NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana’s new law reclassifying pregnancy care pills as controlled dangerous substances took effect Tuesday, creating an outcry from the state’s medical community as doctors, pharmacists and hospital lawyers try to determine how to navigate new protocols. The drugs are being targeted because they can be used to induce abortion.
The law, which Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed in May, makes misoprostol and mifepristone Schedule IV drugs, adding the requirement that they be locked, securely stored and their use closely documented. Health care providers have shared worries that any delays in access to misoprostol, which has multiple other uses beyond medication abortions, could create life-threatening delays for patients bleeding post delivery.
The New Orleans health department hosted a learning session for physicians and pharmacists Sept. 19 about the law, Act 246. After the session, city health director Dr. Jennifer Avegno sent a letter to Louisiana Surgeon General Dr. Ralph Abraham and Health Secretary Michael Harrington compiling some of the most pressing questions and seeking guidance.
“We believe it is imperative that these questions are submitted to LDH for any necessary clarification, guidance, or additional rule-making, so that providers have legally accurate and medically appropriate tools,” Avegno wrote in the letter, a copy of which The Illuminator obtained.
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Avegno is also in charge of an investigation into the law’s impact and whether it leads to any delay of care issues. The city’s health department created a reporting form health care workers and patients can complete to submit confidential information about any challenges.
Questions from last month’s webinar included asking for photographs of and specific instructions for officially approved and legal “secured areas” where the drugs can be stored for immediate access. The Louisiana Department of Health issued a memo in early September suggesting hospitals store the drugs in a “locked or secured area of an obstetric hemorrhage cart.”
So far, hospitals have not found this to be a feasible option because of the logistics involved with tracking and storing controlled substances. Instead, they are storing misoprostol in passcode-protected storage lockers made by Pyxis Corp. and named after the company. They are located outside of patient rooms.
Another question dealt with the word “abortion.” Medically-speaking and outside of political context, abortion can mean a miscarriage and pregnancy loss. There are several common, legal and medically appropriate diagnosis words that include the word abortion, including missed abortion, incomplete abortion and spontaneous abortion.
While elective abortions are almost entirely illegal in Louisiana, misoprostol is still safe and legal for use in miscarriage management. But providers are worried that pharmacists, particularly those in rural areas, might be fearful of filling any prescriptions with the word “abortion” in it.
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The webinar panel encouraged additional education and outreach to make sure pharmacists and patients understood the distinction, and they asked the state health department for additional clarification.
Act 246 has gained nationwide attention, with Louisiana becoming the first state to make these medications controlled substances.
Maternal fetal medicine specialist Dr. Jane Martin of New Orleans wrote a commentary for StatNews, a health and medicine periodical, criticizing the reclassification of the drugs.
“A pregnant uterus receives 700 milliliters of blood per minute leading up to delivery, and the same amount can be lost each minute if a postpartum hemorrhage is not adequately treated immediately after being recognized,” Martin wrote. She describes how the original version of the bill criminalized coerced abortion and had wide support, but it took “an unprecedented turn” when amendments were added to reclassify pregnancy care pills as controlled dangerous substances.
“I didn’t choose this profession to navigate legal obstacles, but to provide compassionate care during some of the most pivotal and vulnerable moments in someone’s life,” Martin added, saying that restricting access to misoprostol puts her patients in “unnecessary danger.’
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“The delivery room is a place of healing, not hesitation,” she wrote “The last thing I need to be asking myself during an emergency, while running through my mental checklist that I’ve used in every postpartum hemorrhage I’ve ever attended, is ‘Could I go to jail for this?”
Martin isn’t the only one speaking out forcefully. Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, the state health department’s leading expert on maternal mortality, penned a column for MSNBC voicing her opposition. She practices medicine in the New Orleans area.
“As an OB-GYN whose patients expect me to give the best care to them (and their babies), I’m convinced that this new law endangers them,” Gillispie-Bell wrote. “Lawmakers must engage with physicians to craft evidence-based policies that protect our patients, not increase their risk of death.
Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill and anti-abortion group Louisiana Right to Life have accused the news media of fear-mongering and spreading ”disinformation” about the controversial law.
“The appropriate and professional way to obtain answers to questions about the law is to ask them, not to create and perpetuate confusion,” Murrill said Tuesday, when the law took effect, in a video address.
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Avegno sent the letter with doctors’ questions Sept. 26 but has yet to hear back, she said.
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This report was published in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s StoryReach U.S. fellowship. Read more of our coverage.
A Pentecostal pastor in Louisiana charged with sexually molesting a teenage girl in his church has been convicted of indecent behavior with a juvenile – but was acquitted of the more serious crime of statutory rape.
Milton Otto Martin III, 58, faces up to seven years in prison and must register as a sex offender after a three-day trial in Chalmette, Louisiana, resulted in a guilty verdict against him on Thursday. His sentencing hearing is tentatively set for 15 January in the latest high-profile instance of religious abuse in the New Orleans area.
Authorities who investigated Martin, the pastor of Chalmette’s First Pentecostal Church, spoke with several alleged molestation victims of his. But the jury in his case heard from just two of them, and the charges on which he was tried pertained to only one.
That victim’s attorneys – John Denenea, Richard Trahant and Soren Gisleson – lauded their client for testifying against Martin even as members of the institution’s congregation showed up in large numbers to support him throughout the trial.
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“That was the most courageous thing I’ve ever seen a young woman do,” the lawyers remarked in a statement, with Denenea saying it was the first time in his career he and a client of his needed deputies to escort them out the courthouse. “She not only made sure he was accountable for his crimes – she has also protected many other young women from this convicted predator.”
Neither Martin’s attorney, Jeff Hufft, nor his church immediately responded to requests for comment.
The documents containing Martin’s criminal charges alleged that he committed felony carnal knowledge, Louisiana’s formal name for statutory rape, by engaging in oral sex with Denenea’s client when she was 16 in about 2011. The indecent behavior was inflicted on her when she was between the ages of 15 and 17, the charging documents maintained.
A civil lawsuit filed against Martin in parallel detailed how he would allegedly bring the victim – one of his congregants – out on four-wheeler rides and sexually abuse her during breaks that they took during the excursions.
The accuser, now about 30, reported Martin to Louisiana state police before he was arrested in March 2023. Other accusers subsequently came forward with similar allegations dating back further. Martin made bail, pleaded not guilty and underwent trial beginning on Tuesday in front of state court judge Darren Roy.
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Denenea said he believed his client’s testimony on Wednesday was pivotal in Martin’s conviction, which was obtained by prosecutors Barry Milligan and Erica Moore of the Louisiana attorney general’s office, according to the agency.
As Denenea put it, it seemed to him Martin’s acquittal stemmed from uncertainty over whether the accuser initially reported being 16 at the time of the alleged carnal knowledge.
State attorney general Liz Murrill said in a statement that it was “great work” my Milligan and Moore “getting justice for this victim”.
“We will never stop fighting to protect the children of Louisiana,” Murrill said.
Martin was remanded without bail to the custody of the local sheriff’s office to await sentencing after the verdict.
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The lawsuit that Denenea’s client filed against Martin was stayed while the criminal case was unresolved. It can now proceed, with the plaintiff accusing the First Pentecostal church of doing nothing to investigate earlier sexual abuse claims against Martin.
The plaintiff also accused the Worldwide Pentecostal Fellowships to which the Chalmette church belonged of failing to properly supervise Martin around children, and her lawsuit demands damages from both institutions.
Martin’s prosecution is unrelated to the clergy molestation scandal that drove the Roman Catholic archdiocese of nearby New Orleans into federal bankruptcy court in 2020 – but the two cases do share a few links.
State police detective Scott Rodrigue investigated Martin after also pursuing the retired New Orleans Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker, a serial child molester who had been shielded by his church superiors for decades. Rodrigue’s investigation led to Hecker’s arrest, conviction and life sentence for child rape – shortly before his death in December 2024.
Furthermore, Denenea, Trahant and Gisleson were also the civil attorneys for the victim in Hecker’s criminal case.
Newlab New Orleans is deepening its energy-tech ambitions with a new partnership alongside JERA, Japan’s largest power generator, to accelerate next-generation carbon capture solutions for heavy industries across Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, The Center Square writes.
The collaboration brings JERA Ventures into Newlab’s public-private innovation hub, where startups gain access to lab space and high-end machinery to commercialize technologies aimed at cutting emissions and improving industrial efficiency.
The move builds momentum as Newlab prepares to open its fifth global hub next fall at the former Naval Support Activity site, adding New Orleans to a network that includes Riyadh and Detroit. JERA’s footprint in Louisiana is already growing—from a joint venture on CF Industries’ planned $4 billion low-carbon ammonia plant to investments in solar generation and Haynesville shale assets—positioning the company as a significant player in the state’s clean-energy transition.
Federal immigration authorities are keeping a tight lid on key details as “Catahoula Crunch” closes its first week in southeast Louisiana, Verite writes.
The operation—one of Department of Homeland Security’s largest recent urban crackdowns—began with raids at home-improvement stores and aims for 5,000 arrests, according to plans previously reviewed by the Associated Press. While DHS publicly highlighted arrests of immigrants with violent criminal records, AP data shows fewer than one-third of the 38 detainees in the first two days had prior convictions.
Meanwhile, advocacy groups report widespread fear in Hispanic communities, with residents avoiding hospitals, schools, workplaces and even grocery stores amid sightings of federal agents.
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Business impacts are already visible: restaurants and Hispanic-serving corridors like Broad Street appear unusually quiet, with staff shortages forcing menu cuts and temporary closures. School absenteeism has doubled in Jefferson Parish, and protests have spread across New Orleans and surrounding suburbs as local leaders demand transparency around federal tactics.
