The pills are critical for medication abortions, which are the most common method of terminating pregnancies in the US.

A wave of anti-transgender legislation - which had previously been blocked by Landry’s Democratic predecessor, John Bel Edwards, - is also now expected to be pushed through.

Louisiana forms part of America’s “Bible Belt”, a region in the south where Protestant Christianity plays an especially strong role in society and politics.

Australia’s US ambassador Kevin Rudd has been travelling through the region this week, meeting with local Republican politicians in Baton Rouge to spruik Australia’s interests ahead of November’s election, where Trump could end up returning to power.

Under the latest Louisiana law, all public classrooms will be required to display an 11-inch by 14-inch poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” from kindergarten to state-funded universities.

A four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries,” will also be included with the display, which must be in all classrooms receiving state funding by 2025.

However, the American Civil Liberties Union state branch says such displays will “result in unconstitutional religious coercion of students, who are legally required to attend school and are thus a captive audience for school-sponsored religious messages.”

“They will also send a chilling message to students and families who do not follow the state’s preferred version of the Ten Commandments that they do not belong, and are not welcome, in our public schools,” the ACLU’s Louisiana branch said in a statement announcing its intention to sue.