The total abortion ban that Louisiana is considering still has not had its floor debate and vote in the House yet–it looks like there is some benign bureaucratic wrangling (wait, is that an oxymoron?) going on about the timing–but no less a source than Reuters has picked up on the history that Louisiana is about to make if this bill becomes law:
The Louisiana state House of Representatives could soon consider a bill that would ban abortions and launch a battle to overturn the historic Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
[…]
Louisiana joins two other Southern states — Mississippi and Alabama — in attempting the most stringent abortion restrictions seen in the nearly four decades since the landmark Supreme Court ruling making abortion legal.
And while pro-aborts and their allies in the media have tried to frame proposals like those in LA, MS, and AL as cynical second-guessing of the Supreme Court, the LA bill’s sponosr, Rep. John LaBruzzo, doesn’t mince words when it comes to explaining his legislation:
“Our first intent is to save unborn babies’ lives,” LaBruzzo told Reuters. “Our second intent is to have an opportunity to mount a challenge that makes it to the Supreme Court.”
Hear that, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, ACLU, Center for Reproductive Choice? We honestly do want to stop the killing. That’s why we’re passing these laws. But if you do try to stop us, we’re not afraid to fight you all the way to the Supreme Court to see justice prevail again in our country.
I think our side comes off looking quite strong and confident in this Reuters piece. The article closes with LaBruzzo giving the best dismissal of the “contraception question” as it relates to personhood laws/abortion bans I have heard yet and powerfully summing up the case for his bill:
“This is not about interfering with anyone’s ability to receive or participate in birth control,” he told Reuters. “What the bill says is that life begins at conception, and a baby who is pre-born should enjoy all the rights that a 1-day-old baby does.”
In the interests of full-disclosure, it should be noted that yes, several years ago, LaBruzzo did float a disgusting, stupid, eugenics-inspired proposal to pay poor women to be sterilized. Ironically, pro-abort activists and supporters of Planned Parenthood (even some in the comment boxes here) try to use this to smear him when their own organizations have a long and storied history of supporting compulsory sterilization. I think every pro-lifer condemns that old position of LaBruzzo’s, and I think most would agree with me that the best penance he can do for having once made such a culture-of-death suggestion like that in the past is to pass the pro-life legislation he is sponsoring now.
