It seems Gov. Bobby Jindal is spending his last few months as governor trying as hard as possible to make Louisiana the worst state in the union.
Not only is he gutting education and pushing the Legislature to pass a religious freedom bill MSNBC producer Steve Benen said would “put Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act to shame,” but he also doubled down on the incredibly harmful abortion restrictions proposed last November.
The Department of Health and Hospitals released a new version of the controversial abortion clinic regulations that were first introduced last year. Pro-choice advocates were hoping the revised regulations would have multiple changes.
No substantial amendments were made to the proposal.
The original bill was drafted as an “emergency,” meaning there was no public hearing or outside input on the proposed laws.
In its original state, the restrictions included a mandatory blood test and a 30-day waiting period for women seeking abortions. This restriction was dropped in January after opponents argued that attaching a four-week waiting period to a procedure that cannot legally be performed after someone is more than 20 weeks pregnant would unconstitutionally limit access.
This was the only thing removed. What remains are multiple restrictions considered to be TRAP laws, or Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers. These laws are based on the ones that sparked Wendy Davis’ famous Texas filibuster and would likely shut down all five of Louisiana’s abortion clinics.
TRAP laws are restrictions on clinics that are imposed under the guise of making abortions safer. These regulations include requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinics, mandating the walls of clinics be wide enough to accommodate stretchers and subjecting abortion providers to random inspections.
Even when clinics attempt to adhere to these over-the-top restrictions, they are barred from doing so. Planned Parenthood plans to build an ambulatory surgical center in New Orleans that fulfills all of the TRAP requirements.
Construction was supposed to begin in 2013. However, threats from the Catholic community of New Orleans halted work. Last January, Archbishop Gregory Aymond vowed that no construction company contributing to the surgical center would ever be hired by the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
In a city where the Catholic Church controls multiple schools, apartment complexes and nursing homes, this threat proved incredibly effective. Construction on the clinic has slowed substantially as Planned Parenthood scrambles to find companies that will work with them.
TRAP laws are not the only dangers to reproductive rights working through the Louisiana Legislature. The House Health and Welfare Committee will review the Louisiana Pre-Natal Non-Discrimination Act, which prohibits abortion based on gender and provides grounds for civil action against anyone who has an abortion because they are unhappy with the gender of their fetus.
State Rep. Lenar Whitney, R-Houma, who filed the bill, did so in an effort to protect female fetuses.
“It is sad that people in our world would kill unborn children simply because they are baby girls instead of baby boys,” Whitney said.
The sex-based selection that Whitney is fighting against does not happen, as proven by a 2014 study performed by the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. Pro-life activists claim abortions are the reason more boys are born than girls, but the study found no causal relationship between the availability of abortion procedures and the ratio of male to female children born.
These laws are nothing but harmful and dangerous for the people of Louisiana. When denied the right to a safe and legal abortion, people begin to seek illegal avenues to terminate pregnancies.
Amy Irvin, a founding member of the New Orleans Abortion Fund, told ThinkProgress in January that a black market for abortion-inducing drugs was already emerging.
“There’s anecdotal evidence that people are selling pills on the street — they’re telling women it’s the abortion pill, but who’s to say if that’s really what it is,” Irvin said. “It’s very scary. Women are saying that if the clinic is closed, they’ll resort to illegal means or home remedies.”
Lawmakers are forcing the state back into a pre-Roe v. Wade world, where terminating pregnancy was often done in unsafe conditions, leaving people much more vulnerable to complications.
Jindal does not have the right to throw Louisiana under the bus on his doomed run for the White House. Citizens do not deserve to have their constitutional rights taken from them so a soon-to-be-irrelevant politician can say he fights for life.
Hopefully, for the sake of all Louisiana citizens, pro-choice advocates take down these laws — because if these amendments stand, getting a safe abortion in this state will become nearly impossible.
Logan Anderson is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Houston, Texas. You can reach her on Twitter @LoganD_Anderson.