BATON ROUGE, LA – Louisiana
Attorney General Jeff Landry is leading a 25-state
coalition supporting a Texas law banning dismemberment abortions
– abortions that use forceps to tear the babies apart limb-by-limb while
they are still alive, causing the unborn children to bleed to death in their
mother’s womb.
In an amicus brief filed in the United
States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, General Landry and his
broad coalition argue that States may pass legislation that shows the
State’s profound respect for the life of an unborn child at all stages of
gestation and that prevents the devaluation and coarsening of respect for human
life. The Landry brief argues that the dismemberment process is an
inhumane form of abortion.
“While courts have protected a woman’s choice to have an
abortion, the law has not and does not protect a particular method of
abortion. The live dismemberment of a baby while its heart still
beats is a gruesome and unacceptable abortion process,” said General Landry. “We
do not permit animals or criminals to be treated this way; and no civilized
society should be permitted to treat babies this way.”
The Landry-led coalition includes the
Attorneys General from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho,
Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota,
Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and
Wisconsin; and the Governors from Kentucky, Maine, and Mississippi.
Earlier this year, General Landry led a 24-state
coalition in another amicus brief supporting a dismemberment abortion
ban passed by the Alabama Legislature in 2016. Alabama’s law is currently
on appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the
Eleventh Circuit.
“Life is precious and it must be respected,” said
General Landry. “I will continue to do all that I can to protect life – inside
or outside of the womb and at every stage of gestation.”
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The Texas law (SB 8) was enjoined after a
trial in November 2017, and Texas appealed.
Landry’s Solicitor General Liz Murrill is currently
defending Act 264 of the 2016 Louisiana Legislature, as well as six other
abortion regulations passed during that same session, in a case before Judge
Brian Jackson in the Middle District of Louisiana.