Julie Burkhart, President of Wellspring Health Access, one of the organizations behind the Wyoming District Court Case who last June successfully blocked a Wyoming law from going into effect that would have banned abortion medication in the state – released the following statement responding to a Louisiana bill lawmakers approved today that would make the state the first to categorize mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled dangerous substances, criminalizing possession of the two abortion medications:

“It is appalling that Louisiana lawmakers have approved a bill recategorizing Mifepristone and Misoprostol as controlled substances in the state, especially given both drugs are used safely by hundreds of thousands of women each year to terminate their pregnancies. It is now one step closer to dangerously becoming law.

Additionally, these drugs are not illicit or addictive drugs and have other medical uses. The passage of this amendment to reclassify these two safe medications as controlled substances, on the level of heroin and methamphetamine, will have a chilling effect on doctors and patients and undoubtedly adversely impact maternal health outcomes in Louisiana.

Instead of pushing to criminalize those who are helping people access safe, legal medication for abortion, the state legislature should instead focus on pressing issues that would actually benefit the well-being of those they swear an oath to represent.”

Julie Burkhart is a national abortion rights leader, former senior advisor to slain Wichita abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, and the only person in the country who has opened an abortion clinic in a state where it had been banned.

Ms. Burkhart is currently the president of Wellspring Health Access which has a clinic in Casper, Wyoming, and co-owner of Hope Clinic in Granite City, Illinois, a nationally trusted leader in abortion services since 1974. Burkhart is regularly called on by national and local media to offer insight into the debate, including this recent New York Times profile piece about the Casper, WY clinic, and also a new short documentary of the Wellspring Health Access clinic and its operations.