Louisiana House Votes To Jail People For Possessing Abortion Pills

The Louisiana state House voted Tuesday to add two common medications used for abortions to the state’s list of controlled, dangerous substances despite widespread evidence they’re perfectly safe and effective.

The medications in question, mifepristone and misoprostol, are already illegal to use for abortions in Louisiana, where the procedure has been completely outlawed since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022. But the legislation the House passed Tuesday would make possession of the medications without a valid prescription punishable by up to five years in prison ― even though they have uses beyond inducing abortion.

The first-of-its-kind proposal, which passed 64-29, now goes to the state’s Republican-controlled Senate. If it passes there, it will move on to Gov. Jeff Landry ®, who is expected to sign it.

The drugs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration and are the most common method of terminating pregnancy. In 2023, the Guttmacher Institute found the medications accounted for 63% of all abortions in the United States ― up 10% from 2020. Since its FDA approval in 2000, mifepristone ― the first of the two drugs taken to terminate a pregnancy ― has been used more than 5 million times, with fewer than 0.5% of users experiencing “serious adverse reactions.”

Democrats blasted the bill’s progress Tuesday.

“Louisiana Republicans already have a dangerous total abortion ban on the books that could threaten IVF access, and now they’re threatening jail time for simply possessing medication abortion pills,” Sam Paisley, press secretary for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said in a statement, calling the idea “outrageous.”

Voters should anticipate a Louisiana law like this being influential in other red