Harris campaign reacts to Louisiana hospitals pulling life-saving drug from post-delivery access • Louisiana Illuminator

The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has waded into Louisiana’s reproductive health debate, criticizing Republican Donald Trump for restrictive policies that states have approved since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed its stance on legal abortion in 2022.

“Let’s be clear: Donald Trump is the reason Louisiana women who are suffering from miscarriages or bleeding out after birth can no longer receive the critical care they would have received before Trump overturned Roe,” Harris-Walz spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said in a statement to the Illuminator.

“Because of Trump, doctors are scrambling to find solutions to save their patients and are left at the whims of politicians who think they know better,” she added. “Trump is proud of what he’s done. He brags about it. And if he wins, he will threaten to bring the crisis he created for Louisiana women to all 50 states.”

Chitika’s comments came after  the Illuminator reported earlier Tuesday that Louisiana hospitals are preparing to remove misoprostol from their obstetric hemorrhage carts now that the medicine has been reclassified as a controlled dangerous substance. The new law goes into effect on Oct. 1, and health care providers are scrambling to come up with new protocols for a medication they have relied upon to save women with life-threatening hemorrhages after delivery.

Misoprostol is prescribed for a number of medical reasons, one of which is to prevent and treat postpartum hemorrhaging. A new Louisiana law reclassifying the medicine as a Schedule IV drug has introduced extra barriers for access because controlled substances have different storage and prescription requirements. 

The drug, along with mifepristone, is being targeted because it is also used for abortion. Gov. Jeff Landry signed the law in May, despite more than 200 doctors sending him a letter of concern that the law could have unintended medical consequences.

Doctors grapple with how to save women’s lives amid ‘confusion and angst’ over new Louisiana law

Misoprostol will still be available in Louisiana hospitals, but it won’t be able to be easily accessible on the rolling carts and in-room kits that OB-GYNs typically use if a patient starts bleeding profusely after childbirth. This could mean a delay in care. Some hospitals have already started preemptively removing the medication from their obstetric carts.

“We’re trying to fix something that is not broken and that is absolutely safe,” said Dr. Stacey Holman, division director for Touro Infirmary’s maternal child services. “It’s an unnecessary barrier and really critical to the regular everyday care that we provide to our patients.”

In August, 50 Louisiana doctors signed a letter requesting the Louisiana Department of Health and Surgeon General Ralph Abraham provide guidance on the use of misoprostol in the inpatient setting. “This is a nationally recognized guideline to emergently treat life-threatening postpartum hemorrhage and it is critical that providers are aware and have access to medication without delay,” the doctors wrote.

Louisiana has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, and Black women are disproportionately affected. Seventy-five percent of the state’s rural hospitals don’t have maternity care. The Illuminator spoke with a physician who treats pregnant women at a rural hospital in northwestern Louisiana who was shocked to hear misoprostol was being reclassified as a controlled dangerous substance.

“What? That’s terrifying,” the doctor said. “Take it off the carts? That’s death. That’s a matter of life or death.”

The physician said she uses misoprostol as one of the first drugs to treat hemorrhages because it is easily accessible, doesn’t require syringes or IV access, and has fewer side effects for women with high risk pregnancies.

Other politicians and reproductive health activists have weighed in since the Illuminator published its report on Louisiana’s new law.