An anti-abortion state lawmaker wants to make it mandatory for all women seeking abortions to undergo professional counseling first, saying he was “trying to save the baby and the mother’s long-term health.”The proposal filed this week by Rep. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, is raising eyebrows in abortion rights circles, with one attorney saying it could potentially create another impediment to try to stop women from getting abortions in a state that is heavy on restrictions.
Crowe said women are required to have professional counseling when they give up a baby for adoption, and he doesn’t want women to have abortions without weighing any potential long-term psychological consequences of that decision.
“They could make the wrong decision that could haunt them for life,” he said Tuesday.
Crowe’s bill for the legislative session that begins in two weeks doesn’t specify what type of counseling would be required and who would pay for it-two questions Crowe said still are being discussed and are currently left up to the state health department in the bill.
William Rittenberg, an abortion rights attorney, said those two details are crucial to determining if the bill is unconstitutional under a U.S. Supreme Court requirement that regulations can’t create an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to have an abortion.
Rittenberg said if the counseling was free and done within the 24-hour waiting period already required under Louisiana law, abortion rights organizations probably wouldn’t challenge it. But, he said, if a woman had to pay for a psychologist’s visit and wait for an appointment, “I would think that would be something we would attack.”
“I think that would probably be the tipping point to creating an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose,” he said.
Crowe and anti-abortion lawyer Dorinda Bordlee said the legislation wasn’t designed to create new impediments to a woman’s ability to get an abortion. Crowe said he understood the Supreme Court’s ruling and doesn’t want the state to end up in court defending the bill. But Crowe also said along with worrying about the mother’s health, he was “trying to save the baby.”
Bordlee, executive director for the Bioethics Defense Fund, cited a 2003 medical study that said women who have abortions are three to six times more likely to commit suicide than women who haven’t had abortions.
“This bill doesn’t stop abortion at all. Women can still choose to have an abortion,” she said. “This is just a safeguard for the health of women.”
Rittenberg said he doesn’t know of any other states that have a similar counseling requirement, and Bordlee acknowledged it would probably “be a newer type of legislation.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco hasn’t seen the legislation and hasn’t taken a position on the proposal, according to her spokesperson. The state health department also is studying the measure.
Through the Medicaid program for the poor, the state pays for fewer than five abortions each year on average in cases of rape, incest and risk to the mother’s life, according to Bob Johannessen, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Hospitals.
It’s unclear how much the counseling requirement could cost the state.
