Louisiana bill to bring abortion back by the vote of the people fails in committee

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — A renewed push to bring back abortion to Louisiana failed in a legislative committee Monday, March 25. A bill authored by State Rep. Aimee Freeman, D-New Orleans, would have enshrined into the state’s constitution a person’s right to make decisions on reproductive health care without the government stepping in. This included abortion, contraceptives, fertility treatments and birthing options.

She knew that this would be a heavy lift to pass, but she wanted to start the conversation around making sure that there are protections for reproductive health care.

HB245 looked to put it to a vote of the people on whether they wanted to add those protections to state law. Freeman said a poll conducted by LSU last year showed about 52% of people support abortion rights.

“We are in a different time and place. The last vote that happened on this topic was before Roe v. Wade,” Freeman said. “And when you look at the data, LSU's poll has shown that increasingly people understand that access to care is really important and abortion is part of that access to care.”

Lawmakers were skeptical of the poll and pointed to a 2020 constitutional amendment vote that passed overwhelmingly to not protect abortion rights. Some legislators took offense to supporters of the bill calling abortion health care.

“This is not health care when we're taking the life of children,” said state Rep. Emily Chenevert, R-Baton Rouge.

Another reason why Freeman wanted to bring the bill is because of the state’s criminal punishments for doctors who perform abortions — leading some to fear providing life-saving care.

“I represent a lot of doctors, and I also have had many young women who are of childbearing age come to me and fear that if they have any pregnancy complications, they would have to leave the state,” Freeman said.

Louisiana woman Nancy Davis had a non-viable pregnancy and had to go to New York to have an abortion.

Louisiana Right to Life believes the current carve-outs in the law are sufficient.

“There's a specific provision in there that determines that that physician can act to save the life of the mother,” Executive Director Ben Clapper said.

Right to Life also took issue with the bill not laying out when an abortion could and couldn’t be performed.

The bill ultimately was involuntarily deferred with a vote of 10-2. There are more bills working their way through the process that could add exceptions to the law or change the penalties for doctors.

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