Lawmakers on a Senate committee unanimously voted to advance a bill that would make it a crime to give a pregnant woman an abortion pill without her knowledge or consent.
Sen. Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, brought the bill and says that when his sister Catherine Herring was pregnant, her husband gave her an abortion-inducing drug without her knowing.
“In 2022, I endured assault specifically aimed at forcibly aborting and killing the baby I was carrying,” Herring told the committee on Tuesday.
She says, luckily, her daughter is alive today.
The experience prompted Pressly to bring the bill, which creates the crime of coerced abortion by means of fraud, including attempted abortion. It carries penalties up to $50,000 in fines and 20 years in prison.
The bill heads next to the full Senate.
In another Senate committee, lawmakers rejected a bill that would allow people to seek post-conviction relief if they were convicted by a non-unanimous jury.
The House Education Committee passed a bill to lower the ACT requirement for home-schooled students to be eligible for a TOPS award. Under the current law, they have to attain a 19 or higher on the ACT to qualify for aid. If the bill passes, the score would be lowered to 17.
