“Penicillin ... Viagra ... should they be Schedule IV?”: CNN questions Louisiana moving to crack down on abortion pills.
CNN's Brianna Keilar on Friday pushed back on Louisiana State Sen. Thomas Pressly (R) over his bill to categorize abortion pills as controlled substances, and noted other drugs that have a higher risk of death.
“Schedule IV means that these drugs would be classified as dangerous, right? That's a key part of what the labeling here means,” Keilar asked the state lawmaker in an interview.
“It's a controlled substance, so it's a controlled drug just like Ambien, just like Tramadol, just like many of our ... ADHD ... medications as well,” Pressly responded.
“Part of it is that this is a drug that could be dangerous or misused, obviously is the point of it being a Schedule IV. You also have other drugs, for instance, Penicillin, that is four times — the risk of death, for instance — four times higher than mifepristone,” Keilar said. “Viagra — which I think you could argue there may be some kind of side market for — ten times higher. Should they be Schedule IV?”
Pressly, the bill’s sponsor, said he proposed the legislation after his sister was given the drug misoprostol against her will.
“Respectfully, I think that my sister's situation shows that these drugs in particular are used against women, against their will,” Pressly said. “And I’m very concerned about ensuring that, again, we are maintaining the doctor-patient relationship, while continuing to ensure that they are able to get the drugs for legitimate health care purposes, and that's exactly what we did by prescribing these drugs into the schedule.”
