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BC
It has been a whirlwind week as we have dealt with the impact of Judge John deGravelles' decision on HB 388. We waited all weekend for the decision, and then it was handed down late Sunday evening as I was leaving the New Orleans Zephyrs baseball game in Metairie with my family. We were taking media calls late into the night.

While the decision seems complicated, and it does allow abortionists without admitting privileges to continue doing abortions for the short term, it is much better than the proposed alternative available to the judge: to shut the law down completely.  This did not happen, and we are thankful for that. There is a long legal road ahead, and we will push for full implementation every step along the way.

Stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages as details unfold.

For a Pro-Life Louisiana,  

Benjamin Clapper

Welcome Sandy Cunningham!
Sandy Cunningham
Throughout the past few weeks we have been handling numerous media inquiries about legislation and more. We have been grateful in this process for the experience and leadership of our new Communications Director, Sandy Cunningham.

Sandy, a resident of Abita Springs, has had high-level experience in newspapers across south Louisiana. She also served as President of the Louisiana Press Association from 2010 - 2012.

 

We are happy to have a steady and qualified leader advancing pro-life communications throughout Louisiana. Read Sandy's full bio at our website.  

40 Days for Life
Preparations Continue 
for Louisiana's 40 Days 
For Life Campaigns

40 Days for Life will be held Sept. 24 to Nov. 2, with campaigns in New Orleans, Shreveport-Bossier City and Baton Rouge.

40 Days for Life is the largest internationally coordinated pro-life mobilization in history, helping people in local communities end abortion through prayer and fasting, community outreach and peaceful vigil.  

 

Preparations continue as churches and other groups plan vigils at area abortion facilities during the 40-day period.  

 

For more information:

* New Orleans - Mary Nadeau Reed at 504.835.6520 or mnadeau@prolifelouisiana.org.

* Baton Rouge - Charlotte Bergeron at 225.229.7135 or 40daysforlifebr@gmail.com
* Shreveport-Bossier City
Chris Davis at 318.349.3279 or christopherpatrickdavis@gmail.com
Louisiana Students for Life
LSU Students for Life members pray outside Delta Clinic in Baton Rouge.
LSU Students for Life Continue Ministry
Outside Delta Clinic

LSU Students for Life, an active chapter of Louisiana Students for Life, continues honoring a commitment made more than a year ago to go to Delta Clinic in Baton Rouge each Tuesday and Thursday until the abortion facility closes.

 

During this time students have missed just four days of being on the block praying, handing out literature and speaking to women.   

"We have a team of students who are always out there handing out free resources and directing women to the Women's New Life Center next door," said Kandace Landreneau, youth programs director for Louisiana Right to Life.

 

"We're there from 7-9 every Tuesday and Thursday morning because that is when the women have to show up to get in line for their appointments."

 

LSU students were at Delta Clinic
yesterday (Sept. 2), but the abortion facility was closed. It was unclear if Delta was forced to close thanks to the implementation of HB 388 on Monday, but students vowed to keep a close eye out for any activity at the facility before ending vigils there.

 

Landreneau said normally by 8 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays  the facility's parking lot, which holds 40 vehicles, has been full, and women were forced to park elsewhere.

 

"There have been months when every morning at 8 a.m. the line of women is out the door and around the building," Landreneau said.

 

Students believe they have been able to talk more than 100 women out of having abortions during the past year. Landreneau said the group keeps up with the number through student blogs and a weekly journal.

 

"We obviously can't confirm whether or not the women came back, but we have done the best we can not to count women we talked to who said they weren't going to go through with it, but later did," she said.

 

Because the students are on the block each day abortions are performed at Delta, they keep an eye out for women they've already talked to who returned. They do not count those women in their numbers, Landreneau said.

 

CLICK HERE for more information on Louisiana Students for Life. 

Register for Chers Bebes
Please join us at Chers B�b�s; help preserve the pro-life legacy of Acadiana!

Registration is open for Chers B�b�s: Acadiana's Soiree for Life. The event will be held Oct. 21 at the City Club in River Ranch and benefits the Drs. Zerben Bienvenu and William Smith Education Fund.

The Smith and Bienvenu Fund aims to educate thousands of middle school and high school students across Acadiana through interactive school-based presentations and activities. Through these efforts, we can strengthen the pro-life spirit of Acadiana for generations to come!

Click here to be directed to our secure registration page.
Support Us!
Please consider making a contribution to Louisiana Right to Life. With your generosity, we can continue our lifesaving work throughout the state and stand as a leader throughout the nation.
The 2014 U.S. Senate Election
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State's Admitting Privilege
Law Goes Into Effect
But judge extends period for abortionists'
pending hospital applications, allowing
most abortion facilities to remain open

 

U.S. Federal District Court Judge John deGravelles issued a limited temporary restraining order Sunday night, allowing abortion physicians who are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state who have pending admitting privileges applications at hospitals to continue performing abortions until hospitals reach a decision on their applications.

  

But he did not halt implementation of Louisiana's Unsafe Abortion Protection Act, and the new law went into effect Monday. Act 620, which easily passed in the Louisiana Legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal on June 12, requires physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their facility.  

 

The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge on Aug. 22 on behalf of three of the state's five abortion facilities and two abortion physicians. The plaintiffs asked the judge for a temporary restraining order against Act 620 to prevent the law from taking effect while its constitutionality was challenged in court. The plaintiffs also contended physicians had not had enough time to secure admitting privileges. A hearing on the TRO request was held last Thursday.

 

The state defendants, recognizing the precedent of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals when it ruled in a similar Texas case that physicians with pending applications could not be penalized, offered this as a compromise to the abortion plaintiffs. The abortion plaintiffs rejected this compromise, seeking instead a full temporary restraining order that would have gone beyond the 5th Circuit's decision. Judge deGravelles rejected this request. 

 

Judge deGravelles also ordered a status conference to be held at the end of September to receive status updates on admitting privilege applications. At that point, the parties will discuss how to proceed with the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction, which will go to the underlying constitutional merits of Act 620.

 

"HB 388 (Act 620) was overwhelmingly approved by the Louisiana Legislature as a measure to promote the continuity of care and protect the health and safety of Louisiana women," said Benjamin Clapper, executive director of Louisiana Right to Life. "Prompt implementation of Act 620 will allow Louisiana to raise the standard of care in Louisiana abortion facilities sooner rather than later. While any delay of the law is a setback to that goal, we believe Judge deGravelles' limited decision was a fair one. 

 

"Unfortunately, the abortion industry's attorneys are interested only in preventing the patient-centered standards from taking effect instead of working with the state to find a fair way to move forward. They only wanted the law to be shut down."

Judge deGravelles' decision means that if one of the litigating physicians has a pending application at a local hospital, he or she will be able to continue performing abortions until he or she receives a response from the hospital. This allows the abortion facilities in Shreveport, Bossier City and Metairie to remain open since physicians there have pending applications at local hospitals.   

  

The Baton Rouge and New Orleans abortion facilities are not party to the lawsuit and therefore must abide by Act 620. At this point, the Baton Rouge facility is not performing abortions, though they are doing the mandated "counseling" appointments before sending women to the New Orleans' abortion facility. It appears a physician at the New Orleans facility has obtained privileges, and the facility remains open, though nothing is definitive.

 

During last Thursday's hearing, attorneys representing the DHH and other defendants argued there was no reason for a restraining order since they were going to abide by the 5th Circuit ruling. 

 

Judge deGravelles, who urged both sides to come to an agreement on the handling of pending privileges, asked attorney Kyle Duncan to get DHH Secretary Kathy Kliebert to sign a declaration reiterating the fact that she would not initiate action against any doctor until hospitals had made a decision on their pending applications for admitting privileges.

 

Duncan submitted that document to the court Thursday afternoon and offered it as a reasonable compromise to the plaintiffs. On Friday, however, a possible agreement between the parties broke down. 

 

With any chance of agreement gone, Judge deGravelles released his decision determining that abortion physicians with pending privilege applications can continue performing abortions. However, he limited the decision to the litigating abortion physicians and specified that if a physician does not receive admitting privileges, he or she cannot continue performing abortions.

 

"Since abortion was legalized in the United States, the abortion industry has virtually opposed every common-sense effort to raise medical standards at abortion facilities and give women more information about abortion and their options," Clapper said. "They have done it again in fighting the implementation of Act 620. These abortion facilities want less oversight so they can sell more abortions.  

 

"The legal process is far from over. We thank Judge deGravelles for his fair and impartial proceedings and look forward to further litigation and the eventual full implementation of Act 620."

*** 

For more information on Act 620/HB 388 and all legal proceedings, including public documents from the proceedings, please visit www.ProLifeLouisiana.org/HB388. 

Urge Congress to End Sex-Selective Abortion

 

The use of abortion as a means of sex selection is a major social problem in a number of Asian countries, including China and India, and it is increasingly becoming problematic in the United States.

 

The U.S. does not currently restrict sex selection through law, but efforts to ban sex-selective abortions continue in Washington, D.C.

 

U.S. Sen. David Vitter is lead author in the Senate of the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (S.138) that would prohibit discrimination against the unborn in the form of selective abortion on the basis of sex. The bill was introduced on Jan. 24, 2013, after a similar Senate bill died in the previous session of Congress. But so far the bill has languished in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

 

The House of Representatives took a roll call vote on its own version of the bill on May 31, 2012, and the vote was 246-168 in favor. However, while a strong majority voted to ban sex-selective abortion, the bill fell short of the two-thirds vote required under the fast-track procedure utilized.

 

The Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act was reintroduced into the House as HR 447 by Rep. Trent Franks, R-AZ on Feb. 1, 2013, and was referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice on Feb. 28, 2013. No action has been taken.

 

According to the National Right to Life Committee, there are credible estimates that more than 160 million women and girls are missing from the world due to sex selection. Writing in the Fall 2011 issue of The New Atlantis, political economist Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute observed, "In terms of its sheer toll in human numbers, sex-selective abortion has assumed a scale tantamount to a global war against baby girls."


Multiple academic papers have put forward evidence that the practice of sex-selection by abortion is increasing in the United States, especially, although not exclusively, within

communities of immigrants from Asia. For example, a study by researchers at the University of Connecticut, published in Prenatal Diagnosis in March 2011, concluded, "The male to female livebirth sex ratio in the United States exceeded expected biological variation for third+ births to Chinese, Asian Indians and Koreans, strongly suggesting prenatal sex selection."

 

Sen. Vitter wants to move the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act bill along in the Senate, and Louisiana Right to Life supports that effort. Louisiana Right to Life has launched a petition drive for the purpose of urging U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu to co-sponsor the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act and ask her to do everything necessary to pass this act in the U.S. Congress. The petition also urges Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act up for a vote in the U.S. Senate.

 

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE! 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD DOCUMENTS! 

 

 
Louisiana Right to Life | Lighting the Way to a Pro-Life Louisiana Since 1970
www.ProLifeLouisiana.org | 1.866.463.5433 | info@prolifelouisiana.org

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