Bill to make rape, incest exceptions for abortions in La. fails

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - One of the biggest things the governor wanted to see come out of the legislature this year was a bill to allow women to have an abortion in the event of rape or incest. But lawmakers took that proposal off the table.

“If we want to be pro-life, we have to consider more than just the baby in general,” said Rep. Delisha Boyd before introducing her bill Wednesday morning.

There was not an empty seat inside the House Criminal Justice Committee as women packed in tight to see if lawmakers would allow for rape and incest to become exceptions for abortions.

“You could potentially be putting the survivor’s life at risk depending on the circumstances,” said Morgan Lamandre with STAR.

“I’ve taken care of an 11-year-old girl who was molested by a family member who was trusted to take care of her,” said one pediatric doctor.

We heard from several women who shared their personal experiences and said what gave them comfort was knowing they did not have to keep the baby, at least before Roe v. Wade was overturned and Louisiana’s trigger law went into effect.

“You are condemning an innocent woman to be attached to a violent criminal for the rest of her life. Giving abortion access to rape victims is the humane thing to do, thank you for your time,” said a rape survivor, Andrea Dube.

“At least I knew that if I had become pregnant from that rape, I would not have to go through the incredibly dangerous process of being pregnant and I would not have to carry a pregnancy to term that I did not want,” added Kaite Lowrey, another survivor.

Those remarks were met with equally powerful testimony from rape survivors who kept their children and were against the bill.

“I would say that my child is not the child of a rapist, but the child of a rape survivor. When we stay in victimhood, when we keep ourselves in victimhood, we’re keeping the power in the hands of the rapist and that is a huge part of the problem,” explained Heather Hobbs.

“I know that the trauma of rape and incest, having been molested by a family member when I was a little girl. It’s never a good idea to take an innocent life, for the shedding of innocent blood is on our hands. And we will be judged, and we will be held accountable,” added another survivor.

Even ones who were born out of rape spoke.

“What was the story, where was the dad that was just never around? And so I go to my mom and she tells me a story that forever changed my life and I’ll never forget it in 2009 in August in Abbeville Louisiana, South of the airport, on a green picnic table over some gravel rocks, next to a gray Lincoln, it changed my perspective as a man and what I wanted to become. So, guys please don’t question my value just because I wasn’t conceived willingly. I can bring healing and hope to the world as well...just as my mom brought it to me,” said the man.

All of that was enough to move the committee to vote the bill down in a 10-5 vote.

There were a couple of other bills that came up today around abortion. HB522 by Rep. Aimee Freeman (D) would have changed the punishments for doctors who perform abortions by removing jail time. It also would have reduced the number of doctors it takes to verify a medically futile pregnancy from 2 to 1. Her bill was voluntarily deferred. HB549 by Rep. Cedric Glover (D) to add rape and incest as an exception for minors failed as well. And then HB461 by Rep. Mary Dubuisson (R) to also add exceptions to an abortion was also voluntarily deferred.

Governor John Bel Edwards issued this statement in response to what played out Wednesday:

“I am deeply disappointed in today’s vote. The committee’s decision to prevent this important bill from being debated by the full house is both unfortunate and contrary to the position of a vast majority of Louisianans, who support these exceptions. I want to thank Rep. Delisha Boyd for authoring this bill and sharing her very personal story. Louisiana is a pro-life state, which I and many others are proud of. But being pro-life can also include having basic empathy for women and young girls who are the victims of rape and incest. I simply do not understand how we as a state can tell any victim that she must be forced by law to carry her rapist’s baby to term, regardless of the impact on her own physical or mental health, the wishes of her parents, or the medical judgment of her physician. As I have said before, rape and incest exceptions protect crime victims. We must do all that we can to protect them and sadly, the committee failed to do so today.”

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