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First-of-its-kind laws that classifies two abortion-inducing medication as managed and harmful substances was signed into legislation Friday by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
The Republican governor introduced his signing of the invoice in Baton Rouge a day after it gained remaining legislative passage within the state Senate.
The measure impacts the medication mifepristone and misoprostol, that are utilized in treatment abortions, the commonest methodology of abortion within the U.S.
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Opponents of the invoice included many physicians who mentioned the medication produce other crucial reproductive well being care makes use of, and that altering the classification might make it tougher to prescribe the medicines.
Supporters of the invoice mentioned it could shield expectant moms from coerced abortions, although they cited just one instance of that occuring, within the state of Texas.
The invoice handed as abortion opponents await a remaining resolution from the U.S. Supreme Court docket on an effort to limit entry to mifepristone.
The brand new legislation will take impact on Oct. 1.
Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry speaks within the Home Chamber in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Jan. 15, 2024. (Michael Johnson/The Advocate by way of AP, Pool, File)
The invoice started as a measure to create the crime of “coerced felony abortion by the use of fraud.” An modification including the abortion medication to the Schedule IV classification of Louisiana’s Uniform Managed Harmful Substances Legislation was pushed by Sen. Thomas Pressly, a Republican from Shreveport and the primary sponsor of the invoice.
“Requiring an abortion inducing drug to be obtained with a prescription and criminalizing using an abortion drug on an unsuspecting mom is nothing wanting commonsense,” Landry mentioned in an announcement.
Present Louisiana legislation already requires a prescription for each medication and makes it against the law to make use of them to induce an abortion, normally. The invoice would make it tougher to acquire the tablets. Different Schedule IV medication embrace the opioid tramadol and a gaggle of depressants generally known as benzodiazepines.
Knowingly possessing the medication and not using a legitimate prescription would carry a punishment together with hefty fines and jail time. Language within the invoice seems to carve out protections for pregnant girls who receive the drug and not using a prescription for their very own consumption.
The classification would require docs to have a particular license to prescribe the medication, and the medication must be saved in sure amenities that in some instances might find yourself being situated removed from rural clinics.
Along with inducing abortions, mifepristone and misoprostol produce other widespread makes use of, akin to treating miscarriages, inducing labor and stopping hemorrhaging.
Greater than 200 docs within the state signed a letter to lawmakers warning that the measure might produce a “barrier to physicians’ ease of prescribing applicable therapy” and trigger pointless worry and confusion amongst each sufferers and docs. The physicians warn that any delay to acquiring the medication might result in worsening outcomes in a state that has one of many highest maternal mortality charges within the nation.
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Pressly mentioned he pushed the laws due to what occurred to his sister Catherine Herring, of Texas. In 2022, Herring’s husband slipped her seven misoprostol tablets in an effort to induce an abortion with out her data or consent.
Louisiana classifies abortion medication as managed, harmful substances
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