Proposed Louisiana abortion law would charge women with homicide

A state legislative committee in Louisiana has advanced a bill that would criminalise abortion as homicide, in which the pregnant person or people who assist with their abortion could be charged.

The bill, proposed by Republican state Rep Danny McCormick, advanced from the state’s House Criminal Justice Committee by a vote of 7-2 on 4 May, despite at least one legislator who supported the bill stressing that it is likely unconstitutional.

House Bill 813 now heads to the state House of Representatives for a full vote.

The bill’s introduction follows a leaked opinion from the US Supreme Court’s conservative majority that appears willing to revoke constitutional protections for abortion care affirmed by the rulings in Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey, ending healthcare protections for millions of Americans.

Abortion remains legal in all states, though Republican legislators across the US have introduced dozens of anti-abortion measures in 2022 to restrict access or eliminate it entirely, with several states targeting abortion providers with felonies, though such legislation has exempted people seeking abortions.

Louisiana is among at least 16 states with so-called “trigger” laws in place that would make abortion care illegal and force the closures of the state’s three remaining clinics if Roe v Wade is overturned at the Supreme Court.

Current restrictions on abortion care in the state include a mandatory ultrasound and state-directed counseling before a procedure, as well as a 24-hour waiting period before a procedure can be performed. Abortions for patients with health insurance plans through the state’s Affordable Care Act exchange cannot be covered, and patients cannot obtain medication abortion prescriptions through telemedicine appointments.

The state’s “trigger” law would immediately ban providers from performing an abortion or providing abortion medication in all cases, provided that the physician makes “reasonable medical efforts” to save the life of the mother and the fetus.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana said the state legislative proposal is “blatantly unconstitutional.”

During the hearing on Wednesday, legislators were warned that the bill would also criminalise in vitro fertilizations and some forms of birth control.

Earlier on Wednesday, the state’s Republican attorney general Jeff Landry said women seeking abortion in the state should “pack your bags and move to California.”

Louisiana’s Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards, the only anti-abortion Democratic governor in the US, has declined to publicly discuss the leaked Supreme Court opinion.

A spokesperson for the governor told The Independent that his “pro-life position has been clear and consistent since he was first elected to the Louisiana Legislature in 2008” but “he’s not going to issue a statement about a draft decision that has not been formally issued” and he does not typically comment about bills that have not yet reached his desk.

The measure (to be named the “Abolition of Abortion in Louisiana Act of 2022”) recognises “the sanctity of innocent human life, created in the image of God, which should be equally protected from fertilization to natural death” and would “fully recognize the human personhood of an unborn child at all stages of development prior to birth from the moment of fertilization” and “ensure the right to life and equal protection of the laws to all unborn children from the moment of fertilization by protecting them by the same laws protecting other human beings.”

The bill’s text attempts to supersede and “treat as void … any and all federal statutes, regulations, treaties, orders, and court rulings which would deprive an unborn child of the right to life or prohibit the equal protection of such right.”