{"id":95887,"date":"2016-06-08T17:25:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T21:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=95887"},"modified":"2016-08-31T17:58:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T21:58:03","slug":"pro-life-louisiana-senator-mistaken-calling-abortion-restrictions-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-louisiana-senator-mistaken-calling-abortion-restrictions-unconstitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"“Pro-life” Louisiana senator mistaken in calling abortion restrictions unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

On Monday, we covered<\/a> Louisiana lawmakers\u2019 disturbing move to undermine legislation that would have banned abortions sought due to a child\u2019s genetic abnormalities, changing it to apply only to abortions past twenty weeks, which are already illegal.<\/p>\n

One \u201cpro-life\u201d Republican lawmaker has spoken out against the bill, and unfortunately illustrates the muddy thinking that likely led to this amendment. State Senator Dan Claitor tried and failed<\/a> to add another amendment that would have eliminated the prohibition entirely (replacing it with a mere requirement that women receive information about fetal abnormalities), arguing \u201cWhether I agree with [abortions] or not, which I don\u2019t, I believe it\u2019s a constitutional question. Women have a right to choose.\u201d And that’s not all he said.<\/a>..<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Claitor usually votes for tougher abortion restrictions, but this time around, he says he could not do so in good conscience. He believes the bill to be in violation of the Constitutional right to abortion as outlined in the landmark 1973 US Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade.<\/p>\n

“Why would you put me in a box to make a choice between supporting my oath to uphold the Constitution … and being pro-life?” Senator Claitor, an attorney, asked his fellow legislators. “The bill as written, in my view, is patently unconstitutional.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It turns out \u201cusually\u201d may be overselling the senator a bit, who has a cumulative score with Louisiana Right to Life Federation<\/a> of 92%, but scored just 67% in 2013 and 50% in 2009.<\/p>\n

\"levatino-ad-LAN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, any conflict between the Constitution and the right to life exists solely in his own mind. First, as no pro-lifer should need explained to him, the Constitution and Roe v. Wade<\/em> aren\u2019t the same thing, so something that violates the latter is not \u201cpatently unconstitutional.\u201d Roe<\/em> made a mockery of<\/a> law, history, and science that no honest scholar denies<\/a>, while the Constitution and its intellectual forerunners clearly affirm a fetal right to life<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Second, there are legitimate arguments against passing laws to directly challenge Roe<\/em> until the Supreme Court has enough pro-life Justices<\/a> to overturn it, because doing so could result in a new ruling that\u2019s even more pro-abortion. However, that is not what Louisiana\u2019s law would have done.<\/p>\n

Yes, Roe<\/em> says that elective abortions must be allowed prior to viability. But SCOTUS has also upheld<\/a> a wide variety of incremental pro-life laws, including parental notification, various regulations on the abortion procedure, limits on taxpayer funding of abortion, waiting periods, and informed consent. Further, Planned Parenthood v. Casey<\/a><\/em> expressly affirms that states have a valid \u201cinterest in preserving unborn life.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that in mind, it\u2019s quite a stretch to take prohibition of one motivation for<\/em> abortion\u2014an extreme motivation targeting the child\u2019s needs rather than the mother\u2019s interests, at that\u2014as a serious impairment on the overall legal ability to get an elective abortion.<\/p>\n

There is no reason any politician calling himself pro-life should be repeating the abortion lobby\u2019s myths about the Constitution and the \u201cright to choose.\u201d Louisiana has been at the forefront in enacting<\/a> a number of new pro-life laws recently, and it would be a shame for this bill, critically undermined by lawmakers who ought to know better, to break the trend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, we covered Louisiana lawmakers\u2019 disturbing move to undermine legislation that would have banned abortions sought due to a child\u2019s genetic abnormalities, changing it to apply only to abortions past twenty weeks, which are already illegal. One \u201cpro-life\u201d Republican lawmaker has spoken out against the bill, and unfortunately illustrates the muddy thinking that likely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":65138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[253,9068,5464,741,3707,1118,615,144,3913],"yoast_head":"\n"Pro-life" Louisiana senator mistaken in calling abortion restrictions unconstitutional<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is no reason any politician calling himself pro-life should be repeating the abortion lobby\u2019s myths about the Constitution and the \u201cright to choose.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-louisiana-senator-mistaken-calling-abortion-restrictions-unconstitutional\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Pro-life" Louisiana senator mistaken in calling abortion restrictions unconstitutional\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is no reason any politician calling himself pro-life should be repeating the abortion lobby\u2019s myths about the Constitution and the \u201cright to choose.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-louisiana-senator-mistaken-calling-abortion-restrictions-unconstitutional\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-08T21:25:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-31T21:58:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/we-the-people-constitution.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"671\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-louisiana-senator-mistaken-calling-abortion-restrictions-unconstitutional\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-louisiana-senator-mistaken-calling-abortion-restrictions-unconstitutional\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Calvin Freiburger\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/6eb2bf94c8064b71953ba137bf413c4d\"},\"headline\":\"“Pro-life” Louisiana senator mistaken in calling abortion restrictions unconstitutional\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-08T21:25:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-31T21:58:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-louisiana-senator-mistaken-calling-abortion-restrictions-unconstitutional\/\"},\"wordCount\":541,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Constitution\",\"Dan Claitor\",\"fetal abnormalities\",\"Louisiana\",\"Planned Parenthood v. 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