BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (LifeSiteNews) – The Louisiana House advanced two bills this week to further restrict abortion in the state by cracking down even more on abortion pills and abortion coercion.
The Justice for Victims of Abortion Drug Dealers Act enables a preborn baby’s mother, father, and grandparents, as well as the mother’s legal guardian, to sue anyone who “performs, causes, or substantially facilitates an abortion” for damages, “regardless of whether the abortion resulted in the death of the unborn child.”
The Stop Coerced Abortion Act expands the definition of coercion under existing law to criminalize more tactic by which abusers pressure, force, or intimidate women into aborting their children.
Louisiana Right to Life noted that both measures passed on May 14, which happened to be Pro-Life Day at the State Capitol.
“HB 575 is an opportunity for restorative justice for women and families that are victims of abortion drug trafficking. It will ensure that victims have civil recourse after being harmed by the abortion industry,” said the group’s communications director, Sarah Zagorski. “HB 425 broadens Louisiana’s abortion coercion statue to encompass tactics often employed by abusers, like control or intimidation, that force a woman to undergo an abortion against her will.”
“Louisiana Right to Life is committed to a future where women and girls are safe from the predatory tactics of the abortion industry and can pursue justice for themselves and their families,” she added.
Louisiana bans abortion throughout pregnancy except when deemed “necessary” to prevent the death of the mother “due to a physical condition,” to avoid “serious, permanent impairment of a life-sustaining organ of a pregnant woman,” or if two doctors agree that an unborn baby would not survive after birth. In such cases, a physician must “make reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the mother and the life of her unborn child in a manner consistent with reasonable medical practice,” per its 2006 trigger law.
Last year, Louisiana enacted the Catherine and Josephine Herring Act, which puts abortion drug mifepristone and misoprostol on the state’s list of Schedule IV drugs under its Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances law, classifying them as having the potential for abuse or dependence. It makes possession without a prescription a criminal offense subject to significant fines and up to 10 years in prison. Since then, Louisiana officials have attempted to extradite a New York abortionist for mailing abortion pills into the state.
Overall, 12 states currently ban all or most abortions. But the abortion lobby is working feverishly to cancel out those deterrents via deregulated interstate distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, and enshrining abortion “rights” in state constitutions.
