Louisiana has become the latest US state to approve a ban on abortion. The state senate rejected appeals to exclude cases of rape and incest from the blanket ban, following in the footsteps of South Dakota.

The Feminist Majority Foundation reports that no pro-choice arguments were even raised when the law was debated.

The ban does not punish women directly, but would fine anyone who performs an abortion between $10,000 and $100,000, a jail term of one to ten years, or a combination of a fine and jail time.

But there is one glimmer of hope for the women of Louisiana: the law will only come into effect if Roe v Wade is overturned.

Meanwhile, Hawaii has blostered its defence of women’s right to control our own bodies, passing a law to confirm that abortion will still be legal even if the US abandons all good sense along with Roe v Wade.

The law also removes the requirement that women must be resident for more than 90 days in order to obtain a termination. Let’s hope that women in the rest of the US don’t have to use it as a bolt hole.

Posted by Jess McCabe on 29 April 2006, at 8:37 PM