While we are a decidedly pro-life state via the laws passed in Louisiana, the hastily amended Senate Bill 276 created a completely unnecessary law. In 2022, we created Act 548 that made mifepristone and misoprostol illegal for distribution without a prescription, including receiving the drugs via mail. This preserved these medications for routine medically indicated uses — and kept the doctor-patient relationship intact without additional barriers.
Let me be clear, I am against anyone falsely giving a pregnant mom any medications that would force her to have an abortion. Doing this is poisoning the mom, and it should remain illegal — regardless of the drug given.
The only real purpose of SB 276 is to control the practice of medicine. Mifepristone and misoprostol are used to facilitate safe childbirth; andtreat uterine hemorrhages and miscarriages, as well as for other non-OB indications such as GI ulcer prevention. Labeling these two commonly and safely used medications as abortion drugs is a false narrative and distracts from their main use in helping women keep their fertility intact. Why would a “right to life” state, with some of the worst outcomes for women and infants, make it more difficult to keep pregnancies healthy? One can only conclude that the answer is to control doctors and patients for political purposes.
Reclassifying the drugs as Schedule IV, the same classification as Valium, Xanax and Tramadol, is scientifically inaccurate. Patients now will be confused and misinformed about the use of these drugs — and what is to stop legislators from adding other medications they don’t like for nonmedical reasons?
Sadly, Louisiana continues to lose OB-GYNs and other specialists who are moving to other states with more family-friendly laws.
Being ranked at the bottom of the list for maternal health care is not pro-life.
Listening to doctors and patients is.
AIMEE ADATTO FREEMAN
Louisiana state representative, District 98
