Lawsuit challenges Louisiana law classifying mifepristone, misoprostol as controlled substances

Louisiana health care workers and advocates filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging a recently passed state law reclassifying two drugs used in medication abortions — mifepristone and misoprostol — as controlled and dangerous substances.

The lawsuit was filed in Louisiana’s 19th Judicial District Court and is seeking an injunction to stop the state from enforcing Act 246, which lists the medications as Schedule IV controlled and dangerous substances.

That classification is typically used for drugs that have a low risk of leading to physical dependence or a low risk for potential for abuse like Xanax, Valium and Ambien.

Louisiana became the first state to pass a law classifying the two medications as controlled substances in May and it went into effect Oct. 1.

Mifepristone and misoprostol are commonly used in medication abortions but are also used to treat conditions related to pregnancy like miscarriages or postpartum hemorrhaging as well as Cushing’s syndrome and gastric ulcers.

For some postpartum hemorrhage patients with preexisting conditions, misoprostol is the only available treatment, the lawsuit reads, adding that the condition is as “dangerous as a gunshot wound.”

“Patients experiencing postpartum hemorrhage lose as much blood, and as quickly, as patients suffering from a gunshot wound,” the lawsuit reads.

Plaintiffs said in the lawsuit the law has little if any impact on abortion access since abortion is almost entirely banned in the state.

Louisiana was one of 13 states to begin enforcing a trigger abortion ban, prohibiting abortions at all stages of pregnancy with few exceptions, after the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Instead, plaintiffs argue, the law subjects health care providers and their patients to a “highly regulated legal scheme” that delays access to potentially lifesaving medication.

Physicians in Louisiana need a special license to prescribe controlled substances and state officials track prescribers and the patients receiving the drugs along with the pharmacies that distribute them.

Both drugs are still available in hospitals to treat incomplete miscarriages and postpartum hemorrhaging but must be securely stored in a locked “cabinet, compartment or other system,” according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

The Louisiana Department of Health has yet to respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Under the current law, a prescription from a licensed provider is needed to access both mifepristone and misoprostol. Anyone found in possession of the drugs without a prescription can be fined up to $5,000 or sentenced to up to five years in prison.

The lawsuit also challenges the way in which Louisiana passed Act 246 with plaintiffs claiming lawmakers did not follow the state's constitutional process for passing bills.

“Access to safe, timely, and effective care is essential to reducing maternal mortality, especially for Black women who face higher rates of life-threatening complications,” one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the Birthmark Doula Collective, said in a statement.

“Restricting access to this essential medication not only endangers lives but also deepens the health disparities that disproportionately affect Black mothers and birthing people in our state.”