The Justice for Victims of Abortion Drug Dealers Act permits lawsuits against anyone who 'performs, causes, or substantially facilitates an abortion.'
The Justice for Victims of Abortion Drug Dealers Act enables a preborn baby’s mother, father, and grandparents, as well as the mother’s legal guardian, to sue anyone who “performs, causes, or substantially facilitates an abortion” for damages, “regardless of whether the abortion resulted in the death of the unborn child.”
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Damages will begin at $100,000 “for the provision of abortion-inducing drugs when it is reasonably foreseeable that the abortion-inducing drugs will be used by or provided to a pregnant woman for the purpose of inducing an abortion,” a heavy sum expected to have a severe deterrent effect.
“We thank Governor Landry for signing HB 575 into law, furthering his life-long commitment of protecting life and helping moms,” Louisiana Right to Life Policy Director Erica Inzina responded. “The reckless sale of abortion pills by out-of-state businesses has led to increased instances of women being coerced to have abortions. We look forward to HB 575 giving women hurt by abortion the opportunity to seek justice.”
Tweet This: Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a law that subjects anyone who helps facilitate a chemical abortion to civil suits.
Louisiana bans abortion throughout pregnancy except when deemed “necessary” to prevent the death of the mother “due to a physical condition,” to avoid “serious, permanent impairment of a life-sustaining organ of a pregnant woman,” or if two doctors agree that an unborn baby would not survive after birth. In such cases, a physician must “make reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the mother and the life of her unborn child in a manner consistent with reasonable medical practice,” per its 2006 trigger law.
Last year, Louisiana enacted the Catherine and Josephine Herring Act, which puts abortion drug mifepristone and misoprostol on the state’s list of Schedule IV drugs under its Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances law, classifying them as having the potential for abuse or dependence. It makes possession without a prescription a criminal offense subject to significant fines and up to 10 years in prison. Since then, Louisiana officials have attempted to extradite a New York abortionist for mailing abortion pills into the state.
The state has also enacted the Stop Coerced Abortion Act, which expands the definition of coercion under existing law to criminalize more tactics by which abusers pressure, force, or intimidate women into aborting their children. Landry signed it into law on June 11.
Editor's note: This article was published by LifeSiteNews and is reprinted with permission.
