This story was originally published by Louisiana Illuminator
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a lawsuit this week that calls on the federal government to strike down rules that allow the distribution of abortion drugs without an in-person doctor’s visit. It’s her latest attempt to place restrictions on out-of-state shipments of mifepristone, a medication that used to terminate pregnancies but that also has other life-saving and gynecological uses.
Murrill filed suit Monday against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Lafayette’s federal court district. It calls for the agency to reverse regulatory action it took in 2023 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing doctors to prescribe mifepristone through remote patient visits or — as the lawsuit claims — without any interaction with a medical professional. (Read the lawsuit below)
“As a consequence, hundreds of unlawful abortions occur every month in Louisiana,” the lawsuit said
A similar case to stop mail-order mifepristone went before the U.S. Supreme Court last year. Justices ruled unanimously that the doctors and medical groups who filed the lawsuit didn’t have legal standing as plaintiffs, and they did not consider the merits of the case.
Joining Murrill as a plaintiff in the new case is Rosalie Markezich, a Louisiana woman who said her boyfriend coerced her into taking mifepristone he obtained in October 2023 from a California doctor.
Murrill has issued an arrest warrant for the physician, Dr. Remy Coeytaux. She’s the second health care provider the attorney general has attempted to take into custody to face charges in Louisiana.
The attorney general also wants to prosecute a New York physician, Dr. Margaret Carpenter, who she said shipped abortion drugs to a West Baton Rouge woman for her pregnant minor daughter. The physician and the girl’s mother were indicted in January for allegedly violating a 2022 state law that makes it a crime to knowingly cause an abortion through medication.
States where abortion remains legal have thwarted prosecutors with laws that protect medical providers from being prosecuted in states where abortion is banned. Murrill and 14 other Republican attorneys general have urged Congress to strike down such “shield” laws.
Murrill also supported a first-of-its-kind state law Louisiana approved last year that treats mifepristone and misoprostol, another reproductive care medication, as Schedule IV controlled substances. The designation requires doctors and medical facilities to follow much stricter storage and dispensing guidelines.
Other uses for the drugs include treating ulcers, severe postpartum hemorrhages and to aid in the insertion of intra-uterine devices and diagnostic hysteroscopies.
Doctors have said the new law has created difficulties for their patients obtaining the drugs from pharmacies for routine gynecological care.
In defense of the Schedule IV law, Murrill labelled these firsthand reports from care providers and patients as attempts from the news media, political organizations and opposition candidates “to sow confusion and doubt” in order to “further their own financial and/or political agendas.”