Louisiana's Democratic governor allows transgender sports ban to become law
Gender dysphoric men will not be allowed to compete on girls' and women's sports teams in Louisiana after the Fairness in Women's Sports Act became law on Monday.
Though Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards opposed the transgender sports ban, he permitted it to become law without his signature because the GOP-controlled legislature had made clear it would override his veto.
"This legislation unfairly targets vulnerable children who are already struggling with gaining acceptance in every aspect of their lives," Edwards wrote in a letter explaining his decision. "Nevertheless, the legislature has made it clear over the last two regular legislative sessions that it believes the policy of the state should be to treat these children differently than who they really are."
"It was obvious to me after two years it was going to become law whether or not I signed or vetoed the bill," the governor said.
The governor's action makes Louisiana the 18th state to ban men who identify as women from playing in girls and women's sports leagues. Supporters of these bans say men have biological advantages over women that, regardless of how they identify or which hormone supplements they take, make competition between the two sexes unfair. Critics of these transgender sports bans say they are discriminatory, bigoted, hateful, and harmful to transgender athletes.
Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell, who sponsored the Fairness in Women's Sports Act, told USA Today her bill will protect female athletes from unfair competition.
"Women have worked too hard for too long to get to the competitive level we have attained to now face an unfair playing field," Mizell said.
Edwards argued in his letter that the bill was unnecessary because the Louisiana High School Athletics Association has policies for regulating how transgender athletes compete. He asserted that unfair competition is a problem that "doesn't exist in our state" and that the bill will "lead many of our transgender youth to believe there is something wrong with them."
A previous version of Mizell's sports bill passed last year but failed to overcome a veto by Edwards. Democratic opponents of the bill said it bullies transgender kids.
"These children, our children, will only see this as an attack," state House Democratic Chairman Sam Jenkins said during debate on the bill. "These kids will see us as bullies. Some people are just flat out uncomfortable with the existence of transgender children in our state."
Lousiana's legislature passed a bill to outlaw the mailing of abortion-inducing drugs
A measure outlawing the mailing of abortion-inducing drugs has passed the Louisiana legislature and is headed to the state’s governor, John Bel Edwards, for consideration.
Gov. Edwards is a Democrat who has previously signed pro-life bills that pass the state house into law. The Epoch Times reported that if the bill is signed it will go into effect on August 1.
The bill, S.B. 388, authored by Republican State Senator Sharon Hewitt underwent a series of amendments in the Louisiana House of Representatives before being approved 31-1 by the state Senate this past Friday.
If signed into law by Edwards, the measure will make it a crime for someone to knowingly cause an abortion by “delivering, dispensing, distributing, or providing a pregnant woman with an abortion-inducing drug” if the person providing the chemical abortive is not a doctor licensed under state law to administer the drug to women.
The bill does not, however, penalize women who seek abortions.
The bill defines chemical abortives and abortion-inducing drugs as “any drug or chemical, or any combination of drugs or chemicals, or any other substance when used with the intent to cause an abortion, including but not limited to RU-486, the Mifeprex regimen, misoprostol (Cyotec), or methotrexate.”
The proposed legislation also that the term “abortion-inducing drug” excludes any “contraceptive, an emergency contraceptive, or the use of methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy.”
According to the bill’s text, if a person is found guilty of delivering, dispending, distributing, or providing chemical abortives, they “shall be imprisoned at hard labor” and could face hefty fines.
The bill states, “Any person who knowingly performs an abortion by means of an abortion-inducing drug in violation of this Section shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not less than one nor more than five years, fined not less than five thousand nor more than fifty thousand dollars, or both.”
It also makes a distinct differentiation between providing the drugs for a woman to conduct an abortion and someone who “knowingly performs an abortion by means of abortion-inducing drug[s]” subsequently harming the expectant mother in the process.
The bill states, “Any person who knowingly performs an abortion by means of abortion-inducing drug in violation of this Section that results in the death or serious bodily injury of the pregnant woman shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not less than five nor more than ten years, fined not less than ten thousand nor more than seventy-five thousand dollars, or both.”
Louisiana AG sues governor to block COVID vaccination requirement for students
In a rare court battle between two stateelected officials, Louisiana's Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry is suing Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards to block the governor from requiring COVID-19 vaccination for children to attend schools.
Landry and state lawmaker Rep. Raymond Crews (R) filed a lawsuit in a Louisiana district court Wednesday, arguing that Edwards' plan to add the coronavirus vaccine to the immunization schedule for schools violates the state constitution.
A bipartisan panel of lawmakers on the State House Health and Welfare Committee voted 13-2 last week to reject the governor's proposal. All Republican lawmakers voted no, as well as an independent and three Democrats, the Associated Press reported. But Edwards told lawmakers on Tuesday he would move forward with the requirement, arguing the House committee's vote could not legally stop him from implementing the regulation.
Landry's lawsuit argues that Edwards' action violates provisions of the state constitution that give the legislature the power to make laws, not the executive branch. The attorney general argues that the rulemaking process outlined in state law that permits the governor to override the legislature's rejection of a regulatory proposal is unconstitutional.
“The Louisiana Constitution grants the governor the power only to enforce the law, not to make it,” the lawsuit says.
The governor's office told the AP that his actions were legal.
“We’ve not reviewed the attorney general’s full filing, but the Louisiana Department of Health is well within its legal authority on adding the COVID vaccine to the immunization schedule, where it will be treated like all other vaccines and parents may choose to opt their children out of it,” Edwards spokeswoman Christina Stephens said.
Edwards' administration argues that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and that having children get vaccinated would help save lives.
In the letter informing lawmakers of his decision, Edwards said 19 children have died from COVID-19 in Louisiana since March 2020 while no one in the state has died from receiving the vaccine. He also emphasized that Louisiana provides broad exemptions to its school immunization requirements that will be available for parents that object in writing.
The governor's plan would add the COVID-19 vaccine to the state immunization schedule only for groups for whom the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has fully approved the vaccine. Currently, the vaccine is fully approved for children age 16 and older.
Should the FDA give full approval for the vaccines to be given for children under 16, the governor's plan would require them to be vaccinated as well.
Louisiana currently requires students to be vaccinated against mumps, measles, and polio before beginning public or private K-12 grade schools, day cares, universities, and colleges.
Louisiana's Democratic governor imposes statewide indoor mask mandate, including for children over the age of 5
As businesses and governments around the U.S. institute restrictions aimed at combatting the coronavirus pandemic, Louisiana is imposing an indoor mask mandate.
Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who has served as the state's governor since 2016, said that the requirement will take effect Wednesday and apply to the vaccinated as well as to the unvaccinated, according to the Associated Press.
The mandate will remain until Sept. 1 and could potentially be extended.
Largely due to the state's vaccination rate and the spread of the Delta variant of the illness, cases in Louisiana have risen significantly, according to a press release from the governor's office which notes that the state "remains No. 1 nationwide for number of new COVID-19 cases per capita."
The indoor face covering mandate applies to people ages 5 and up and to kids enrolled in kindergarten, with exceptions for when people are engaged in certain activities and an exception for individuals with medical issues that prevent them from using a face covering. The mandate applies when people are indoors somewhere other than a private residence. The mandate does not apply to a person who will not come into contact with anyone outside of their own household or to a person who will have the ability to engage in six feet of social distancing from anyone who is outside of their own household.
"This is bad. And it's not this bad anywhere else in the country today," Bel Edwards said at a news conference, according to the AP. "This is having an adverse impact on people's lives today. And the least we can do is put a mask on. It is not an onerous burden."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that people wear masks indoors when they are in public places located in regions of the U.S. with substantial or high COVID-19 transmission.
The Associated Press said that the governor expressed frustration with those who have declined to get vaccinated or utilize masks.
"Do you give a damn? I hope you do. I do," the governor said, according to the AP. "I've heard it said often: Louisiana's the most pro-life state in the nation. I want to believe that. It ought to mean something."
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