'From the moment of fertilization’: Louisiana advances bill criminalizing abortion as homicide – women, doctors could be jailed

A Louisiana House committee by a vote of 7-2 advanced a bill that decrees human life begins at the moment of fertilization, abortion is felony murder, and the state has the right to ignore any federal law or court ruling – even the Supreme Court – that is in opposition to those claims. Any pregnant person who obtains an abortion, and anyone assisting them could be charged with homicide, prosecuted, and sent to prison if convicted. Louisiana has a death penalty statute on the books.

The legislation was drafted with the help of a local pastor, the Daily Advertiser reports.

HB

813‘s purpose, the bill reads, is to: “Fully recognize the human personhood of an unborn child at all stages of development prior to birth from the moment of fertilization,” and “Ensure the right to life and equal protection of the laws to all unborn children from the moment of fertilization by protecting them by the same laws protecting other human beings."

If signed into law Louisiana would “Treat as void and of no effect any and all federal statutes, regulations, treaties, orders, and court rulings which would deprive an unborn child of the right to life or prohibit the equal protection of such right.”

The bill has also been drafted to remove the word “implantation” from existing law, meaning any aborted fertilized egg, even one that has zero chance of becoming a human being, could still lead to charges of murder.

"We can’t wait on the Supreme Court,” Louisiana House Republican Rep. Danny McCormick said Wednesday.

Rev. Brian Gunter of First Baptist Church in Livingston helped draft the bill, McCormick said.

“No compromises; no more waiting,” Gunter said. “The bloodshed in our land is so great we have a duty … to protect the least of these among us."

The bill also says it exists to acknowledge “the sanctity of innocent human life, created in the image of God, which should be equally protected from fertilization to natural death.”

Rep. McCormick, (in the gray jacket,) posted this to his Facebook page Wednesday: