The Louisiana House of Representatives on Wednesday passed three abortion-related bills that some media outlets are “limiting access to abortion.” However, the bills deal strictly with abortion reporting and providing abortion reversal information to women — not with limiting access to abortion.
One of the bills, HB 378, by Rep. Raymond Crews (R-Shreveport), requires that certain information relative to minors who undergo abortion, such as whether the minor is a suspected victim of child abuse, be included in individual abortion reports. The bill passed 74 to 24.
Similarly, HB 423, introduced by Rep. Julie Emerson (R-Lafayette), would make it mandatory to report more information than is currently required regarding abortions to the Louisiana Department of Health. For example, current law requires that reports include the parish and municipality of the pregnant woman, and the bill adds that the report should include the zip code, if any, in which the pregnant woman resides. The bill passed 82 to 14.
The third bill, HB 578, by Rep. Beryl Amedee (R-Houma), would require doctors to disclose that the first pill in a series of two provided to chemically induce an abortion is not always effective in ending a pregnancy and that the procedure can potentially be reversed before taking the second pill. The bill passed 71 to 27 and now moves on to the Senate.
READ: What the media didn’t tell you about the Supreme Court’s Louisiana abortion regulations case
Reporting on the passage of these three bills, several news outlets, including ABC-affiliated WGNO and CBS-affiliated WAFB, shared articles online describing the bills as “limiting access to abortion” even though the bills placed no restrictions on abortion whatsoever.
While Amedee’s bill, which she referred to as the “Abortion Pill Reversal Disclosure Act,” should be applauded for providing pregnant women with information about the possibility of counteracting the effects of chemical abortions, it places no limitations on access to abortion.
Chemical abortion is a two-step process that involves taking two drugs over the course of several days. The first drug is mifepristone, which kills the preborn child by blocking progesterone, depriving the baby of nutrients. The second drug is misoprostol, which causes strong contractions, causing the mother to expel her dead child.
The two drugs can be taken several days apart. In that time, some mothers change their mind and seek abortion pill reversal treatment where the mother is given progesterone to counter the effects of the mifepristone. According to the Abortion Pill Rescue Network, time is of the essence and the reversal treatment should be started as soon as possible after taking the first drug.
Earlier this year, Pregnancy Help News shared the story of a woman named Hannah who felt very conflicted about her fifth pregnancy and reluctantly decided to abort her child. She took the first drug in the regimen and then changed her mind. She called the Abortion Pill Rescue Network, which put her in touch with a local physician. Today, she has a healthy son, Landyn, whom she describes as “the best little boy.”
Abortion was a major topic in Louisiana last year with the introduction of Amendment 1, the Love Life Amendment. In November 2020, Louisiana achieved a major pro-life victory with the passage of that amendment, which ensures there is no right to abortion in the Louisiana Constitution, and the state is not required to fund it.
As Live Action News previously reported, Louisiana already had a “trigger law” in place — the “Human Life Protection Act” — that would ban abortion with an exception for the health of the mother if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy in the United States.
More information about the abortion pill reversal process can be found at the Abortion Pill Rescue Network website, or by calling the hotline at 855-209-4848.
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