Published: June 01, 2023
By: Eliza Stanley, LSU Manship School News Service
Seventy-seven percent of Louisiana residents say a woman should be able to obtain a legal abortion if she became pregnant after being raped, according to an LSU survey released Thursday.
That finding is at odds with Louisiana’s near-total ban on abortions. Earlier this month, a state House committee rejected a bill that would have added exceptions for cases of rape and incest to Louisiana’s abortion ban, one of the strictest in the country. Lawmakers shot down the bill in a 10-5 vote.
The final installment of the Louisiana Survey, conducted by LSU’s Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs, shows a continuing shift in Louisiana residents’ attitudes toward abortion in recent years.
Fifty-two percent of the people interviewed lean toward abortion being legalized. Eighty-five percent say that a woman should be able to obtain an abortion if her life is seriously threatened due to pregnancy, and two-thirds say abortion should be legal if there is a strong chance of the child having a lethal birth defect.
Read more at Louisiana Illuminator
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 