The Louisiana legislative session began on April 13th, and WWAV has been working to bring the issues impacting our communities to the table, and advocating for policies that will improve the lives of marginalized women and their families in Louisiana.
Several bills introduced this session pose a threat to our community’s basic human rights — from a personhood amendment that would have the effect of making in vitro fertilization and some forms of contraception illegal, to a bill that would allow for discrimination against LGBTQ people, and specifically same-sex couples and their families, under the guise of the protection of religious practices. We are calling on our allies and supporters to make their voices heard by contacting their Louisiana state lawmakers and letting them know which bills to support and which bills are harming our communities. At WWAV we understand that legislation should protect, not violate your human rights!
Women With a Vision recently hosted phone banking in our office to oppose one such potential harmful piece of legislation, SB 8. The bill, introduced by State Senator Gerald Long, criminalizes pregnant mothers who use any type of “illegal drug” during their pregnancies. Medical authorities have said there is no evidence that exposure to illegal drugs in the womb actually causes long-lasting health issues in young children. Doctors have also underscored that criminal sanctions are unlikely to deter drug use among pregnant women, and instead, sanctions have been shown to drive pregnant women further away from critical health care that could support both them and their babies. At WWAV we understand that lawmakers must learn to treat addiction as a public health issue, rather than a criminal issue. If we are all truly concerned about harm to children born of mothers struggling with addiction, we would use harm reduction techniques, rehabilitation services, and other evidence-based public health practices aimed at curbing drug use and reducing the risks associated with some types of drug use. WWAV calls on lawmakers to support evidence-based public health practices that make our communities healthier and safer by treating addiction and offering mothers supportive services, and to turn away from policies that promote incarceration and the separation of families.
This legislative session WWAV is working with other women-lead groups across the city, such as the Legislative Agenda for Women (LAW), a coalition of 16 statewide and community-based Louisiana organizations, and the local chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), to support bills around reproductive justice, equal pay, comprehensive sex education, Medicaid expansion, and sexual and domestic violence prevention. You can click here to sign a petition from NCJW opposing SB8.
Below are several talking points for bills WWAV and our allies are working to oppose this session:
SB8
Author: Senator Long
Summary:  This proposed bill would permit the prosecution of women who use illegal drugs while pregnant. Women whose children die as a result of substance use during pregnancy can be charged with one of the five grades of criminal homicide. Women whose children are born addicted to (or “harmed”) by a controlled substance as a result of substance use during pregnancy can be charged with battery. 

• Criminalizing pregnant women on the basis of state-mandated drug laws serves as the perfect pipeline for filling empty prison beds in a state that already serves as the world’s prison capital.
• Instead of utilizing rehabilitation resources to curb an expectant mother’s substance use, the threat of prison is used as a tool for fear-mongering.
• While drug use is relatively equal across racial lines, incarceration affects women of color substantially more than white women. Hispanic/Latina women are incarcerated 2.5 times more than white women, and Black women are incarcerated 6 times more than white women. Legislation such as this serves as another means of attacking and criminalizing women of color.
• Interestingly enough, SB8 does not support the pro-life rhetoric of the religious right; more women could consider terminating their pregnancies out of fear of jail-time.
• SB8 fails to consider the public health ramifications that could stem from its approval: if women fear incarceration for testing positive on a drug test while pregnant, they are far less likely to seek prenatal services, a major factor in reducing substance use among expectant mothers and a predictor of the overall health of both mother and child.
• This bill lacks the support of health practitioners (American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Public Health Association) because its logic is not founded in evidence-based research.
• Incarcerating women restricts their access to adequate nutrition, comfort and medical services and cannot serve as a substitute for expanding Medicaid, increasing minimum wage, or providing paid maternity leave.
• Shackling during childbirth is still a common practice in prisons, especially in Louisiana. During the birthing process, this practice is noted to be just as harmful, if not more, than drug use to an infant.
• Criminalizing addiction has never reduced the rate of drug use in the US. Because substance use alters brain chemistry, it should be treated as an illness, not a criminal act. Efforts should focused on destigmatizing substance use instead of criminalizing it.

SB80 (Personhood Bill)
Author: Elbert Guillory
Summary:  This proposed constitutional amendment aims to restrict abortion due to the definition of abortion established by Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wade, passed under the pretense that zygotes are not legal people, is meant to reinforce the confidentiality and safety rightfully allotted to the private relationship between a pregnant woman and her doctor. However, SB80 allows for the state’s interpretation of abortion and definition of personhood to prevail. Per this proposed legislation, the personhood of an unborn child would begin at the moment of conception, thus making abortion an infringement on its right to life.

• Following the logic proposed by Senator Guillory’s legislation, access to nearly all forms of birth control (pills, IUDs, emergency contraception, etc.) is at risk of attack.
• Though most birth control methods prevent ovulation (i.e. no egg is ever released and therefore no fertilization occurs), on rare occasions, an egg can be released. Birth control methods address this by inhibiting fertilization.
• This legislation could potentially pose a significant threat to birth control methods, specifically emergency contraception, because these methods restrict an egg’s right to conception.
• SB 80 virtually places the well-being of unfertilized eggs ahead of the health and well-being of women who, following the logic used to create this amendment, merely serve as vessels for potentially fertilized eggs.
• SB 80 assumes that women do not have enough wherewithal to navigate the choices regarding their own bodies and thus criminalizes them for attempting to exercise autonomy.

HB 191
Author: Representative Cox
Summary: This bill requires that inmates must submit to infectious disease testing before being placed on parole, specifically STDs, HIV/AIDS, and viral hepatitis.

• Legislation such as this further aims to criminalize and stigmatize persons living with HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections.
• Under the guise of protecting public health by preventing incarcerated persons’ re-entry into larger society, HB 191 actually poses harm to public health. Restricting access to health education and adequate medical care places incarcerated communities and communities of color at greater risk of transmission.
• HB 191 additionally fails to acknowledge the conditions within jails and prisons (specifically the lack of quality healthcare and medical services) that allow infectious disease transmission to occur in the first place.

HB 701
Author: Representatives Whitney & Hoffman
Summary:  HB 701 prohibits providing abortions on the basis of sex selection. HB701 would criminalize a doctor who knowingly performs an abortion sought on the basis of sex and would require nurses or doctors to report suspected cases. It also would allow a woman’s family members to sue the provider if they think a sex- selective abortion was performed.

• This legislation would interfere with open, honest communication between doctors and patients by forcing doctors to report a patient’s motivations for seeking care to authorities.
• While research has shown that sex-selective abortions are a significant issue in countries such as Bangladesh and India, the problem does not exist in Louisiana. HB 701 serves as another means to slip anti-abortion legislation under the radar and plays into racial stereotypes about women of color.
• Banning sex-selective abortions will not reduce gender discrimination in this state as it does not address the root causes of that discrimination.

HB 707
Author: Mike Johnson
Summary:  Referred to as the “Marriage and Conscience Act,” this legislation will allow individuals to exercise their religious beliefs or moral convictions about marriage without fear of repercussion from the state.

• HB 707 is a response to marriage equality for same-sex couples but has an impact that extends beyond marriage equality.
• The language of this bill allows businesses and individuals to discriminate based on their personal definitions of marriage.
• Because of the broad language of HB 707, this discrimination could be applied not only to same-sex couples, but to interfaith and interracial couples as well. Businesses would be allowed to refuse service to individuals simply based on their (loosely defined) “moral convictions.”
• Businesses could additionally refuse to provide benefits to same-sex couples based on their moral convictions as well.