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Murrill: ‘Democrats have their facts wrong’ on abortion ban exceptions

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Murrill: ‘Democrats have their facts wrong’ on abortion ban exceptions

By Greg LaRose
Murrill: ‘Democrats have their facts wrong’ on abortion ban exceptions
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Attorney General Liz Murrill. (Matthew Perschall/Louisiana Illuminator)

Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill came out in defense of Louisiana’s abortion ban Wednesday, saying on social media that “Democrats have their facts wrong.”

Her remarks drew an immediate and sharp rebuke from one of the state’s leading abortion rights advocates.

Murrill’s comments came a day after three women, including one from Louisiana, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago about their difficulties obtaining life-saving reproductive health care in states with abortion bans. All three have campaigned for pending Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

They included Kaitlyn Joshua of Baton Rouge, who was turned away from two emergency rooms when she miscarried 11 weeks into her pregnancy. Doctors refused treatment because they feared the criminal consequences of Louisiana’s strict abortion ban, she said.  

The state law allows abortions in instances when a pregnant person’s life is in jeopardy or they risk permanent damage to a vital organ, but physicians have said the law lacks enough clarity to ensure they won’t face prosecution.

Murrill challenged Joshua’s perspective on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. She made her statement through her campaign X account, not the official Louisiana attorney general’s account.

“There is nothing in our bipartisan law that prohibits emergency care for someone having a miscarriage or any emergency situation during pregnancy. Nothing. Hard stop,” Murrill wrote.

“In fact, doctors are legally required to care for a pregnant woman who suffers an emergent health crisis, whether that’s appendicitis or a miscarriage,” the attorney general added in a reply to her original post.

State Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, an attorney who has represented reproductive health providers, challenged Murrill’s version of the facts. 

“Are you really calling Kaitlyn a liar? And all the women like her who have publicly testified to the same treatment when they were suffering? Despicable,” Landry replied to Murrill’s post.

Who’s Kaitlyn Joshua, the Louisiana woman who spoke at the Democratic National Convention?

Joshua also told the DNC delegates she was unable to obtain prenatal care during the first trimester of her pregnancy, which she said her doctor attributed to Louisiana’s abortion law.

When she was seeking emergency care after going into extremely early labor, doctors were reluctant to provide her with a drug to help treat her miscarriage because it’s the same one used for medication abortions, Joshua said.

Rep. Mandie Landry
Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans. (Matthew Perschall for Louisiana Illuminator)

“I was in pain, bleeding so much my husband feared for my life,” Joshua said. “No woman should experience what I endured, but too many have.”

Landry also noted that Murrill and the anti-abortion group Louisiana Right to Life helped defeat a proposal from the Legislature to add more clarity to the exceptions in the state’s abortion ban.  

“​​Louisiana may have a law on the books re: life of the mother exception but it’s not followed because hospitals are afraid of YOU. Sit this one out,” Landry responded to Murrill.

The New Orleans legislator is among Louisiana’s delegates attending the Democratic National Convention.