Louisiana’s New Abortion Drug Law Creates Risky Treatment Delays, Lawsuit Alleges

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana. — A new Louisiana law classifying two widely used abortion drugs as “controlled dangerous substances” was challenged Thursday in state court by doctors, pharmacists and others who argue the law creates unnecessary and dangerous delays in treatment during medical emergencies. help.

While Louisiana already had a near-total ban on abortions, including medication abortions, a reclassification of these drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, which have other important uses in reproductive health care, went into effect earlier this month. Supporters of the law said greater drug surveillance and control was needed to prevent forced abortions. They used a case from Texas as an example, where a pregnant woman was given seven misoprostol tablets husband without her knowledge. The baby survived.

Doctors critical of the law say it could harm patients facing emergency complications such as postpartum hemorrhage, since medical staff would have to go through additional steps and stricter storage requirements to use the drugs.

“Even a short delay in access to misoprostol can be life-threatening for patients with postpartum hemorrhage,” the lawsuit states. It says the law violates the Louisiana Constitution for several reasons, including its prohibition of discrimination based on a person’s physical condition.

Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill said she had not seen the lawsuit as of Thursday afternoon. “I cannot respond to a lawsuit we have not 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 are pregnant, according to the lawsuit, plaintiffs in the case include the Birthmark Doula Collective, an organization of people trained to provide care to pregnant women before, during and after childbirth.

Other plaintiffs include Nancy Davisa woman who was denied an abortion in Louisiana and moved out of state after learning her fetus would not survive. The lawsuit also names a woman who said she was sent to two emergency rooms instead of being treated for a miscarriage.

Prior to the reclassification, a prescription was still required to purchase mifepristone and misoprostol in Louisiana. The new law reclassified the pills as “Schedule IV drugs,” placing 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 be fined up to $5,000 and jailed for one to five years.

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

This law is the first of its kind in the United States. While GOP Gov. Jeff Landry, many Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion groups touted the new classification, doctors warned of fatal delays what the law can cause.

Doctors say the new classification involves additional measures and stricter storage requirements that could slow access to drugs in emergency situations. In addition to inducing abortion, the pill is also used to treat miscarriages, induce labor and stop bleeding.

Before the law was passed, some doctors said misoprostol would be kept in a box in a hospital room, on the delivery table or in a nurse’s pocket. But under the new classification requirements, drugs may be stored in a hallway, in a locked container or perhaps in small hospitals’ own pharmacy.

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McGill reported from New Orleans.