Press Release
Reproductive Freedom for All Statement on Louisiana Bill That Would Criminalize Medication Abortion
Washington, DC —Today, Republicans in the Louisiana State House advanced a bill that could criminalize the possession of abortion pills and list mifepristone and misoprostol to the state’s controlled dangerous substances list. Anyone without a prescription for the medications could face jail time. These safe, effective medications are used in medication abortion, the most common method of abortion care in the country, as well as for miscarriage management. This would be the first instance of a state declaring the medication as a controlled substance.
Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:
“Anti-abortion activists are willing to try and do anything and everything they can think of to block abortion access, and this bill proves it. These are safe and effective medications that don’t belong on the controlled substance list. These extremists were never going to stop with ending Roe. Emboldened by Trump ending the federal right to abortion, they are coming for all of our access to reproductive health care.”
The legislation is part of a larger effort for the GOP to criminalize all abortion, including by creating more barriers to accessing medication abortion with mifepristone. The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in another attempt by anti-abortion extremists’ to impose additional restrictions on mifepristone, and a ruling is expected in June. Medication abortion using mifepristone, which has been used safely for more than two decades, accounts for more than half of all abortion care nationwide and is now even more important in a post-Dobbs world. If it were further restricted throughout the country, it would create more barriers to accessing to abortion care.
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For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.