The Louisiana Legislature sent a bill to the governor this week that imposes new requirements on abortion providers.
House Bill 636 mandates “that abortion clinics post signs telling pregnant women that they cannot be coerced into abortion, that fathers are liable for child support and that adoptive parent may pay for prenatal care and birth expenses.” The bill also requires that text directing women to the state’s crisis pregnancy centers be included in those signs, as a reminder that they “are not alone.”
In Florida, state-funded crisis pregnancy centers have been found to distribute medically inaccurate information about abortions.
Louisiana’s law is meant to build on the state’s 1995 Women’s Right to Know law, which already establishes what information a provider must give to a woman before administering an abortion.
That includes text that warns about abortion providers.
The bill says:
(f) Abortion facilities or providers offer only limited and/or impersonal counseling opportunities.
(g) Many abortion facilities or providers hire untrained and unprofessional “counselors” whose primary goal is to sell abortion services.
Florida has also recently written legislation aimed at imposing new requirements on providers. This year’s mandatory ultrasound bill requires that an ultrasound be performed before every abortion, whether it is medically necessary or not. The bill’s sponsor also expressed a personal dislike, or distrust, of abortion providers during the bill’s debate.
