Democrats, Media Freak Out Over Louisiana Bill Protecting Women From Abortion Pill Poisoning

By Jordan Boyd, originally published May 23, 2024, The Federalist

Protecting women and unborn babies is a bipartisan issue that should be uncontroversial, but Democrats and the media are losing their minds.

You wouldn’t know it from pro-abortion corporate media and Democrats’ commentary, but a bipartisan coalition of Louisiana legislators in the state House passed a bill this week that aims to punish anyone who knowingly tries to induce chemical abortion in a woman without her consent — the “crime of coerced criminal abortion by means of fraud.”

The legislation also changes the drug classification of mifepristone and misoprostol to ensure possession of the most popular abortifacient combination on the market without a prescription is illegal.

The “Catherine and Josephine Herring Act” was created and named for sponsor Sen. Thomas Pressly’s sister and then-unborn niece whose lives were threatened when their ex-husband and father, respectively, drugged them using an abortion pill from Mexico.

Catherine and Josephine survived the attack thanks to the abortion pill reversal regime that Democrats and corporate media routinely smear.

“There was no ‘choice’ involved when my husband slipped abortion drugs into my drinks seven times,” Herring recalled. “I suffered serious side effects from the drugs that almost took my daughter’s life. As a survivor of domestic violence, I’m grateful for Louisiana’s willingness to protect women and children from those who intend to harm them with abortion drugs.”

Poisoning an expectant mother, especially without her knowledge, the bill notes, “substantially increases the pregnant woman’s risk of death or serious bodily harm.” Mifepristone and misoprostol together are responsible for a 500 percent increase in abortion-related emergency room visits for side effects such as hemorrhage, “fast, weak pulse,” “shortness of breath,” diarrhea, dizziness, headache, nausea or vomiting, “pain” across the back, arms, neck, and abdomen, a myriad of other risks, and sometimes fatal complications.

Protecting women and their unborn babies is a proven bipartisan issue that should be uncontroversial. Vice President Kamala Harris, however, called Lousiana’s latest attempt to do so “absolutely unconscionable” and falsely claimed it “would criminalize the possession of medication abortion, with penalties of up to several years of jail time.”

“Let’s be clear: Donald Trump did this,” she wrote on X.

U.S. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark shared a similar conspiracy theory on her X account.

“In just the last 24 hours, Trump opened the door to banning birth control while his allies in Louisiana voted to criminalize the abortion pill. GOP extremists are coming after our most basic freedoms. Don’t look away,” she wrote.

Pro-life laws in Louisiana, even with the introduction and passage of the new abortion pill bill, explicitly exempt pregnant women who have a prescription for abortifacients from the new fines and jail time. They also do “not apply to the sale, use, prescription, or administration of a contraceptive or an emergency contraceptive.”

Not even that truth, however, stopped the corporate media from joining the misinformation dogpile.

The Associated Press claimed the bill, which still needs approval from the state Senate and a signature from the Republican governor, is “a move that doctors fear could prevent them from adequately treating their patients in a timely manner.”

NPR complained that the “proposed regulation could also target people who aren’t pregnant, but want to order abortion pills online and stock them in case of a future pregnancy.”

The fearmongering by abortion activists about the Louisiana bill is a direct attempt to dredge up public contempt for Republicans who act on voters’ wishes about life in the womb. Polling suggests a majority of registered voters do not agree that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration vetted the abortion pill “carefully enough to protect the health and safety of women” before approving it for widespread use.

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide this summer if the FDA, at the behest of the Biden administration, violated the law when it expanded the questionable abortion drug regimen via mail order and pharmacy sale.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour.