Thank you for Emily Woodruff’s timely article on the boondoggles that are the 12 Pregnancy and Baby Care Initiative centers. Louisiana has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the U.S. Yet nearly $5 million of our tax dollars support unlicensed, unregulated pregnancy centers throughout the state offering no medical advice or care. Louisiana’s pregnant women need doctors, nurses and midwives to provide actual medical care, not simply advice and diapers.
There are increasingly fewer OB-GYN’s in Louisiana as our lawmakers have made it increasingly more difficult to provide medical care for women at their most vulnerable — during their first trimester. This is when medical conditions can be identified, diagnosed and treated. It is also when most miscarriages occur. If medical care is administered during a miscarriage, doctors can be charged under our abortion ban with losing their medical license, jail time and/or fines of thousands of dollars. This includes women enduring an ectopic pregnancy or medical conditions such as sickle cell anemia or cancer. All because our legislators would rather pander to pro-life advocates than promote medical care for women at their most vulnerable — either already losing their pregnancy or enduring one that could end their lives…