BATON ROUGE — A state law signed in May requiring two pills used in abortions to be obtained through prescriptions took effect Tuesday.

The first-in-the-nation law also creates the crime of coerced criminal abortion through 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.

The law changes the drug scheduling guidelines to include misoprostol and mifepristone as Schedule IV controlled substances. This is the same classification as Xanax.

The drugs are not exclusively used to induce abortions. They are routinely used to manage miscarriages, induce labor, insert IUDs and stop hemorrhaging in pregnant and postpartum women. Before the law took effect, a prescription was required to obtain the two drugs, but there were no criminal penalties for possessing them.

Possession of either drug without a prescription could be punished with up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. However, currently pregnant women are exempt from penalties. The coerced criminal abortion part of the bill is punishable by at least 10 years in prison and a fine of $50,000.

When the law was still a bill, author Sen. Thomas Pressly, a Republican from Shreveport, said his ex-brother-in-law slipped an abortion-inducing drug into his sister's drink without her knowledge. The woman gave birth 10 weeks early. The man was sentenced to a half-year in jail, according to The Associated Press.

“Requiring an abortion-inducing drug to be obtained with a prescription and criminalizing the use of an abortion drug on an unsuspecting mother is nothing short of common sense," Gov. Jeff Landry said at the time of the law's passage. "This bill protects women across Louisiana and I was proud to sign this bill into law today."