Cajun barbarism

Another state enters the post-Roe world:

In the days following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a Louisiana doctor prescribed a medication called Cytotec to make the insertion of an IUD, the most effective form of birth control, less painful.

The medication has several uses and is often prescribed for stomach ulcers. It’s also the brand name for misoprostol, the second part of a two-drug cocktail used to terminate a pregnancy.

Walgreens called the physician, Dr. Alexandra Weiss Band, to ask if the prescription was for an abortion, according to an affidavit filed July 5 in a New Orleans Civil District Court case challenging Louisiana’s trigger law. When she told them it was for an IUD insertion, the pharmacist refused to give out the medication anyway.

As Louisiana’s trigger law took effect, then was blocked by a temporary injunction, only to be put back into effect again on Friday, it was not only women at abortion clinics who faced confusion and differences in care. Several emergency room doctors and OB-GYNs described how the ban, even when temporarily lifted, was already affecting patient care. That’s despite the fact that the trigger law has exceptions for certain medical situations and protects the use of birth control. 

“The response from Walgreens was that it would still not be filling the prescription because they could not be sure we weren’t prescribing this for an abortion, and so they will no longer dispense the drug,” Band wrote in her affidavit. “For obvious reasons, this is interfering with the best, medically appropriate care I can give to my patients … .”

Again, the question of whether the Supreme Court will directly overrule Griswold is not the most important question. Dobbs in and of itself is going to lead to serious barriers to the access of contraceptives.