Free Republic

BATON ROUGE -- Women seeking abortions in Louisiana will be required to get an ultrasound first, even if they are a victim of rape or incest, under a bill that received final legislative passage today. Supporters of the proposal said they hope the ultrasound dissuades some women from getting an abortion at the handful of abortion clinics in Louisiana, by giving them more information about their pregnancies. "This is a bill that empowers women," Broome said in committee testimony, adding that at least 15 other states have a similar requirement. Opponents said requiring a procedure that might not be available...

Lengthy and passionate testimony in the Senate Judiciary A Committee today ended with a 3-1 party line rejection of a measure that would have expanded gay adoption in Louisiana. Senate Bill 129, which ended up as a combination of two measures by Sens. Ed Murray and J.P. Morrell, would have allowed unmarried couples to jointly adopt and allow an existing parent to petition a court to add a second adult as a legal parent. The bill would have applied regardless of the adoptive parents' sexual orientation, but the debate centered on the rights of gay parents and their children. Louisiana...

BATON ROUGE -- The House voted 76-13 Thursday to prohibit insurance companies from paying claims for "elective abortions" in Louisiana, sending the measure to the Senate for more debate. The bill would allow coverage only for abortions necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant woman, said Rep. Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe, the chief sponsor of House Bill 1247, a measure that has the backing of Gov. Bobby Jindal. Rep. Juan LaFonta, D-New Orleans, tried to change the bill to make it apply to some limited procedures such as allowing a doctor to remove a fetus that could not survive...

BATON ROUGE -- Having failed multiple times to get approval for his proposal to expand drug testing of public assistance recipients, Rep. John LaBruzzo retooled the bill Wednesday to focus on pregnant women. With that strategic shift, the House Health and Welfare Committee voted without dissent to require that the state test 20 percent of those who receive aid from the Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program or the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant Program. The priority would be on pregnant women, and no one who tests positive would lose benefits as long as they enter state-paid treatment programs....

A committee of Louisiana lawmakers has advanced a bill to the full House that seeks to stop federal health care reform from taking effect in the state. The proposed constitutional amendment states that "no law or rule shall compel any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system." "We think the people ought to decide if this is how they want to be governed," Louisiana Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine told the committee. "Basically the state is asserting it's sovereignty." The governor's office says the federal government is treading on state's rights.

BATON ROUGE -- Slumping tax collections have punched a $319 million hole in the state budget, a forecasting panel determined Wednesday, giving Gov. Bobby Jindal and the state Legislature less than 10 weeks to decide what mix of spending cuts and one-time revenue sources should be used to fill the gap. In addition to lowering the current-year forecast, the Revenue Estimating Conference, a four-member panel that decides how much the state can spend each year, also lowered the forecast for the 2010-11 fiscal year that begins July 1 by $245 million. State officials have been anticipating another round of midyear...

AN ACT To enact R.S. [Revised Statutes] 22:971.2, relative to preserving the freedom of all citizens of Louisiana to provide for their own health care; to provide that no law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any health care system or health insurance plan; to provide for legislative intent; to provide criminal penalties; and to provide for related matters. Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana: Section 1. R.S. 22:971.2 is hereby enacted to read as follows: §971.2. The Louisiana Health Care Freedom Act A. Legislative findings and...

Louisiana State Senator A.G. Crowe (R, Slidell) is introducing a bill for the 2010 legislative session in Baton Rouge that would make Obamacare illegal if it violates state laws, effectively making Obamacare null and void in the Pelican State. Senator Crowe states that his bill "provides that no law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any health care system or health insurance." Crowe's proposed Senate Bill (download .pdf file) begins as follows... Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

A Republican lawmaker said Monday that he will propose a constitutional amendment to protect Louisiana from the repercussions of possible national health-care changes. “This is kind of a way to throw the gauntlet down and stand up for ourselves as a state,” said state Rep. Kirk Talbot, a River Ridge businessman. Talbot said he wants to protect state rights in the health-care arena via a constitutional change he will seek in 2010. The change would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, then approval by the state’s voters to take effect. Arizona and Florida are already considering similar proposals. “I...

BATON ROUGE -- House Speaker Jim Tucker, one of the major proponents of raising lawmakers' base pay from $16,800 to $37,500 a year, was hit with a recall petition Wednesday, while three more House members quietly submitted statements declining the doubling of their salaries and at least two legislators urged Gov. Bobby Jindal to veto the measure that has outraged many voters. Tucker, who cannot run for re-election to his House seat in 2011 because of term limits, is the fourth lawmaker this week targeted for removal from office by unhappy constituents. Under the new law, Tucker's base legislative pay...

BATON ROUGE -- Senators took less than five minutes Tuesday to pass a pay raise for themselves and House members pegged at 30 percent of the pay of members of the U.S. Congress. With no votes to spare, the Senate approved, 20-16, Senate Bill 672 by Sen. Ann Duplessis, D-New Orleans, sending it to the House for debate. House members cheered passage of the bill while watching the Senate proceedings on their desktop television monitors. Duplessis told reporters after the vote that Gov. Bobby Jindal will not veto the measure, although he may allow her bill to become law without...

The House voted yesterday to kill a reform bill by State Senator Walter Boasso (R-Arabi) to consolidate area levee boards into a regional authority. Boasso’s bill was far from perfect, since the authority did not impact all of the area levee boards and it only partially shut down the activities of the notorious Orleans Levee Board. However, at least it was a start, a move in the right direction. The vote was harmful to our image, disappointing to voters that care about the state and sends a horrible message to the rest of the nation. It shows that we are...

Urged by Terry Schiavo's brother, a Louisiana Senate panel Tuesday advanced a proposed law that would require keeping incapacitated people alive unless they previously said or wrote that they don't want feeding tubes. "Every life is sacred, and we should treat it that way," Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, testified. Opponents said the legislation -- spawned by the national furor over the Schiavo case in Florida -- is government stepping in where families, with physicians, should be making the decisions. Before approving the measure, the Senate Judiciary A Committee voted 4-3 to require the state to pay medical bills if government...