Louisiana’s new law on abortion drugs creates risky delays in treatment, lawsuits allege

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Louisiana’s new law that categorizes two commonly used abortion drugs as “controlled dangerous substances” was challenged Thursday in a lawsuit by a doctor, a pharmacist and others who say the legislation causes unnecessary, dangerous delays in treatment during medical emergencies .

Although Louisiana already had a near-total ban on abortion, including medications, the reclassification of the drugs — mifepristone and misoprostol, which also have other critical uses in reproductive health care — went into effect earlier this month. Supporters of the law said greater oversight and control over the drugs was needed to prevent forced abortions. They took as an example a case from Texas in which a pregnant woman was given seven misoprostol pills by her husband without her knowledge. The child survived.

Doctors critical of the law have said it could harm patients dealing with emergency complications, such as postpartum hemorrhage, by requiring medical staff to go through extra steps and stricter storage requirements to use the drugs.

“Even brief delays in obtaining misoprostol can be life-threatening for postpartum hemorrhage patients,” the lawsuit says. It says the law violates the Louisiana Constitution in several ways, including a ban on discrimination based on a person’s physical condition.

Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill said she had lost sight of the lawsuit as of Thursday afternoon. “I cannot comment on a lawsuit that we have not yet seen, but I am confident that this law is constitutional,” she said in a statement. “We will defend it vigorously.”

In addition to the doctor and pharmacist, who the lawsuit alleges are pregnant, plaintiffs in the case include the Birthmark Doula Collective, an organization of people trained to provide pregnancy care before, during and after birth.

Other plaintiffs include Nancy Davis, a woman who was denied an abortion in Louisiana and traveled out of state after learning her fetus would not survive. A woman who said she was turned away from two emergency rooms rather than receive treatment for a miscarriage is also part of the lawsuit.

Prior to the reclassification, a prescription was still required to obtain mifepristone and misoprostol in Louisiana. The new law reclassified the pills as “Schedule IV drugs,” putting them in the same category as the opioid tramadol and other substances that can be addictive.

The new classification means that if someone knowingly possesses mifepristone or misoprostol without a valid prescription for any purpose, they could face a fine of up to $5,000 and a prison sentence of one to five years.

The law provides protection for pregnant women who obtain the drug without a prescription to take themselves.

The legislation is the first of its kind in the US. While Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, many Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion groups have touted the new classification, doctors have warned of deadly delays the law could cause.

Under the new classification, doctors say there are additional steps and stricter storage requirements, which could delay access to the drugs in emergency situations. In addition to inducing abortions, the pills are also used to treat miscarriages, induce labor and stop bleeding.

Before the law, some doctors said misoprostol would be kept in a box in the hospital room, on the delivery table, or in a nurse’s pocket. But under the classification’s new requirements, the medications could be stored down the hall in a locked container or possibly in smaller hospitals’ on-site pharmacies.

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McGill reported from New Orleans.

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