Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) will sign Abortion Ban
By Adam C2 Posted in Culture — Comments (22) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a female Democrat, has indicated that she will sign a comprehensive abortion ban in Louisiana that has already passed the state Senate and House.
The Louisiana House and Senate have approved the measure by Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, but it awaits one final approval from the Senate of House changes before it reaches Blanco's desk. It only would allow abortion in cases where the woman's life is in danger or when childbirth would permanently harm her health.
The bill could only go into effect if the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision is overturned.
Louisiana is one of the most pro-life states in the country and probably felt let down that South Dakota beat them to the punch. This law does differ from the SD ban as it is a trigger law that will only take affect after Roe v. Wade is overturned. Thus, this law is not an attempt to get a hearing at the Supreme Court.
As for Gov. Blanco, she should be considered an underdog at best for her re-election campaign in 2007. Assuming Rep. Jindal tries for a re-match, Gov. Blanco will not have much of a chance against him. Her incompetent and politicized response to Hurricane Katrina sealed that deal long ago. Nevertheless, sometimes it is heartening to see a Democrat buck the party line to do what they think is right even if some of the motivation may be political.
Update [2006-6-2 0:25:37 by Adam C]: One final note, the Democrats control the state legislature 67-37 in the House and 24-15 in the Senate. I wonder if other states will follow the lead of SD and LA. A movement of actual legislation may help urge the Supreme Court to send the issue back to the states where compromises can be made.
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Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) will sign Abortion Ban 22 Comments (0 topical, 22 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
The LA Dems are often pro-life. The sponsor of the bill is pro-life and both the House and Senate are Democratic.
But it will be interesting to see if SF and NY Dems respond to this. My guess is they won't applaud the "big tent" very much.
Although I'm guessing most of the Ds in Louisiana are of the Blue Dog variety so it's not as surprising to me that they would pass legislation like this. Making it a trigger law is also smart - it keeps it from becoming a constitutional issue that the ACLU and NOW folks can swarm around, but it also sends an issue to the Supreme Court that their "settled law" rationale for keeping Casey/Roe around isn't quite so strong as it used to be. Even better, it avoids the issue that the Supreme Court usually looks unfavorably on laws that directly challenge its rulings. All in all, a smart political move by Louisiana pro-lifers and something I hope other pro-life legislatures will emulate.
A state controlled by the party of murdering God haters, as so often portrayed here, can pass this before many republican controlled states? Strange.
always makes things easier. SD's bill was also introduced and supported by Democrats.
We'll see if OK, AL, GA, AZ, and some other states do.
Yes, Louisiana is Democrat-run.
Yes, the DNC is run by abortion-loving, Christianity-hating socialists.
But that doesn't mean that the Louisiana party is run by those same people. Ask any far leftist what they think of the voting record of a Landrieu or a Breaux. They're DINOs or close to it.
or used to. But at least there's some life left in the old dog. This is a case in point of why liberals[?] hate federalism. Centralist government, the courts will do nicely, snaps out the marching orders and the millions all clump off in the same direction, Nirvana.
Let's hope Blanco still remembers how to sign her name.
than to find out that there are still Democrats in the Pro-Life tent.
To see if the Kossites turn on Blanco like they did Lieberman for not being in lock step.
...already. At a rough guess, maybe 15% of the commenters on that thread have anything like an idea of the Democratic / Republican ratio in LA's legislature...
I esp liked an early comment that equated the states Catholic population as the reason for this bill then stating.
'Her constituency is stupid.'
There's some goodole fashoined Big Tent values for ya!!!
...seems to have degenerated into some Good Ol' Catholic Bashing - no surprise since they're so sensitive to others over there...
Good for her, it's comforting that even in states with Democrat leaders that we can get something passed like this. Kind of ruins the Kos vision of a liberal America if the Dems take back power, guess that may never happen irregardless of how many seats the Dems have. The South is conservative, and so are their politicians. Get used to it Kos.
Stated so in the 2003 Gubernatorial campaign. This is nothing surprising.
It is very difficult for a pro-choice Democrat to win in Louisiana. You have the conservative Baptist population in north Louisiana, the conservative Catholic population in south Louisiana and the black population as a whole, including much of New Orleans, which in large part is pro-life as well. All of the major Democratic candidates for Governor in 2003 were pro-life, as well as all the Republican ones.
The only major pro-choice statewide officials in recent memory have been Mary and Mitch Landrieu, and they've had the good fortune of running against somewhat weak candidates. And after Katrina, that's likely to change.
"As for Gov. Blanco, she should be considered an underdog at best for her re-election campaign in 2007. ... Her incompetent and politicized response to Hurricane Katrina sealed that deal long ago."
Would that it were so, but who just got re-elected to NO mayor? Nagin sat and watched his city drown, and he made it back to office. I would love to see every LA official (at every level) go down for that fiasco, but the locals have already re-elected one of them... :(
Blanco won her first election 50-49 over REP Jindal. The situation is very different from Nagin. Nagin had a stronger resevoir of support and was running against a man who was seen as establishment. Nagin was also supported by many Republicans in the runoff against the more liberal Landrieu. That won't happen in the GOV race. There are practically no Republicans who will vote for her and very few independents. She is a deep underdog. She may still win NOLA, but she'll lose the suburbs and the rest of the state most likely. This, of course, presumes Jindal runs against which I think is expected.
"NO is not La." --- Yes, and we're glad for that every single day...
By the way, good analyses all around on La.'s political climate. If Jindal runs against her, he'll get 60% or more this time, just based on Katrina-gate.
Amusing that dKos is blaming Catholics, as only about 1/2 (possibly less) the state is Catholic.
Especially post-Katrina, it's a tough statistic to compile...
In Acadiana (from where I type this), 50 years ago you could rely on this (20% of the state's) population to be 90% Catholic... Other than Acadiana, New Orleans is the Catholic stronghold... but the population of that metro area hasn't been 90% Catholic since before the Civil War...
Is there any article or roll call showing how many Dems supported the Abortion bill in South Dakota?
with veto proof majorities. The Senate was 30-7 and it is made up of 25-14 Ds in that chamber. The House was 85-17-3 in favor with a breakdown of 67-37 D to R. In other words, at least 7 D Senators and 50 D House members voted aye.
The names can be found here. But I don't know their partisan affiliations.
She really must finally realize she screwed up comletely last year.
To sell out her party like this, they must be truly afraid of the voters.
Taht said, anyone signing something that can help save lives like this is a good thing, even if the aboriton industry and the ACLU quickly move to squelch any reform at all.