Biden campaign hits Trump over proposed Louisiana bill to criminalize possession of abortion pills

May 2, 2024

President Biden’s reelection campaign is blaming former President Trump for a bill proposed in Louisiana that would criminalize possession of the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol.

In a statement first shared with The Hill from the Biden campaign, Louisiana native Kaitlyn Joshua, who was turned away from two emergency rooms and denied reproductive health care while experiencing a miscarriage, called out the former president.

“This is Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda in action: criminalizing women’s reproductive health care,” Joshua said. “This should ring alarm bells for every woman across the country — MAGA Republicans want to ban and criminalize abortion medication everywhere.”

The Pelican State proposal would add mifepristone and misoprostol to the list of controlled dangerous substances, and if someone in Louisiana were caught with them, it could lead to 10 years of prison time, local outlet WWNO reported

Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban doesn’t include exceptions for rape or incest, which are exceptions that Democrats in the state are currently fighting for. The only exceptions are for certain fetal conditions or if the pregnant mother’s life is in danger. And the ban includes 15 years in prison and up to $200,000 in fines for doctors who violate the law. 

“I could have lost my life because of the extreme Louisiana abortion ban unleashed by Donald Trump and his overturning of Roe v. Wade,” Joshua added in the statement. “What is happening in Louisiana was enabled by Donald Trump — and will threaten the lives of more women like me. He did this and we must stop him.”

The Biden campaign also launched a seven-figure ad campaign Thursday focused on Trump’s recent comments to Time Magazine in which he said states should decide whether to monitor women’s pregnancies or prosecute those who illegally get abortions.


Trump says states should decide on prosecuting women for abortions, has no comment on abortion pill

The campaign has targeted restrictive abortion bans in other states and has linked the former president to them, hoping that abortion will drive turnout for Democrats at the polls in November. 

Vice President Harris traveled to Florida Wednesday, as the state’s 6-week abortion ban went into effect, to bash Trump.

Last month, she went to Arizona to knock the former president just days after the state’s Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law that made performing an abortion a felony — a law that was repealed Wednesday.