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. It would exempt from prosecution pregnant women who possess the pills “for her own consumption,” but anyone who helps women get the pills would be at risk.
What’s next: The state Senate passed the bill by a 29-7 vote Thursday, days after it passed the state House. It now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, who is expected to sign it.
Landry, an abortion opponent, has yet to officially weigh in on the measure.
But in a post on a personal social media account earlier this week, he referenced Vice President Harris’s criticism of the bill.
“You know you’re doing something right when @KamalaHarris criticizes you,” Landry wrote on the social platform X. “This bill protects expectant mothers while also allowing these drugs to be prescribed to those with a valid prescription.”
What stakeholders say:
- Abortion rights advocates said the legislation will create a chilling effect and adds more hurdles for prescribers and pharmacists.
- Lawmakers said the bill is aimed at stopping abortion drugs being used without physician oversight.
- Hundreds of doctors in the state have spoken out against the legislation, warning that it could lead to worsening outcomes in a state that has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country.
Context: Abortion is almost entirely banned in Louisiana, meaning abortion pills are also illegal under the law. But women are still able to get the pills in the mail from providers in blue states protected by telehealth shield laws.
Anti-abortion advocates say medication abortion is dangerous, despite much evidence that shows otherwise, and recently argued that point at the Supreme Court in an attempt to limit access to mifepristone.
