Update: SB 276 passed the Louisiana House of Representatives May 22 in a 64-29 vote. The measure passed the Senate in a 29-7 vote May 23, after which the bill was headed to Gov. Jeff Landry's desk. Landry signed the legislation May 24.
“Spiking” or slipping a drug into someone’s drink is nothing new and has been illegal throughout the U.S. for years. Spiking a person’s beverage with the date rape drug Rohypnol has had significant ramifications at the federal level, including a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
Drink spiking is a heinous abuse. But what if someone dissolves the abortion pill into a woman’s drink without her knowledge? Is that a crime?
A senator in Louisiana is doing his best to make sure this act is punishable by law starting in his state.
This topic hits home for Senator Thomas Pressly. His sister Catherine Herring, who resides in Texas, was a victim of such an attack.
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Pressly spoke to Pregnancy Help News by phone, detailing the events of Herring’s story and how it inspired him to introduce Senate Bill 276, also known as the Abortion by Fraud bill.
“My sister was a victim of domestic violence,” Pressly said.
Her now ex-husband ground up misoprostol (the second pill in the two-drug abortion pill regimen) and dissolved it in a glass of water without her knowledge. Herring was 12-13 weeks pregnant at the time, Pressly estimated.
“When she was about 80 percent done with the water, she noticed a film on the glass,” Pressly said.
It was then that Herring experienced what Pressly described as a “medical emergency.” Herring then underwent the Abortion Pill Reversal process by taking progesterone. The pregnancy was saved, he said.
Her husband, attorney Mason Herring, however, did not give up in his attempts to slip abortion drugs to her.
On multiple occasions he attempted to give Catherine Herring a beverage. Feeling doubtful, she had the water tested and each time misoprostol was present. Catherine then placed a hidden camera in her home where her husband was recorded placing a pill in her drink, Pressly said.
Mason Herring was arrested and pleaded guilty. The Houston man was sentenced to 180 days of prison and 10 years of probation. He is still in prison finishing his 180-day sentence.
This penalty is not a sufficient sentence for attempting to murder his niece, Pressly said.
“I went to Louisiana Right to Life and began work on a bill,” Pressly said.
Although this event happened in Texas, he did not want this to happen in Louisiana as well – or any state.
The Texas legislature does not meet again until next year, Pressly said. He is working to encourage leaders in that state to seek action and create a similar bill.
According to the text of the bill, the original provided to Pregnancy Help News by Pressly, the measure:
“Creates the crime of coerced criminal abortion by means of fraud to prohibit a third-party from knowingly using an abortion-inducing drug to cause, or attempt to cause, an abortion on an unsuspecting pregnant mother without her knowledge or consent and amends various abortion criminal laws to add the crime of attempted abortion.”
The level of punishment increases with the gestational age of the pregnancy and harm to mom and baby.
A coerced abortion using the abortion pill during the first trimester draws a punishment of imprisonment “not less than five nor more than ten years, fined not less than ten thousand nor more than seventy-five thousand dollars, or both.”
A coerced abortion after three months gestational age that puts the life of the mother at risk or causes serious harm to the mother is subject to “not less than ten nor more than twenty years, fined not less than fifty thousand nor more than one hundred thousand dollars, or both.”
The bill calls for the accused to be charged with racketeering by causing an abortion which is illegal in the state of Louisiana. An amendment to the bill classifies the abortion drugs as Schedule IV substances.
Sarah Zagorskie Jones is the Communications Director for Louisiana Right to Life, which helped Pressly with the bill.
“Our focus is to help women before they resort to the dangerous abortion pills,” Zagorski Jones said during a phone interview. “We point them immediately to a pregnancy center.”
If a woman thinks she may have been tricked into taking the abortion pill, Zagorski Jones said, she can also call a pregnancy center.
Tweet This: If a woman thinks she may have been tricked into taking the abortion pill, she can also call a pregnancy center.
Chemical abortion consists of two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol. The mifepristone, taken first, blocks progesterone, the natural hormone in a pregnant woman’s body necessary to sustain pregnancy. The misoprostol, taken a day or so later, then causes the woman to go into labor and deliver her deceased child.
If a woman acts quickly enough after taking the first abortion pill it may be possible to save her child through Abortion Pill Reversal. The protocol is an updated application of a treatment used for decades to combat miscarriage.
Life advocates have warned of the dangers of chemical abortion, especially since the FDA has reduced prior safety precautions for the drugs, including the stipulation that they be administered in person by a physician, one reason being that human traffickers or other abusers would either coerce pregnant women to take the drugs or slip them to them to take unknowingly.
The safety issues surrounding chemical abortion drugs are at the center of the FDA v. AHM case before the Supreme Court, which has the potential to significantly affect chemical abortion access in the U.S. Currently it is estimated that well over half of all abortions in the U.S. are chemical abortions. Some pregnancy help centers administer or refer for the Abortion Pill Reversal protocol.
Herring, who grew up in Louisiana, had shared her story before a Louisiana Senate committee – including how the progesterone she took was able to keep her baby alive.
She told Louisiana lawmakers how after she realized she’d been given a substance and was reeling in pain; she recalled a news article she had seen. The article spoke about the dispute between Google and Abortion Pill Reversal (APR). Catherine Herring remembered that chemical abortion reversal is actually a dose of progesterone. She said she happened to have some progesterone in her possession from a prescription for a previous pregnancy. She took the progesterone and went to the emergency room.
Catherine Herring told the Senate committee she was asked to give a urine sample in the ER and described that sample as “nearly black.” Herring avoided kidney failure by continuing to stay in the hospital and taking additional doses of progesterone.
Her detailed testimony was instrumental in making legislators decide to take action.
The bill passed the Louisiana Senate in early April, then passed the House May 21, and now returns to the state Senate. Governor Jeff Landry was expected to sign the bill later in May.
This bill is a win for women, Zagorski Jones said. She said she hopes Catherine Herring’s story awakens legislators across the country.
“There needs to be more advocacy for women and children, and it should not only come from people of faith, but also legislators,” she said.
Both Zagorski Jones and Pressly noted the significance of pregnancy centers where, in many instances, APR is introduced.
“(The government) spends so much money on abortions,” Zagorski Jones said. “We need to start giving (pregnancy) centers attention. We need to focus on them and what they are doing.”
Educating legislators on the dangers of both misoprostol and mifepristone is the first step. Catherine Herring’s story is likely not the first of its kind.
“My sister is a warrior for women’s lives,” Pressly said.
Pressly’s niece is now 20 months old.
Catherine Herring concluded her remarks to the state senators by declaring her ordeal of domestic abuse was actually a personal testimony.
“My family was shattered by chemical abortion pills,” she said. “But I believe what the enemy meant for evil; God meant for good.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News.
