Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, said this week that cities that do not enforce the state’s pro-life abortion laws will have their funding withheld.
Landry’s announcement came as a judge blocked the state’s abortion trigger law once again. The law, as Townhall covered, bans most abortions. The law has been blocked before as abortion providers and advocates challenge it in court. Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is a pro-life Democrat, supports the legislation. If the law goes back into effect, officials in New Orleans have said they will not enforce it.
Earlier this month, the New Orleans City Council, with the support of the mayor, passed a resolution prohibiting public funds and resources from being utilized by law enforcement to enforce the pro-life law, ABC News noted. In addition, Orleans Parish DA Jason Williams said his office will not prosecute abortion providers. The New Orleans Police Department and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said they will not investigate abortion providers.
In a statement, Landry said that New Orleans or any other city should not receive tax dollars if they will not enforce the pro-life laws on the books.
"As Attorney General and member of the Bond Commission, it is my belief that a parish or municipality should not benefit from the hard-working taxpayers of this State while ignoring laws validly enacted by the people through their representatives," Landry said in the statement.
“In light of the City’s open defiance of the will of the people of Louisiana, I urge the Bond Commission to defer any applications for the City of New Orleans, Orleans Parish, and any local governmental entity or political subdivision under its purview. In addition, any other funding that will directly benefit the City of New Orleans should also be paused until such time as the Council, Mayor, Chief of Police, Sheriff, and District Attorney have met with and affirmed that they will comply with and enforce the laws of this State and cooperate with any State officials who may be called upon to enforce them,” he added.
“The officials in New Orleans took an oath of office to support and enforce the laws of our State, yet they appear to have decided that some laws are not worthy of enforcement,” he continued. “Nothing in the statutes, the City Charter, or the State Constitution permits these officials to blatantly ignore State law, conspire not to enforce it, and violate their oaths of office in this manner. In fact, our State Constitution prohibits this very conduct.”
Before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month and handed the issue of abortion down to the states, Edwards signed legislation strengthening the state’s trigger law and criminalizing providers who perform the procedure.
“My position on abortion has been unwavering,” Edwards wrote in a tweet after he signed the legislation. “I am pro-life and have never hidden from that fact.”
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