BATON ROUGE, La. — Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill into law that classifies abortion drugs as 'dangerous' and now makes it illegal to possess those drugs without a prescription.
Landry signed SB 276 bill on Friday. Anyone without a prescription for Mifepristone and Misoprostol could face up to 10 years in prison and $75,000 in fines.
“Requiring an abortion-inducing drug to be obtained with a prescription and criminalizing the use of an abortion drug on an unsuspecting mother is nothing short of common sense. This bill protects women across Louisiana and I was proud to sign this bill into law today,” said Governor Jeff Landry.
The drug combination was used in more than half of abortions nationwide last year, and the FDA said it's effective.
The reclassification requires doctors to have a special license to write a prescription and the drugs have to be stored in certain facilities.
"Sen. Pressly was inspired to sponsor this legislation after his sister was unknowingly poisoned by her former husband while she was pregnant by the abortion-inducing drug Misoprostol," the release said.
Read the rest of Gov. Landry's statement below:
"This bill requires Misoprostol to be obtained through a prescription, ensuring the safety of women and the unborn. It also creates the crime of coerced criminal abortion by means of fraud to prohibit a third party from knowingly using an abortion-inducing drug to cause, or attempt to cause, an abortion on an unsuspecting pregnant mother without her knowledge or consent."
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.