Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill testified before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Wednesday on what she describes as the dangers of telemedicine abortions.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill testified before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Wednesday on what she describes as the dangers of telemedicine abortions.
Murrill’s office indicted a California doctor this week for criminal abortion by means of trafficking abortion drugs, which are illegal in Louisiana.
The state has also issued an arrest warrant for the same physician, alleging he prescribed abortion medication to a Louisiana woman who says she was forced to take it by her boyfriend.
Louisiana indicts California doctor for 2023 medication abortion | WRKF
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said Wednesday morning that California has yet to receive a formal extradition request from Louisiana.
During testimony, Murrill cited cases where she said the life of a pregnant woman was endangered because pills were taken after being sent through the mail. The Biden administration removed the requirement for in-person prescription of abortion medications during COVID, after medical evidence showed it was as safe to take them through telemedicine as it was after an in-person visit.
Murrill argued the requirement must be reinstated
“Until then, Louisiana's efforts to protect mothers and their unborn children and to hold out-of-state abortion pill traffickers accountable for the harm they inflict will be all but futile,” Murrill said.
Abortions in Louisiana have been on the rise since the state banned abortions, directly as a result of women being able to have the medications sent to them in the mail to end their pregnancies.
Dr. Nisha Verma, a Georgia OB/GYN, said during her testimony that the reason Louisiana is seeing an increase in complications from abortion medications is due to the state’s abortion ban, which has outlawed supervised and safe abortions.
” What's limiting people's ability to get that additional care is abortion bans and restrictions,” said Verma. “That is why we are seeing these cases, because patients can't get that follow-up care in their communities. They're scared to go to the hospital if they need to because of fear of being criminalized.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who’s also a physician, chairs the committee.
To view the entire testimony, click here.
