Bill to add rape & incest exceptions to La’s abortion laws stalled in a House committee after emotional debate

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Passionate and sometimes emotional debate was on display at the state capitol on Wednesday (May 10) as a bill that would add exceptions for rape and incest to Louisiana’s strict abortion law was debated.

Rep. Delisha Boyd, a Democrat from New Orleans, authored the bill, and she spoke in very personal terms during her testimony before the House Committee on Administration of Justice.

“I am the product of a 15-year-old, my sperm donor was 28 years old,” said Boyd. “My mother most likely had been violated as young as 13, considering the fact that she gave birth to me at 15. What I can tell you today in my mid-50s is that I know that my mother never recovered from that. She was dead before she was 28 years old because no one took time to take care of the child that had been violated by a predator.”

On the legislative session’s opening day, Governor John Bel Edwards, a pro-life Catholic, urged lawmakers to add exceptions for rape and incest to the state’s current abortion ban.

A packed audience listened to those testifying.

Katie Hunter Lowrey is with La. Survivors for Reform.

“I was raped by someone I was dating and obviously no one thinks that is going to happen to them until it happens to you,” said Lowrey.” “That was the most horrible experience of my life and I lived with so much shame for years thinking that I had done something wrong.”

Dr. Nicole Freehill, an OB-GYN, also testified in support of HB 346.

“I have one example of a patient that I just took care of at the end of last year, she was 14 years old at the time, had been repeatedly raped by her uncle, had been threatened, so she never spoke of this to any of her other family members. She came to the emergency room with abdominal pain and was found to be 19 weeks pregnant,” she said.

Pro-choice advocates say such victims should not be forced to go through with unwanted pregnancies.

But opponents disagreed and testified against the bill.

Heather Hobbs was one of them.

“When I was 19 years old, I was raped and tortured for three days and I did contemplate abortion as I would think most women do because that is what society says we should do, that we are somehow hurting women if they are forced to carry a rapist’s baby but I would say that my child is not the child of a rapist but the child of a rape survivor,” she said.

Sancha Noel Smith also spoke against the legislation.

“You don’t add insult to injury behind a rape and the trauma that, that creates, you don’t kill the baby,” she said.

Louisiana has made headlines because of its strict anti-abortion laws, and opponents say poor women cannot travel out of state to seek the procedure.

Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, said people with means will still be able to get abortions but not the poor.

“The people that cannot afford to do that will not have that option,” she said.

Rep. Alonzo, a Democrat representing New Orleans in the legislature, put a question to his colleagues on the committee.

“I would ask my colleagues if a big, bad monster raped your daughter, your niece, your granddaughter, your neighbor, your colleague how would you feel?” he asked.

But in the end, the bill failed to advance to the House of Representatives on a vote of five yeas and 10 nays.

Gov. Edwards issued the following statement after the bill was not advanced to the House floor:

“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.”

Rep. Knox and Rep. Kyle Green co-sponsored the bill with Boyd.

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