Louisiana Lege Tries Outlawing Abortion, Flag Burning

As promised, on June 18 Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed into law a bill criminalizing access to safe and legal abortion services. Under the new law, doctors would face jail time for performing abortions on women in any case other than when the procedure is necessary to save a woman's life. The law contains no exception for cases of rape or incest – which Blanco told the Associated Press last month was a bummer, but not a deal killer. The law is symbolic, but toothless – it's on the books now, but cannot take effect unless and until the U.S. Supreme Court reverses its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized the procedure as an extension of the Constitution's implied right to privacy. (Another of the Louisiana Legislature's toothless wonders from the just-ended session is a ban on flag burning, which is also unenforceable unless the feds take action to do the same.)

The Louisiana abortion law is similar to a South Dakota ban passed by state legislators earlier this year. In South Dakota, the measure has been at least temporarily blocked by a citizens' referendum challenge; the question of whether to ban abortion will appear on the state's general election ballot this November. If the measure passes, the law will stay on the books and likely be challenged all the way to the Supreme Court – the clear intention behind its passage in the first place – offering the justices a chance to review, and, potentially, reverse Roe. If the measure fails to pass, however, the law will be scrapped, forcing state legislators to regroup and start the mission again – without the majority vote of constituents.