If you needed your weekly reminder that political party affiliation and morality are rarely intertwined, here’s your refresher.
Democratic Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has signaled his support for an anti-abortion bill that would ban the procedure after six weeks.
The bill, which bears numerous similarities to the bills passed in Georgia and Missouri, is close to passing the state legislature, according to CNN.
“My position hasn’t changed. In eight years in the Legislature, I was a pro-life legislator,” Edwards told reporters Thursday. “When I ran for governor, I said that I was pro-life. And so that’s something that’s consistent.”
Senate Bill 184, which was sponsored by Democratic State Senator John Milkovich, prohibits abortion once a heartbeat is detected. Again, since we seem to have to write this same story about a different state every few days: Six weeks provides women with mere days to detect and terminate a pregnancy, thereby all but outlawing abortion.
The bill would also penalize doctors who perform abortions with a $1,000 fine or up to two years in prison, though Louisiana’s bill allows exceptions to the ban, either to prevent death or “serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”
A spokeswoman with Edwards’ office told CNN that the governor would be inclined to sign the bill if it reached his desk, though he finds himself at odds with the larger Democratic party. Edwards signed a bill last year that banned abortion after 15 weeks, a law put on hold after a federal judge blocked a similar bill in Mississippi last year.
Certainly, he wants to see the final bill first,” spokeswoman Christina Stephens told CNN. “This is very much in line with his previous pro-life votes and actions.”
Edwards is up for reelection in October, and believes Louisianans to be “overwhelmingly pro-life.” The bill heads to the house floor for a final vote before heading to Edwards for his signature, though state lawmakers stipulate that the bill will only go into effect if a federal appeals court upholds the “heartbeat bill” signed in Mississippi this past March.