Sine Die: 2023 Louisiana Legislative Wrap-up
Yesterday marked the end of a tumultuous Legislative Session in Louisiana where we saw heartbreaking setbacks as well as cherished victories. We fought hard to make the abortion bans less harmful, to protect queer and trans youth from attacks on their safety and wellbeing, and to advocate for an expansive and comprehensive vision of Reproductive Justice in Louisiana. We are so grateful to have you all in our community of advocates, and proud of what we accomplished in the last few months.
This session over 250 of you came out to the Capitol to participate in our Women on Wednesdays programming, and thousands of you wrote letters, sent emails, and made calls to your lawmakers. We organized doctors, patients, survivors, and directly impacted people to testify in committee hearings, forcing our legislators to see and hear how their votes affect the lives of people in our communities. We worked across issue areas and in diverse coalitions and demonstrated that we are stronger in solidarity than we are in silos.
On a positive note, this session we successfully supported legislation to increase access to doula care, midwifery, and fertility preservation services for people across the state - including those using medicaid. We were also able to stop the passage of harmful legislation that would have enshrined fetal personhood into Louisiana tax law, and amend a harmful bill to ensure anti-abortion centers receiving tax credits have to meet certain criteria.
Despite a well coordinated advocacy strategy and overwhelming public support, we saw several bills aimed at reducing the harm of our abortion bans die in committee. We organized support for bills that would protect physicians ability to use their medical judgment and best practice standards for treating patients experiencing pregnancy complications and miscarriage. We also supported legislation to create exceptions in the ban for survivors of rape and incest. Unfortunately however, many of our legislators chose to disregard the health of pregnant people in Louisiana and the widespread support for exceptions to the abortion ban in favor of an extremist anti-abortion ideology.
Additionally, this session we saw a continuation of the nationwide attack on queer and trans young people in our state legislature. Anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers passed a ban on gender affirming care for transgender youth, a ban on discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in schools, and a law that would enable educators to deadname, misgender, and harass transgender students. While we are disappointed to see harmful legislation pass, we are proud to have worked with our partners to show strong opposition to these bills and to have mitigated the extent of their harmful impact.
Advocating for reproductive justice in Louisiana can be an uphill battle, and this session was no exception. It’s difficult to confront the reality of the political landscape we exist in – one that is often hostile to the project of Reproductive Justice and indifferent to the suffering of marginalized people. Engaging with this reality can be exhausting, but the practice of remaining hopeful and working towards positive change is an act of defiance and resilience. We urge you to rest, find joy, and take a well-deserved break from the stress of the legislative session. We have a long way to go, and we look forward to continuing to advocate for our collective liberation.