Among the bills filed for the legislative session, which begins next Monday, would add the exceptions of rape and incest to the state’s abortion ban. New Orleans Representative Delisha Boyd said girls as young as nine could be forced to carry a child.
“We can’t expect a nine-year-old who might be raped to carry a child to term. The trauma to the body for an adult is a lot to deal with let alone a nine-year-old who might be all of 50 pounds soaking wet,” said Boyd.
Since the state’s trigger ban went into effect, Boyd said there have already been cases of young girls having to go out of state for an abortion and women with ectopic pregnancies whose physicians refused to end their life-threatening pregnancies.
For Boyd, the abortion issue is a personal one. Her mother was only fifteen years old when she gave birth and Boyd’s father was then 28.
“And she had no choice in 1968, and not to say she would have chosen to have an abortion I don’t know that because she is now deceased. My mother didn’t survive that she was dead before she was 30 years old,” said Boyd.
Boyd argues without exceptions there is no protection for children who are victims of rape and the forced trauma, mentally and physically, of giving birth before they’ve matured. And with a Republican Super Majority in both chambers, she’s hopeful the bill will receive bipartisan support and lawmakers will leave religion out of the debate.
“I hope just based on the fact that I am focusing on protecting the children and the young women who may be raped, that may decide that they don’t want to carry that child to term for their own mental health,” said Boyd.
She believes such decisions should be left up to the family and not lawmakers. Boyd said being the child of a child she was forced to face adult issues long before she should have because of her mother’s own trauma.
The Louisiana Right to Life says the circumstances of a child’s conception has no bearing on his or her human dignity and do not impair his or her right to life.
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