USA
The Republican majority legislators of the state of Louisiana, in the southern United States, gave their final approval this Thursday to a bill that criminalizes the possession of abortion pills without a medical prescription
The law was approved in the state Congress by 29 votes in favor and 7 against in the Senate and 64-29 in the House of Representatives and is the first in the country to classify the mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled and dangerous substances, equating them to Valium and Xanax.
Possession of these medications without a prescription will be punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $5,000. Only authorized doctors would be exempt, as would pregnant women if they have the medication ordered for their own use.
The state governor, the Republican Jeff Landrysign it without obstacles.
You may be interested in: Debate over abortion is still alive throughout the United States
Medical abortion represented 63% of pregnancy terminations performed last year in the United Statesup from 53% in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Some 20 states have banned or restricted abortion since the judges of the Supreme Court who revoked the case in 2022 “Roe v. Wade”the historic ruling that enshrined the constitutional right to abortion for half a century.
