The Louisiana State House on Tuesday passed a bill that would punish those who poison pregnant women with abortion drugs without their consent. Once the bill, titled “The Catherine and Josephine Herring Act,” passes in the Senate and is signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry, it could offer more protections for women.

State Sen. Thomas Pressly, one of the bill’s sponsors, named it after his sister, whose daughter was nearly killed by her father, who poisoned Catherine in an attempt to induce an abortion, according to a press release.

“There was no ‘choice’ involved when my husband slipped abortion drugs into my drinks seven times,” said Catherine Herring. “I suffered serious side effects from the drugs that almost took my daughter’s life. As a survivor of domestic violence, I’m grateful for Louisiana’s willingness to protect women and children from those who intend to harm them with abortion drugs.”

The attempted killing was reported in February when Mason Herring pleaded guilty to injury to a child and assault of a pregnant person and was sentenced to 180 days behind bars.

Catherine Herring told authorities her husband in March 2022 began lecturing her on hydration and offering water. She said she became severely ill after drinking from the first cup that appeared cloudy, which her husband explained was perhaps the result of the cup or water pipes being dirty.

Catherine Herring became suspicious and began refusing multiple other drinks her husband offered. She later found in the trash packaging for a drug that contained misoprostol, a medicine used to induce abortion.

She also gave police videos from hidden cameras she installed at her home where her husband was no longer living. One of them showed him mixing a substance in one of her drinks, Catherine Herring said.

Mason Herring’s attorney, Dan Codgell, called the plea deal and sentence reasonable.

“It’s a sad situation and Mason has accepted his responsibility,” Cogdell said.

Louisiana’s proposed legislation, which passed the House in a 64-29 bipartisan vote, creates the crime of “coerced criminal abortion” and establishes that the crime is “committed when a person knowingly and intentionally engages in the use or attempted use of an abortion-inducing drug on a pregnant woman, without her knowledge or consent, to cause an abortion."

Those convicted of coerced criminal abortion “shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not less than five nor more than ten years, fined not less than ten thousand nor more than seventy-five thousand dollars, or both.”

On Thursday, the measure received final passage in the Senate.

Caitlin Connors, Southern Regional Director of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life Americas, said the bill is “necessary in a world where pro-abortion Democrats have enabled abusers to coerce and poison mothers with dangerous abortion drugs by removing in-person doctor visits and giving abortionists immunity through shield laws.”

Chemical abortions involve the use of two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol. These drugs work together to block progesterone, a natural hormone required to sustain a pregnancy. After taking the drugs, the mother goes into labor to deliver the deceased child.