The Target Is Roe

In Ohio, the GOP is rallying around the "Heartbeat Bill" that's advancing through the state legislature, that would ban abortions as soon as the fetus has a detectable heartbeat, basically ending abortions in the state.

Not to be outdone, Louisiana is aiming to take out the "basically" qualifier and to criminalize abortion altogether in a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade.  MoJo's Kate Sheppard:

Anti-abortion lawmakers in state legislatures around the country have already drawn national attention—and outrage—for pushing bills that would drastically limit access to abortions. But in Louisiana, one "unapologetically pro-life" lawmaker wants to go even further. State Rep. John LaBruzzo, a Republican from Metairie, has introduced a bill that would ban all abortions in his state—with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother—and charge women who seek abortions and the doctors who perform those abortions with "feticide."

Louisiana state law calls for jail sentences of up 15 years, with hard labor, for the unlawful killing an unborn child. LaBruzzo told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that the inclusion of the line subjecting women to "feticide" prosecution for seeking abortions was a "mis-draft," and including it "would make [the bill] too difficult to pass." He promised the provision will be removed from the bill before it goes to a committee vote. But while LaBruzzo doesn't expect to punish women who seek abortions, he would still like to see doctors working on the chain gang for providing a constitutionally protected medical procedure.

The Constitution, of course, is exactly what LaBruzzo is targeting. He admits his proposal is intended as a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional right to privacy included the right to abortions in some circumstances. LaBruzzo says he'd like his bill to become law and "immediately go to court," and he told a local paper that an unnamed conservative religious group asked him to propose the law for exactly that purpose. When contacted by Mother Jones, LaBruzzo's secretary said he would "prefer not to do an interview" on the bill but would possibly answer written questions. As of press time, he had not responded to our inquiries.

The point here is to get a 5-4 vote overturning Roe and criminalizing abortion procedures in the US.  Nothing short of that will be acceptable.  So they will try and try until it happens, period, wasting the people's time with clearly unconstitutional laws until they can get another conservative on the court and end it.

You would think Republicans would be worried about jobs right now, but alas...living people aren't as important as the unborn.