Press Release

Humanists Decry Louisiana Anti-Abortion Law

June 19, 2006

For Immediate Release

Contact: Roy Speckhardt, (202) 238-9088
rspeckhardt@americanhumanist.org - www.americanhumanist.org

(Washington, D.C.) Louisiana Governor Katherine Babineaux Blanco signed into law an anti-abortion bill that severely limits the right to choose. It is a so-called trigger law that would criminalize abortion in the event that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion, is overturned.

"Humanists believe that reproductive freedoms are vital to the liberty and independence of women. Women's rights are human rights, and human rights are basic to Humanism," commented Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. “In this regard, since women have won the right to abortion, birth-control, and sex education, their efficacy and power in our society have improved dramatically, an outcome we see as purely positive," Speckhardt added. “But the Religious Right is launching a nationwide effort to deny women the right to control their own bodies, and thus the right to control their lives. The Louisiana and South Dakota laws are examples of how the Religious Right has already achieved its goal of eroding hard-won reproductive rights and scaling back women's independence."

The Louisiana ban on abortions would only make an exception when the life of the woman is at risk. No exceptions would be made for cases of rape or incest.

“Unfortunately, many states are imposing blanket restrictions on abortion that not only limit the right to choose but have no respect for the individual circumstances that make the right to abortion so important,” said Speckhardt.

Several states have enacted trigger laws comparable to the Louisiana ban. In addition, twelve states are considering or have considered legislation similar to the South Dakota law, which is unconstitutional under Roe and was written as a direct challenge to the Supreme Court decision.

“Never before has Roe v. Wade been so threatened as it is now. It is clear that state legislatures have been emboldened by the current conservative tilt of the Court and feel the time is right for an attack on Roe,” said Mel Lipman, president of the American Humanist Association.

Restrictions on abortions vary from state to state, but mandatory waiting periods and counseling before abortions as well as parental notification for minors are common. Several states have only a small number of clinics that would perform an abortion and are open only a few hours a week at inconvenient times. In addition, access to birth control and emergency contraception is severely limited in many areas.

"While we applaud the recent successful move by South Dakotans to hold a statewide referendum on the law passed by their legislature to prompt a court challenge aimed at overturning Roe v. Wade, that isn't enough. We can't merely react to the anti-choice forces, as if waiting for them to render abortion and related services virtually unavailable. We need to actually increase their public access," said Speckhardt.

On April 6, 2006, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) introduced the Freedom of Choice Act into the Senate, which would override any state laws banning abortion and secure the right to reproductive freedom in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned. It would also increase accessibility to safe and affordable abortion services.

“Passage of the Freedom of Choice Act is imperative. No woman in America, regardless of her city or state, should be forbidden from exercising her rights,” concluded Speckhardt.

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