Louisiana reclassifies abortion pills as ‘controlled dangerous substances’

Beginning on Oct. 1, the two primary drugs used for medication abortions will be classified as Schedule IV drugs on Louisiana’s list of controlled dangerous substances.

Because of the state’s new classification, anyone in the state possessing the drugs without a valid prescription for mifepristone or misoprostol — the medications used in over half of abortions nationwide — could face up to five years in prison and be fined up to $5,000.

Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed Act 246 into law in May, putting the abortion drugs in the same category as potentially addictive prescription medications such as Xanax and Valium.

In addition to prescribing them for use in abortions, health care providers use mifepristone and misoprostol to treat miscarriages, induce labor during childbirth, and reduce the risk of bleeding from stomach ulcers.

Signe Espinoza, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates, told the Pennsylvania Independent that Louisiana’s new classification of the drugs will endanger women’s health.

“I think we know that this is just some manipulation tactic and trying to essentially block people from health care. It’s cruel. It’s just awful,” Espinoza told the Pennsylvania Independent. “Providers and folks in the public health infrastructure know that we need to meet patients where they’re at.”

Abortion is legal in Pennsylvania up to 23 weeks of pregnancy. 

Espinoza noted that attacks on access to abortion care were happening long before the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade.

“When Roe became the law of the land, we had over 145 providers in the state of Pennsylvania, and today we have 17. So super important to think about the true state of play of abortion access in the state, when thinking about what’s happening in other states and how that can impact Pennsylvania,” Espinoza said. 

According to reporting by the Washington Post, pharmacists in Louisiana are struggling to figure out which diagnosis codes they will have to use to prescribe the drugs and what the new classification will mean for patients. 

Jennifer Avegno, the director of the New Orleans Health Department, told the Post that the new medication regulations could cost patients their lives: “Most patients would likely make it. But I’ve seen myself what can happen when someone is bleeding out from a miscarriage. And a few minutes could mean life and death in some cases.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone, sold under the brand names Mifeprex and Korlym, in 2000 as the first part of a two-step nonsurgical abortion regimen with a second drug, misoprostol. 

Just months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling that reversed Roe v. Wade, an anti-abortion group challenged the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. The case went to the Supreme Court and in June 2024, it ruled against the challengers in the lawsuit on the grounds of standing.

“What we’re seeing here is a state saying that they can fly in the face of science and research, and say that a medication that has been proven safe for decades and has been used around the world to safely end people’s pregnancies, and also has a lot of other indications for use, can essentially be criminalized,” Farah Diaz-Tello, the senior counsel and legal director of If/When/How, an abortion rights legal group, told the Pennsylvania Independent.

“Essentially, what the state is doing is going against all of that and saying that these health care issues are now going to become more matters for the criminal legal system. And that puts providers at risk, it puts abortion seekers at risk, and it also keeps medications out of the hands of people who need them,” Diaz-Tello added. 

Landry wrote on X on May 24: “Requiring 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. This bill protects women across Louisiana and I was proud to sign this bill into law today.”

Abortion is totally banned in Louisiana except in extremely limited cases: to save the life of the pregnant person, to prevent serious risk to the pregnant person’s physical health, or if the fetus is not expected to survive the pregnancy.

In March, the Center for Reproductive Rights released a report documenting the results for patients of Louisiana’s abortion ban. The study details disproportionate harm to marginalized communities, a delay in abortion care for patients “facing serious and potentially life-threatening pregnancy complications and health conditions,” and an erosion of the level of care clinicians provide to patients due to fear of being charged with a crime.

Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has said he would veto any bill that restricted abortion. Republicans currently control the state Senate, while Democrats hold a slim majority in the House of Representatives.

“I know, for Pennsylvania, we have the governor as our backstop, and we’re hanging by a thread in the General Assembly. And so for us, it’s making sure that we are working with our allies, and making sure that this continues to be a critical top issue that reflects what people want. Leaving it to the states ignores what the people want,” Espinoza said.

Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey said the overturning of Roe was dangerous. In an online talk in June hosted by the progressive women’s organization Red Wine & Blue, he warned that electing both a Republican president and a Republican U.S. Senate majority could lead to nationwide bans on birth control and abortion medication.

Casey is running against Dave McCormick, a Republican former hedge fund CEO who said in May 2022 that the overturning of Roe “would be a huge victory for the protection of innocent life and rightfully puts the issue of life back into the hands of the states.”