Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry added Louisiana to a 24-state coalition that filed an amicus brief in support of a Mississippi law that ban abortions after fetuses reach 15 weeks gestation. The Supreme Court announced in May that it would consider the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, which challenges preceding decisions that restrict bans on abortions before a fetus is viable -- 24 weeks.
In the legal brief, the states are calling for the Supreme Court to overturn its landmark decisions on Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, which prohibits states from banning abortion outright.
“I will never waver in my defense of the unborn,” Landry, a Republican, said in a press release announcing his decision to join Louisiana to the brief. “And I will always support a state’s right to protect the unborn and their mothers.”
The brief says, “the court’s abortion jurisprudence lacks any constitutional or historical foundation.”
The other states that filed the brief are Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Louisiana passed its own 15-week abortion ban in 2018 and tied it to the Mississippi law. Meaning, if justices uphold the Mississippi restriction, an identical law would go into effect in Louisiana.
