BREAKING: Louisiana legislature passes Texas-style pro-life mega-bill
The Louisiana House voted this afternoon 88-5 to join the Senate in passing a pro-life omnibus bill, which Governor Bobby Jindal promoted and has already promised to sign.
But unlike Texas, there was no pink tennis-shoed legislator trying to hold up the process. HB388 received bipartisan support, even sponsored by a Democrat – Rep. Katrina Jackson, pictured left.
Depending on the source, the enacted measure is anticipated to close either three or four of the state’s five abortion clinics. Good riddance. Quoting nola.com:
While it’s been widely reported that the new measures could shutter three clinics in Baton Rouge, Metairie and New Orleans, the clinic in Bossier City still as [sic] to work to comply.
The Delta Clinic in Baton Rouge is being hit with a double whammy. Only yesterday U.S. Senator David Vitter, pictured right, asked the Louisiana Dept. of Health and Hospitals to investigate it for HIPAA violations. DHH has already referred the matter to the FBI.
Like so many others, Delta Clinic has a sordid legal history, including a link to abortionist serial-killer Kermit Gosnell.
HB388 is quite a piece of legislation. It mandates that:
- abortionists must have completed a residency program in either ob/gyn or family medicine
- abortionists have admitting privileges at a hospital no more than 30 miles away
- a 24-hour waiting period before RU-486 is administered, just as is present Louisiana law for surgical abortions
- abortionists be in the room when a pregnant mother is given RU-486
- abortionists report all medical or surgical abortion complications to the state and FDA if medical
- clinics provide a 24-hour answering service with medical records at hand in case of emergencies
- clinics provide written notice if employees have abortion sales quotas
The new law is certain to be challenged in court.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will eventually hear the case. While one 5th Circuit panel upheld Texas’s law and allowed abortion clinics to close immediately, a different 5th Circuit panel is allowing Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic to remain open while that case is pending.
I read an interesting quote yesterday by NARAL’s Vice President of Policy, Donna Crane. Attempting to “reassure supporters,” according to the Huffington Post, she said, ”[A]lthough these (restrictive state laws) keep happening and we are losing ground, we’ve not lost power.”
By what measure?
Pro-lifers are riding a great wave in the states at present. Kudos to the many pro-life legislators around the country enacting laws to protect women and babies.
Congratulations to Louisiana!
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“clinics provide written notice if employees have abortion sales quotas”
I can’t WAIT to hear their argument against that one.
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Great news Jill, thanks for posting.
Gotta keep riding and building this wave of momentum.
88 to 5 too, that’s unbelievable.
PP must not be bribing as many lawmakers as they used to.
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WOW!!! A Pro-Life African-American Democrat woman sponsored this bill. I am blown away by this!! Hallelujah!! Go State Rep. Katrina Jackson. God bless you. She better watch her back though. I will indeed pray for her. The Dead-Babies-R-Us crew must be going absolutely ballistic, that she has left “Uncle Sam’s Plantation” (an excellent book by Star Parker btw, if you get a chance read it). I love it. This made my day, week and month.
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Given David Vitter’s acknowledged enthusiasm for patronizing prostitutes, one can certainly understand his concern for the secrecy of women’s health records. Who knows whose name will show up in them?
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LisaC
One has to laugh at the sanctimony and selective “outrage” of liberals/Democrats/feminists who have always been only too willing to turn a blind eye to the sexual abuse of women by the likes of Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton, as well as Hillary Clinton’s role in silencing the women who accused her husband.
But then these women were just liars, bimboes, stalkers, and psychos, right LisaC?
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Many will be shuttered by simply asking them to be responsible for the women they profit from.
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It seems that Vitter has overcome his mistakes from over a decade ago, and now he is doing the right and courageous thing to help women and children by protecting them from a sleazy abortion industry.
But… I wish that LisaC were correct. I looked up Vitter, hoping to find that he was a sleazy Democrat who is using the abortion industry to cover up his crimes, like so many sexual abusers do.
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P.S. — I really love it when there are two BREAKING news stories in one day!
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Hi Del,
Yes, sleazy Democrats like former NY Gov. Elliott Spitzer, aka Client no. 9, who was notorious among the call girls for his very violent physical abuse of the women he hired. Apparently beating women to a pulp was how he got his sick thrills. They feared for their lives. While members of this profession deal with some real weirdos, even Spitzer was too much.
I believe he went on to host a news show of some kind?
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I shouldn’t have made my comment sound so partisan. I am equally disgusted by sleazy politicians, regardless of their party.
However, I am able to appreciate when a politician is genuinely sorry about his vices. And I am doubly troubled when a politico and his fans seem to rejoice in the decadence.
Conservative voters are pretty hard on our representatives when they fail to live up to our values. Liberal seem voters willing to forget anything, as long as the guy votes their way.
But forget all that — Let us celebrate our new hero, Rep. Katrina Jackson! Now there’s a woman who fights for women against the abortion industry establishment!
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Hi Del,
I don’t think any of these men, Republican or Democrat, deserve any round of applause.
However sexual misconduct is one thing, sexual assault and any type of abuse is another matter altogether.
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Parts of this bill sound reasonable, the other parts really make no sense and some of the language can be insulting to some people. For instance, not every person who is pregnant identifies as a “pregnant mother” nor does pregnancy always mean that a person wants to be considered a mother and how does having a mandatory waiting period help a person who is completely confident in their decision? Another thing, why not require the hospitals to have the admitting privileges instead of the clinic? In the rare case that something went wrong, of course a legitimate clinic is going to do whatever they can to help their patient out. However, the same cannot always be said for certain hospitals which are either unable to handle emergencies related to an abortion or have strict policies against helping people who had an abortion, which is why those hospitals should be the ones required to either admit that person or at the very least, do what they can to ensure that person will be helped in some way until they can be transferred to a hospital that handles these types of cases.
Designing a bill to shut down legitimate, safe, clinics will do nothing to help the people who need to or want to get an abortion safely and legally, nor does it address any of the circumstances leading a person to get an abortion in the first place.
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Welcome R. You must be new here. Good luck.
Women are mothers at conception whether they “feel like it” or not. Women are mothers when they become pregnant. The word mother is insulting to some? Tough.
Hospitals are equipped to handle heavy bleeding, uterine tears, unconscious women due to blood loss etc. etc. etc. Abortion mills only call 911 when a patient is near death. RARE?
You have really no idea what you are talking about. Hospitals get to “clean up” the messes that abortionists make on a routine basis. Google Tonya Reeves.
Abortion is never safe. One dead. One wounded.
And one by one the mills will all fall down.
Sidewalk counselors are out there everyday seeing to the needs of mothers who may not want an abortion. And the needs of these mothers are met at Pregnancy Resource Centers.
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PS
The abortion mills are NOT at all equipped to handle emergency surgery after botching an abortion.
Hospitals may have to do emergency hysterectomies to repair the damage that abortionists have done. To
stop the bleeding.
Please link to the list of hospitals that have STRICT POLICIES to not help women that are physically damaged and harmed in abortions. Thanks.
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