Louisiana 'Heartbeat Bill' Relies on Mississippi Taxpayers' Legal Defense
JACKSON — The Louisiana Senate passed a six-week abortion ban modeled after the one Mississippi passed in March, but with one caveat: If the Louisiana one becomes law, it will not go into effect unless Mississippi's fetal heartbeat law survives a federal court challenge.
Opponents of the law are already suing Mississippi, with proceedings expected to begin in the federal Southern District Court in Jackson later this month. Even as that case could cost Mississippi more than a million dollars by some estimates, Louisiana taxpayers would be off the hook.
"Louisiana should leave Mississippi out of its abortion debate," Mississippi state Rep. Jeramey Anderson, a Democrat who voted against Mississippi's law, said in a statement to the Jackson Free Press on Wednesday. "Mississippi taxpayers already are likely going to be saddled with a costly, and losing, court fight over its recently passed and flawed abortion restrictions. If Louisiana wants to fight the same fight, it should pay for it or send some of its taxpayers' money to Mississippi to help defray the cost of this losing cause."
"And, better yet," the lawmaker from Moss Point added, "it and Mississippi should reconsider this decision to stand between a woman and her doctor, and her right to make her own important health-care decisions."
Read more: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/may/08/louisiana-heartbeat-bill-relies-mississippi-taxpay/
Cross-posted in the Louisiana Group.