HJBR Jan/Feb 2025

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  JAN / FEB 2025 37 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalBR.com worked in various roles, including ground opera- tions, hurricane deployments, and various COVID projects through Air Med’s sister company, Safety Management Systems. Granger holds a prehospital trauma life sup- port (PHTLS) instructor certification and recently achieved an advanced certified transport regis- tered nurse (CTRN) certification. Granger was recently recognized at the 13th annual “An Evening for Healers” fundraiser, hosted by the LSU Health Sciences Foundation Shreveport. The event shared the stories of two patients, including Clay Moock, who was severely burned in a pipeline explosion incident in April 2021. Granger was part of the Life Air Rescue flight crew who responded, treated, and trans- ported Moock to Ochsner LSU Health. Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Foundation Announces Board Leadership Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Foundation announced that board leadership has been elected to help carry out its mission. Rolfe Miller was recently elected to serve as board chair. Other officers elected include David T. Perry, vice chair; Shelia Sterling, secretary/trea- surer; and Nathaniel Tannehill, immediate past chair. Jonas D. Fontenot, PhD, MBA, serves as president of the Foundation. Andi E. Kirkpatrick and Craig A. Stevens were newly elected to serve on the board for a three- year term. Additional board members include Rose J. Hudson, Brett P. Furr, Joseph B. “Beau” Olinde, Susan Blanchard, Kathryn “Katie” Graves, Jonathan B. Bruser, Kimberly Ginn, and Art E. Favre. Jeanne C. James was recognized for her leader- ship and dedication to Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Foundation with an appointment to the honorary position of director emeritus. James has served on the board since 2018. Louisiana Healthcare Providers Sue State, ClaimingMisoprostol LawViolates Constitution This article by Lorena O’Neil was published in Louisiana Illuminator on Oct. 31, 2024 Healthcare workers and advocates filed a law- suit Thursday against the state of Louisiana, on their own and on behalf of their patients, chal- lenging Act 246, a new state law reclassifying mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled dan- gerous substances. The lawsuit was filed in 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge Parish against the state of Louisiana, Attorney General Liz Murrill, the state Board of Pharmacy and the state Board of Medical Examiners. The plaintiffs include the perinatal organization Birthmark Doulas, family physician Emily Holt, DO, pharmacist Kaylee Self, and reproductive health advocates Nancy Davis and Kaitlyn Joshua, both of whom were denied pregnancy care in the state. “This case is about the unconstitutional regu- lation of medications that people need for non- abortion reasons simply because those medi- cations may also be used for an abortion,” the lawsuit said. It is the first lawsuit filed in response to the con- troversial law, which took effect Oct. 1. It targets mifepristone and misoprostol because they can both be used for medication abortion, although they each have multiple other uses. Additionally, elective abortions are banned in the state and have been since the summer of 2022. “We are seeking to have this law invalidated because it violates the Louisiana Constitution in two separate ways,” says Ellie Schilling, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs along with attorneys from Lift Louisiana and the Lawyering Project, both reproductive rights organizations. Murrill said she had not seen the lawsuit yet, “but I’m confident this law is constitutional,” she said in a text message relayed through a spokes- man. “We will vigorously defend it.” Schilling said her team is arguing the law vio- lates the equal protection clause in the state constitution by discriminating against people on the basis of physical condition. People who need mifepristone and misoprostol — and those requesting, prescribing and filling the medica- tions — are treated differently than people with similar medical conditions who need treatment with drugs with the same low-risk profile, she explained “In some cases, that discrimination is life-threat- ening,” the lawsuit reads. Schilling said that because the drugs don’t have the potential to cause addiction and dependency, there’s no justification to make them Schedule IV drugs under the new law. The second argument plaintiffs make is that the process to approve the law didn’t comply with the Louisiana Constitution because the drugs were reclassified through an amendment to a bill about coerced abortion. Article III of the constitution prohibits any change to a bill that is not “ger- mane” to its original version. “The original purpose of the legislation was to create a crime of coerced abortion,” Schilling said, “meaning to criminalize people providing an abortion-producing drug to someone else without their knowledge for the illegal purpose of causing an abortion without their consent. But the amendment is regulating those drugs when [they] are being prescribed and used for a totally valid legal purpose that is unrelated to abortion.” The amendments were “extremely problem- atic” because they were added late in the pro- cess, without any proper vetting to look into the potential impacts of the law, Schilling said. The amendments were added to the bill from state Sen. Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, during a House criminal justice committee meeting after it had passed the Senate. “Once introduced, the amendment was adopted by the committee within minutes and without any opportunity for the public or medi- cal experts to weigh in on the propriety of such a drastic change to the bill or to the Uniform Con- trolled Dangerous Substances Law,” the lawsuit reads. Pressly declined to comment for this report. The amendments caused an outcry in the Loui- siana medical community, with nearly 300 doctors signing a letter against the measure. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry in May and became Act 246. Its impact has already been felt across the state. Hospitals have changed their protocol for how they handle the medications now that they are controlled substances. Misoprostol, which is often used to help stop or prevent postpartum hemorrhage, has been pulled off obstetric hemorrhage carts and stored outside of labor and delivery rooms in passcode- protected locked compartments as doctors con- duct drills to time what the delays mean to bleeding patients. Outpatient reproductive care