It is becoming more and more apparent that Pro-Life legislators in our state, and in many others, have adopted a myopic definition of "Pro Life" as encompassing the time span of “conception to birth.” While they loudly advocate for the protection of the unborn, spending millions to foster this agenda, once the child is born their passionate rhetoric rapidly vaporizes, doing little to pass legislation for resources to ensure the health and well being of the newly born child. Nowhere is this more evident than are in our own state. It is a fact, that the Pro Life legislators in Louisiana do little to ensure good maternal care during the entire pregnancy process, which they so vigorously claim to protect.
Louisiana presently exceeds the national average in maternal mortality rates, ranking 47 out of 48, and ranks 5th in infant mortality rates. Additionally, 65% of the infants born in our state are more likely to die from being born too early or too small as compared to the rest of the country.
And while our legislators and governor prioritize taking public tax dollars to establish ‘educational savings accounts’ which are basically a welfare hand out to private school parents, and is projected to impact our state budget by over $250 million in three years, and approve ‘step backwards’ criminal justice bills with the cost of $32 million, one has to wonder where is the Pro Life priority for legislative funding assistance for the newly conceived child and postpartum medical care for the mom. Instead, Louisiana Pro Life legislators have repeatedly voted down attempts to adequately fund the state’s Medicaid program, the program that funds 6 out of 10 births; the highest rate in the nation.
Heck our Pro Life governor does not even want to accept already allocated federal monies to provide a summer lunch program for our school kids, at minimal cost to the state. I term that Pro Life hypocrisy.
Sadly, even if our legislators do finally understand what Pro Life actually encompasses, it’s too late because there is no more money left in in the state budget for this session due to our Pro Life governor’s other priorities.
Thus far, Governor Landry and our legislators have done little to nothing Pro Life for the prenatal/post-natal health of babies or expectant mothers. It is so much more than simply “conception to birth protection.” Hopefully the hypocrisy surrounding Pro Life will end soon among our state's governing leaders, and nationally, among others, but so far there is little factual evidence of that.
