Protesters pour fake blood in Capital Building as La. lawmakers debate Fetal Heartbeat Bill

I2PEWBLW4JAANLNZEN6JDYIK2Q — Abortion rights advocates poured fake blood on the floors of Memorial Hall at the state Capital. *(Photo credit: Hunter Lovell, LSU Manship School News Service)*

Published: May 15, 2019

By: Lauren Heffker and Tryfon Boukouvidis, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE- Legislation that would limit or ban abortion in Louisiana easily cleared House and Senate committees on Wednesday (May 15), echoing a surge of similar bills in Republican-controlled legislatures in the South.

The House Health and Welfare Committee advanced a controversial proposal to outlaw the abortion of a fetus with a detectable heartbeat, which usually occurs around six weeks.

The “fetal heartbeat” bill, sponsored by Sen. John Milkovich, D-Shreveport, has received bipartisan support and was approved last week by the Senate. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a pro-life Democrat running for re-election, has publicly supported it.

In March, Edwards said he would be inclined to sign the bill into law.

“States across the nation are saying, ‘We are no longer going to devalue life,” Milkovich said. “We are going to acknowledge the sanctity of human life.’”