This week, Louisiana decided that the state’s near-total prohibition on abortion access wasn’t enough and moved to make the two drugs used in medication abortion — mifepristone and misoprostol — controlled substances in the state, with criminal penalties for possession without a prescription.
These prescriptions aren’t easy to get, given that Louisiana only makes narrow exceptions for life of the mother and fetal viability. People who procure abortion drugs for another person could face imprisonment, the same as if they were trafficking hard drugs.
The generally accepted and federally codified standards for a controlled substance are that it must have actual or relative potential for abuse, risk to public health, danger of creating psychological or physical dependence or be a precursor to other controlled substances, among other considerations.
Obviously, neither mifepristone nor misoprostol come close to satisfying these criteria. They are not coming from back alley labs but big pharmaceutical companies, with FDA approval, and have been studied for decades. No substantive medical analysis has ever identified public health harms from these drugs, nor even a high likelihood of side effects. They’re not addictive, they can’t be used to create controlled substances, they aren’t used recreationally or for purposes other than their indicated medical function.
So if the state can add FDA-approved abortion drugs to the list of controlled substances, then why not insulin? Why not penicillin, or blood pressure medication? Legally what’s the distinction? None of those drugs check any of the controlled substances boxes either. There are hundreds of other medications and substances that probably get much closer to the definition, but Louisiana is not moving to restrict those.
We all know why, but to enunciate it out loud gives the game away: Louisiana is not attempting to limit the possession and use of these medications because there’s anything wrong with the substances themselves, but because lawmakers disagree politically with the drugs’ use for abortion. This legislation is just one route they found to continue tamping down on the ability to receive abortion treatment, particularly as medication abortion moves in to fill the gaps left by the post-Roe world.
These medications, mailed from other states or overseas, are now the only way many women in states with abortion bans can realistically receive care, which is why anti-choice zealots are separately pursuing litigation to reverse the FDA’s approval of mifepristone altogether, on arguments that are everything but medical. Shame on Louisiana for opening up yet another front in this war on safe and effective treatment, to the detriment of its own population.
If women don’t have access to the medication they need, it won’t stop them from seeking abortions. The difference will be that these procedures will be far more dangerous, and in some cases deadly. There’s no justification for taking away what has long already been a proven option for women who, for whatever reason, cannot or do not want to carry their pregnancies to term. Lawmakers who will talk incessantly about personal freedom will be the first in line to foist their own ideological preferences on others, and take away their choices.
