The Louisiana Senate strongly supported a bill Tuesday that would prohibit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
WWL News 4 reports state Senate Bill 181 passed in a 31-3 vote, and now moves to the state House for consideration.
More than 200 unborn babies could be saved from abortion every year if the bill becomes law. Data from the state Department of Health indicates about 200 unborn babies were aborted after 15 weeks of pregnancy in 2017 in Louisiana.
“This recognizes the right of the state after 15 weeks to protect the lives of the unborn,” said state Sen. John Milkovich, a pro-life Democrat who wrote the bill. “This is a great step forward.”
Louisiana is the second state to attempt to prohibit abortions after 15 weeks. Mississippi passed a similar law in March, but a judge blocked it after the last abortion facility in the state sued.
The Louisiana Senate added an amendment to the bill to address concerns about legal challenges. As amended, the law would not take effect unless the Mississippi law is upheld in court, The Advocate reports.
Sen. Danny Martiny, a pro-life Republican who introduced the amendment, said he wants to save the state from a possible costly legal challenge. When courts rule against abortion regulations, state taxpayers often are forced to reimburse the pro-abortion groups for their legal fees; this happened recently in Arizona and Missouri.
“I’m on the same page with (Milkovich), but this amendment keeps us from spending money litigating this issue,” Martiny said.
However, Milkovich argued against the amendment, saying, “I think the babies are worth the money.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a rare pro-life Democrat, said he probably will sign the bill if it reaches his desk, according to the AP.
“It remains to be seen whether that bill will make its way through the process. I would be inclined to sign it if it hits my desk,” Edwards said on his radio show in March.
By 15 weeks, unborn babies are nearly fully formed; their major organs, fingers, toes, eyes, ears, taste buds and even their own unique fingerprints already have developed. By this point in the pregnancy, scientists say unborn babies respond to touch. Babies at this stage also have been observed yawning, smiling and sucking their thumbs.
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Louisiana and Mississippi currently prohibit abortions after 20 weeks.
At this point, it is unclear if a 15-week ban would withstand a court challenge. President Donald Trump promised to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court, and pro-life advocates praised his choice of Neil Gorsuch; however, a majority of judges on the high court do not think unborn babies deserve a right to life.
Several years ago, North Dakota and Arkansas passed bills to prohibit abortions after an unborn baby has a detectable heartbeat (about six weeks), but federal courts struck down both laws.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals said the following about the bills: “Because there is no genuine dispute that (North Dakota’s law) generally prohibits abortions before viability — as the Supreme Court has defined that concept — and because we are bound by Supreme Court precedent holding that states may not prohibit pre-viability abortions, we must affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the plaintiffs.”
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the cases in 2016.
