BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — For the third consecutive year, Louisiana lawmakers rejected a bill that would have allowed young victims of rape to get an abortion.
In an emotional and religious-laced legislative committee meeting on Tuesday legislators objected to adding rape, in cases where the girl is under the age of 17 and impregnated as a result of the sexual offense, to the narrow list of exceptions for one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.
“If we’re truly pro-life, we should also be fighting for the life of those children who are raped and molested,” said the author of the bill, Democratic Rep. Delisha Boyd, who argued that under Louisiana’s current law young victims of rape are forced to carry babies to term.
Among those who opposed the proposed exception was Democratic Rep. Patricia Moore, who spoke publicly about being conceived after her mother was raped as a young teenager. While speaking against the bill, Moore discussed her religious beliefs and said she has struggled with her decision on the measure. Even ahead of the meeting she said she asked God to “show me something in the Bible that can address this.”
Moore said in the area of Louisiana that she represents, she is aware of a n …