LA ABORTION BAN - Last week’s Louisiana Supreme Court ruling rejecting an appeal by plaintiffs hoping to block the state’s abortion ban means the state’s near-total abortion ban is in effect. The only three women’s clinics that provided abortions have closed and are planning to relocate to states that allow abortion. In June, Democrat Governor John Bel Edwards signed a bill to ban abortion in the state, with no exceptions for rape or incest. The ban puts harsher criminal penalties on abortion providers but allow for abortion should it threaten the health and life of the mother.
Edwards, a Catholic has said he is a pro-life but had hoped there would be two more exceptions to the ban – rape and incest. During his appearance on his monthly radio program “Ask The Governor” on the Louisiana Radio Network – Edwards said he believes there is growing support among Democrat and Republican lawmakers to include those two exceptions in future legislation.
“I think there are a large number of legislators, house and senate Republicans, Democrats who support that,” Edwards explained. “The question is what kind of political pressure they’re getting and whether they will actually vote in accordance with what they with believe to be the best thing to do.”
Edwards has another year to try and influence lawmakers but is term-limited as his second term ends on January 8, 2024.
