June 4, 2024
Chemical Abortion Pills were declared a controlled substance in Louisiana – a monumental victory for the preborn, mothers, and The Pro-Life Generation. We celebrated the passage of The Catherine and Josephine Herring Act SB276 on May 23 – it has since been signed into effect by Gov. Jeff Landry.
The reactions from the pro-abortion industry and its Democrat puppets were what you would expect. Vice President Kamala Harris, abortions loudest cheerleader in the Biden administration, said on X (formerly Twitter): “Absolutely unconscionable. The Louisiana House just passed a bill that would criminalize the possession of medication abortion, with penalties of up to several years of jail time. Let’s be clear: Donald Trump did this”
Yet, the reaction is overwrought, because the reclassification of mifepristone and misoprostol to Schedule IV controlled dangerous substances is NOT outright banning them. It merely makes them a “medication” that can only be administered by a doctor, like most other commonly used pharmaceuticals are.
Does it make Chemical Abortion Pills harder to obtain? Absolutely – and even the Federal government agrees with this, if last year’s appropriations bill for Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration was any indication. It contained a provision prohibiting the mailing of the chemical abortion drug Mifepristone because of the extreme danger it poses not just to preborn children, but to mothers as well.
Chemical Abortion Pills are the most ubiquitous form of abortion in America – they make up six in 10 abortions in America, according to data from the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute. And that’s why their restriction matters so much; more than 60% of abortions are happening to women without any doctoral supervision or oversight.
Between 5-7% of women who take Chemical Abortion Pills will need a follow-up surgery to end the pregnancy. An Australian study noted that up to 8% of women who took the pills in that country ended up in an emergency room. Similar math is even reported by the abortion industry.
The pills cause four times the complications as surgical abortion, with a risk of death that is ten times higher, according to a National Institute of Health Study (NIH). The FDA reports numerous side effects.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HARMS OF CHEMICAL ABORTION PILLS, VISIT: THIS IS CHEMICAL ABORTION
Some young women have died as even the FDA reports, and a lawsuit has been filed in Nevada because the Chemical Abortion Pills sold by a Planned Parenthood abortion vendor reportedly contributed to a young woman’s death.
In another instance that was recently in the headlines, a Texas man slipped Chemical Abortion Pills into his wife’s drink, to cause her to have an abortion, only got 180 days (about six months) in prison.
Countless women have been exposed to injury, infertility, death, and abusers, as well as creating potential environmental harms.
And environmentally speaking, these pills could wreak havoc on our food supply and water supply. The EPA warns not to flush drugs, chemicals, and even goldfish. Hospitals dispose of placentas carefully as medical waste, and brick-and-mortar abortion vendors are supposed to follow state laws with human remains.
These substances can affect people in numerous significant ways, by impacting their reproductivity, mental development, hormone production and increase rates of cholesterol, cancer, and obesity.
This is a battle that SFLAction and our sister organization, Students for Life of America (SFLA) have been fighting for a long time:
- In February, SFLAction submitted a letter to Congress, alongside forty other pro-life leaders, to demand the EPA conduct regular and comprehensive environmental testing of PFAs just like any other “forever chemical.”
- We also submitted a legal analysis to EPA with detailed reasons to track Chemical Abortion Pills.
- SFLA also submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court for the S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine which took place last month.
- In multiple states, SFLAction lobbied to introduce and ensure passage of laws that would protect the environment from pollutants in Chemical Abortion Pills.
- Additionally, we submitted four petitions to the FDA demanding they:
- Add Red Bag Medical Waste requirements to reduce Chemical Abortion Pill pollution.
- Restore high health and safety standards (known as REMS – Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies) to protect women’s lives.
- Complete studies to ensure protection for endangered species.
- Comply with the Clean Water Act by requiring protection for water, especially recreational water.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FULL SCOPE AND IMPACT OF CHEMICAL ABORTION PILL POLLUTANTS IN WASTER WATER, CHECK OUT OUR WHAT’S IN THE WATER? CAMPAIGN
What is the ultimate impact of this law in Louisiana?
Long story short, the pro-abortion left is upset because it harms the bottom line of Planned Parenthood and its pill-pushing-partners in the pharmaceutical industry. This new law only slows the process down – it will not fully stop Chemical Abortion Pills being used for abortions, unfortunately. But doctors will now have to work with women and put their own reputations on the line to suggest abortion. Women will now have the time they need to carefully consider and think over the irreversible and devastating decision to abort their preborn child.
Those improvements, however slight, make this new Louisiana law worth celebrating.