A Louisiana lawmaker has introduced a bill to dramatically expand the definition of a coerced abortion to include any kind of intimidation or effort to pressure a pregnant woman to have an abortion.
Louisiana law currently defines a coerced abortion as intentionally using or threatening to use force to compel a pregnant woman to have an abortion. The crime is a felony that carries a possible five-year prison sentence.
House Rep. Josh Carlson’s bill, HB 425, would criminalize any “control” or “intimidation” of a pregnant woman “with the intent to compel the pregnant woman to undergo an abortion against her will,” regardless of whether she actually had an abortion. The bill contains 18 examples of what could count as such coercion, including kidnapping, blackmail, promises of money or threatening to withhold food or shelter.
It would also criminalize the “exploitation of needs” for “affection, or intimate or marital relationships.”
Louisiana Right to Life, the state’s leading anti-abortion organization, helped draft the bill, said communications director Sarah Zagorski.
“I think it’s common ground for most Louisianans,” Zagorski said. “No one should be coerced into a decision they don’t want to make.”
Carlson, a Lafayette Republican, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“This law is unnecessary and just another example of a solution in search of a problem,” said Michelle Erenberg, the executive director of Lift Louisiana, which advocates for reproductive rights.
“What’s clear is that politicians in this state are determined to find more ways to threaten people who have abortions or anyone who may try to help them,” she said.
The bill would amend a law passed last year, sponsored by Sen. Thomas Pressly, which spurred national headlines. That law created the crime of coerced abortion and also reclassified mifepristone and misoprostol, medications used in pregnancy emergencies that can also induce abortions, as controlled dangerous substances. It was the first law in the country to criminalize the possession of those medications, and a Texas lawmaker filed a similar bill.
Carlson’s bill comes after state prosecutors declined to charge a Louisiana mother with the crime of coerced abortion after she allegedly gave her daughter abortion pills last year, despite repeatedly describing the case as “about coercion.” According to Tony Clayton, the district attorney who brought charges, the mother pressured her daughter to have an abortion. But his office instead charged the mother with the crime of providing medication that induced an abortion, which also carries a maximum five-year prison sentence. The mother has pled not guilty.
Zagorski said that case is an example of why the new bill is needed.
“It’s evident to the state that this is an issue,” she said.
Louisiana lawmakers also charged a New York doctor who allegedly mailed the pills to Louisiana, but New York has refused to extradite the physician because shield laws in that state protect doctors who mail abortion medications to states with bans.
