"Your state is 46th out of 50 for maternal expectancy": CNN questions Louisiana moving to crack down on abortion pills.

CNN's Brianna Keilar on Friday questioned why Louisiana State Sen. Pressly (R) pushed a bill to categorize abortion pills as controlled substances when the state is struggling with its maternal death rate.

“You talk about the importance of caring for women — your state is 46th out of 50 for maternal expectancy. So, when you're talking about there being better care for women, I mean, why aren't you tackling that instead?” Keilar asked the state senator during an interview.

“We are continuing to do as much as we can on pushing maternal health care into the forefront,” Pressly said, “and make sure that we're doing everything possible to, within our budgetary means, to ensure babies are being born.”

Pressly also defended pushing the legislation — which the state legislature passed and Gov. Jeff Landry (R) is expected to sign into law — that would list abortion pills like mifepristone as Schedule IV dangerous controlled substances, even while abortion is already almost completely prohibited in the state.

“We want to make sure that physicians, and nurse practitioners, and physician assistants have the opportunity to prescribe the medication,” Pressly said. “I think that's important that we, again, make sure that we're maintaining the doctor-patient relationship, rather than having a friend or someone bring medication into a state. That is concerning in and of itself, and quite honestly, it was illegal prior to this legislation passing and hopefully being signed into law shortly. A prescription medication requires a prescription by a doctor, a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant.”

“All things, all laws, that were already in place, right? And the Schedule IV was not something you initially had in there.” Keilar pointed out.