Louisiana governor signs bill classifying abortion pills as controlled substances

May 24 (UPI) -- Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said Friday he has signed into law a bill making abortion pills a controlled substance and criminalizing possession without a prescription.

The law classifies mifepristone and misoprostol, the two pills used in a regimen to terminate early pregnancies, as Schedule IV substances, putting them in the same category as addictive substances such as opioids.

Under the new law, it is illegal to possess the drugs in Louisiana without a prescription. Pregnant women who have the drugs for their own use are exempt from prosecution.

The bill earlier this week cleared both the state House and Senate before arriving on the Republican governor's desk for signing.

"This bill protects women across Louisiana," Landry said in a statement.

Louisiana is now the only state to categorize mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances. The state already has a near-total abortion ban, with exemptions given in cases where abortion is needed to save the life of the mother or if the pregnancy is no longer viable.

Republican state Sen. Thomas Pressly said he sponsored the bill after his sister's husband attempted to end her pregnancy by secretly giving her abortion drugs without her consent.

Her husband in February pleaded guilty to charges of injury to a child and assault of a pregnant person in February and was sentenced to 180 days in jail.

"We're trying to restrict these drugs so that we can protect women and stop bad actors from accessing them," Pressly said.

The bill alarmed medical professionals who argued the new classification would create more logistical hurdles for people who need the drugs to legally obtain them.

Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the director of the New Orleans Health Department, told NBC News that "health care providers think this is bad science and not well-informed."

"This is not about abortion. This is about using these drugs, routinely, for many, many other things. Mainly, No. 1, to facilitate safe childbirth, No. 2, [for] miscarriage management," she said.

Avegno and more than 250 doctors signed a letter to Pressly, which said reclassifying the drugs would create "the false perception that these are dangerous drugs that require additional regulation" and that the proposal was "not scientifically based."

The U.S. Supreme Court also is set to rule on a federal case in June to revoke the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone, which could restrict the nationwide access to the pill.

The Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health think tank, released a report that said medication abortion made up 63% of all abortions in the United States last year.