Louisiana Abortion Law on Ultrasounds and Baby’s Pain Goes Into Effect 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 15, 2007
Baton Rouge, LA (LifeNews.com) — Louisiana is the next state to have a law go into effect that tells a woman considering an abortion that her baby will feel considerable pain during the procedure. The measure also requires abortion businesses to give women the option of seeing an ultrasound of their unborn child beforehand.
During the legislative session, Republican Rep. A.G. Crowe was the key sponsor of the bill, H.B. 25, that Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco eventually signed.
The law requires abortion practitioners to give women the information in a brochure beforehand and also tells them to offer the mother a chance to give the baby anesthesia. It applies to any abortions done after 20 weeks of pregnancy, where studies are conclusive that an abortion baby has the capacity to experience pain.
The measure also helps women by giving them a chance to see an ultrasound and learn of the development of their unborn child — something abortion centers rarely make available.
"This enhanced informed consent bill gives women who face the desperate choice of abortion the option to view an ultrasound of their unborn child," pro-life attorney Dorinda Bordlee told LifeNews.com.
Bordlee, the director of the Bioethics Defense Fund, said the bill requires abortion practitioners to give women a statement saying, "by twenty weeks gestation, the unborn child has the physical structures necessary to experience pain."
She told LifeNews.com she encourages other states to pass similar legislation because "ultrasound and fetal pain information awakens the heroic maternal instinct by giving the mother a connection to the humanity of her child."
Used in pregnancy centers across the country, ultrasounds have proved effective in persuading women to keep the baby.
Bordlee has offered to help pro-life lawmakers and groups in other states pass these measures.
Related web sites:
Bioethics Defense Fund – https://www.bdfund.org
Louisiana Right to Life Federation – https://www.lartl.org
Louisiana state legislature – https://www.legis.state.la.us
