BATON ROUGE — Louisiana would prohibit abortions based on gender under a bill that won overwhelming, bipartisan passage Thursday from the state House despite questions about whether provisions that allow for lawsuits and damage claims go too far.
Bill sponsor Rep. Lenar Whitney, R-Houma, said there was no evidence that sex-selection abortions have happened in Louisiana, instead citing reports of women in Asian nations having the procedures when they discover they would deliver a girl rather than a boy.
But she still described it as critical for Louisiana to enact a law to protect “baby girls.”
Nationwide, seven states have laws on the books prohibiting abortion for gender selection, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion laws across states.
Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, raised several concerns about language in the Louisiana bill that would allow lawsuits and injunction requests against doctors.
The bill would give the father or a grandparent of the aborted fetus the ability to sue the doctor who performed the procedure for damages up to $10,000 if they believe the abortion was based on gender. It also gives the state, a spouse, a parent, a sibling or a health care provider of the woman who had the abortion or who sought an abortion based on gender the ability to seek an injunction against a doctor who violates the prohibition.
Only two House members — Reps. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, and Marcus Hunter, D-Monroe — voted against it. About 20 lawmakers didn’t vote.