BATON ROUGE – Tomorrow, the first pro-life bills of the 2019 Legislative Session will be considered at the Capitol.
First, HB 425 authored by Rep. Katrina Jackson and known as the Love Life Constitutional Amendment, will be considered before the House Civil Law and Procedure Committee. If passed through the Legislature by a ⅔ margin and then a vote of the people, the Love Life Amendment, Louisiana Right to Life’s 2019 flagship legislation, would ensure that there is no right to abortion or the taxpayer funding of abortion in Louisiana’s Constitution.
"The Supreme Courts of 12 other states (as recently as 2018 in Iowa) have found a right to abortion in their state constitutions, striking down common-sense pro-life laws in the short term and ensuring abortion-on-demand in their states even if Roe v. Wade is overturned," said Benjamin Clapper, Executive Director of Louisiana Right to Life. "We cannot let that happen in Louisiana. By passing the Love Life Amendment we can place our pro-life values of respecting every human life at the heart of our state."
Also tomorrow, two important pieces of legislation authored by Sen. Beth Mizell, SB 205 and SB 221, will be considered in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
SB 205 enhances the protection against child abuse and human trafficking by adding abortion facility employees to the list of mandatory reporters.
"Victims of human trafficking and statutory rape are known to come through abortion facilities, and the employees of these facilities should be required to report these abuses to local agencies. Perpetrators of rape and trafficking must not use the abortion industry as a tool to perpetuate their abuses against women," Clapper said.
SB 221 strengthens Louisiana's "Woman's Right to Know" law by providing further information to women prior to an abortion about the abortion physician and their disciplinary history. This legislation came about after Dr. Kevin Work, a physician performing abortions in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, was suspended from practicing medicine in Louisiana after it was reported he was violating
his agreement with the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners
.
"Dr. Work's troubled history was unknown to many Louisianians, and we imagine to his patients as well," Clapper said. "In most other surgical practices, their websites voluntarily include plenty of information about the physician who will perform the surgery, allowing a patient to be fully informed in advance. Unfortunately, that is not the case with abortion. It is extremely difficult for a woman considering abortion to learn anything in advance about the qualifications and history of the physician who will be performing the abortion.
"SB 221 requires full disclosure of a physician's medical education and recent disciplinary history. Especially when it cannot be found easily, women choosing abortion should have as much information as possible prior to their abortion about the person performing their abortion," he said.
Louisiana Right to Life will be available for comment on all pieces of legislation.
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