Louisiana legislature passes bill to further restrict abortion pill access – National & International News – THU 23May2024

Louisiana legislature passes bill to further restrict abortion pill access.

Biden’s ballot access in doubt in major swing state.

NATIONAL NEWS

Louisiana legislature passes bill to further restrict abortion pill access

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to soon sign a first-of-its-kind bill into law that will make it harder for individuals and healthcare providers to obtain the medications mifepristone and misoprostol. Taken together, these two medications form a safe and effective protocol for medication induced abortion up to 10 weeks’ gestation. Louisiana state law already outlaws nearly all abortions, including medication abortions.

However, these two medications also have other uses in reproductive healthcare such as stopping hemorrhaging and managing miscarriages. This new law will make it much more difficult for healthcare workers to obtain and prescribe these medications by classifying them as Schedule IV controlled dangerous substances. This will mean that physicians must obtain a special license to prescribe the pills. The law will also require the pills to be stored in special secure facilities, which will be far away from rural clinics.

Over 200 doctors signed a letter to lawmakers warning that passing this law would increase the barriers to providing necessary care to women in the state. Louisiana already has one of the nation’s highest maternal mortality rates.

Supposedly the justification for this law is to protect pregnant women from coerced abortions. However, supporters of the bill could only cite one case of this happening, in Texas.

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Case still pending before the Supreme Court on nationwide abortion pill access.

Biden’s ballot access in doubt in major swing state

Ohio state law requires a party’s Presidential candidate to be officially nominated 90 days before election day, which this year would be August 7. While President Biden has received enough votes to secure the nomination, the official nomination won’t take place until the DNC meets August 19-22.

Earlier this week, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, wrote a letter to the state’s Democratic party leadership warning that, “Unless your party plans to comply with the statutory deadline, I am duty-bound to instruct boards of elections to begin preparing ballots that do not include the Democratic Party’s nominees for president and vice president of the United States”.

Such conflicts often arise in other states with respect to both Democratic and Republican nominees. These situation are usually resolved quietly by legislatures passing a special measure allowing exemptions. Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is calling a special legislative session to do just that and to remedy what he called an “absurd situation”. 

However, Ohio’s Republican House Speaker Jason Stephens told reporters on Tuesday that a legislative fix was not on the table. “There’s just not the will do that from the Legislature,” Speaker Stephens said.

While Ohio has long been considered a swing state, Trump carried the state in both 2016 and 2020.

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