Louisiana bill would allow abortion exceptions for minors in sex crime cases

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Louisiana lawmakers will once again consider adding exceptions to the state’s near-total abortion ban during the upcoming legislative session.

House Bill 215, authored by state Rep. Delisha Boyd (D-New Orleans), would allow minors who become pregnant as a result of certain sex crimes to seek an abortion under state law.

The proposal applies to victims under the age of 17 and includes the following offenses:

• Rape
• First-degree rape
• Second-degree rape
• Third-degree rape
• Sexual battery
• Felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile
• Molestation of a juvenile or a person with a physical or mental disability
• Crime against nature
• Aggravated crime against nature

The bill specifies that police reports, forensic evidence, or prosecution of the alleged offense would not be required for a minor to qualify for the exemption.

This marks Boyd’s second attempt to advance such legislation. A similar bill she filed last year which would have added rape and incest exceptions—failed in committee despite impassioned testimony from doctors, advocates, and survivors.

To narrow the proposal and improve its chances, Boyd has limited this year’s bill to minors under 17 and tied the exceptions to specific criminal statutes.

“I hope we take a look at the fact that this is to protect the most vulnerable — our children,” Boyd said during last year’s hearing.

Currently, Louisiana’s abortion ban includes no exceptions for rape or incest. The only exemptions apply in cases of substantial risk of death or permanent injury to the pregnant person, or when the fetus has a fatal abnormality.

Boyd and other Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly pushed to modify the law, arguing that minors should not be forced to carry pregnancies that result from sexual violence.

According to the CDC, 27 of the 7,444 abortions reported in Louisiana in 2021 were performed on patients under age 15. A study from the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that more than 64,000 pregnancies resulted from rape in states with near-total abortion bans between July 2022 and January 2024.

Louisiana’s abortion ban went into effect in 2022 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The regular legislative session begins April 14.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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