SLS 18RS-2723 ORIGINAL
2018 Regular Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 81
BY SENATOR MILLS
ATTORNEY GENERAL. Requests Attorney General Jeff Landry to prepare and file an
amicus brief in federal court to support the state of Mississippi in their litigation efforts to
ban elective abortions after fifteen weeks.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To urge and request Attorney General Jeff Landry to prepare and file an amicus brief in
3 federal court to support the state of Mississippi's litigation efforts to ban elective
4 abortions after fifteen weeks.
5 WHEREAS, the Louisiana Legislature commends the efforts of the state of
6 Mississippi to limit abortion in a manner consistent with its state's interests, including the
7 ban of abortions after fifteen weeks gestation which was enacted in 2018 by the Legislature
8 of Mississippi; and
9 WHEREAS, modern human embryology textbooks and peer-reviewed scientific
10 literature establishes that "the union of an oocyte and a sperm is the beginning of a new
11 human being," as was cited by Keith L. Moore in Before We Are Born: Essentials of
12 Embryology 2 (Saunders ed., 7th ed. 2008); and
13 WHEREAS, abortion ends the life of a unique, individual, unborn human being
14 whose heartbeat can be detected as early as week six of gestation and who has distinct
15 fingers and toes by ten weeks gestation, and who, at twelve weeks gestation, has taken on
16 "the human form" in all relevant aspects, as is cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in
17 Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124, 160 (2007); and
18 WHEREAS, the majority of abortion procedures after fifteen weeks gestation are
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SLS 18RS-2723 ORIGINAL
1 performed by a method known as dilation and evacuation, which involves the use of surgical
2 instruments that dismember the limbs and sometimes crush the skull of the unborn child to
3 remove the child from the narrowly dilated opening to the womb; and
4 WHEREAS, Act 264 of the 2016 Regular Session of the Legislature bans the brutal
5 and violent dismemberment abortion procedure which can be used even before fifteen weeks
6 gestation and which Act is now being defended in federal court by the Louisiana office of
7 the attorney general; and
8 WHEREAS, Louisiana has a compelling state interest to ban abortion by
9 dismemberment based on the state's duty to safeguard the well-being of its citizens against
10 the medical and psychological health risks to the mother, to prevent the demeaning effects
11 on the ethics and integrity of the medical profession, and to prevent the barbaric cruelty and
12 pain inflicted on the living unborn human being; and
13 WHEREAS, as stated in Louisiana R.S. 40:1061.8, "the Legislature finds and
14 declares that the longstanding policy of this State is to protect the right to life of the unborn
15 child from conception by prohibiting abortion impermissibly only because of the decisions
16 of the United States Supreme Court and that, therefore, if those decisions of the United
17 States Supreme Court are ever reversed or modified or the United States Constitution is
18 amended to allow protection of the unborn then the former policy of this state to prohibit
19 abortions shall be enforced"; and
20 WHEREAS, it is the longstanding policy of this state to "express a preference for
21 childbirth over abortion", because of the state's valid interests in both the medical and
22 psychological health of the pregnant woman and the life of the unborn child as recognized
23 by the United States Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 883
24 (1992); and
25 WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has made clear that abortion is a
26 "unique act" (Casey, 505 U.S. at 852) and is "inherently different from other medical
27 procedures" (Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297, 325 (1980)), because in abortion, "the fetus
28 will be killed" (Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124, 159 (2007)); also unique is the impact
29 of the abortion on the woman herself because, unlike other medical procedures, "[w]hether
30 to have an abortion requires a difficult and painful moral decision which some women come
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1 to regret"; and
2 WHEREAS, in furtherance of Louisiana's unqualified interest in the preservation of
3 human life, the Legislature of Louisiana is in agreement with the words of Thomas Jefferson
4 that "[t]he care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only
5 legitimate object of good government." (Letter to the Republican Citizens of Washington
6 County, Maryland, March 31, 1809, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 8 at 165, ed.
7 H.A. Washington (1871)).
8 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
9 urge and request Attorney General Jeff Landry to file an amicus brief in support of the
10 efforts by the state of Mississippi in the defense of the Mississippi statute which prohibits
11 elective abortion after fifteen weeks to the extent consistent with Louisiana state interests,
12 and that the filing be made to the United States District Court for the Southern District of
13 Mississippi and, if necessary, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and
14 in the United States Supreme Court.
15 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
16 Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Carla S. Roberts.
DIGEST
SCR 81 Original 2018 Regular Session Mills
Requests that Attorney General Jeff Landry aid the state of Mississippi in the defense of the
Mississippi statute which prohibits elective abortion after fifteen weeks to the extent
consistent with Louisiana state interests, including the filing of an amicus brief to the U.S.
District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi and, if necessary, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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