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Louisiana governor signs bill making abortion drugs controlled dangerous substances

Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022. Drugstore chains CVS Health and Walgreens plan to start dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone in a few states. CVS Health will start filling prescriptions for the medication in Rhode Island and neighboring Massachusetts “in the weeks ahead,” spokeswoman Amy Thibault said Friday, March 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed, File)
Allen G. Breed
/
AP
Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022.

First-of-its-kind legislation that classifies two abortion-inducing drugs as controlled and dangerous substances was signed into law Friday by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.

The Republican governor announced his signing of the bill in Baton Rouge a day after it gained final legislative passage in the state Senate.

Opponents of the measure included many physicians who said the drugs have other critical reproductive health care uses, and that changing the classification could make it harder to prescribe the drugs.

Supporters of the bill, which affects the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, said it would protect expectant mothers from coerced abortions, though they cited only one example of that happening, in the state of Texas.

Associated Press