The sponsor of controversial bill in Louisiana that would charge women with murder if they get an abortion, pulled the provision from the bill on Thursday after the House voted to revamp the proposal, according to the Associated Press.
Last week the bill called the Abolition of Abortion in Louisiana Act, passed 7-2 out of a state House Appropriations Committee two days after a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting that the court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade was published by Politico.
“If more than 15 states can defy the federal government, we can do it to save the lives of innocent babies,” the bill’s sponsor Danny McCormick said. “We cannot wait for the Supreme Court to confirm that innocent babies have the right to life.”
“The taking of a life is murder, and it is illegal,” he added.
However, the proposal was pulled from debate Thursday night after House members voted 65-26 to totally revamp the legislation, eliminating the criminal penalties, according to the AP.
The move comes after the bill was met with strong opposition even from some anti-abortion individuals and groups in the state. Not only does it amend the state’s homicide statues, it also said that any judge who blocks enforcement of the bill’s provisions could be impeached.
Gov. John Bel Edwards (D), a pro-life Democrat said he would veto the measure if it crossed his desk. He called the bill “patently unconstitutional” and said prosecuting women who get an abortion is “absurd.”
McCormick pushed back arguing that a woman who gets an abortion should be in the same legal position as a woman who takes the life of a child after birth. “When I give equal protection to the unborn, that’s the possibility.”
The measure was so extreme that some prominent pro-life groups including, Louisiana Right to Life, the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the National Right to Life Committee, came out in opposition of the bill.
Louisiana already has a “trigger law” criminalizing abortion should Roe v. Wade be overturned, which would subject doctors or others who perform abortions to up to 10 years in prison. But the law does not call for prosecution of the pregnant woman.
