Louisiana state Rep. Katrina Jackson defended her state’s new abortion restrictions, calling abortion “genocide.”
“I think it mitigates our race’s voting power, it hurts our race’s power in the census. I really consider it to be modern-day genocide,” Jackson, an African American Democrat, told NBC News on Monday.
Jackson voted in favor of a bipartisan effort to pass an anti-abortion bill in Louisiana that bans abortions after a heartbeat can be detected. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, signed the bill into law last week.
“I know there are many who feel just as strongly as I do on abortion and disagree with me — and I respect their opinions,” Edwards said in a statement the day before the bill signing. “As I prepare to sign this bill, I call on the overwhelming bipartisan majority of legislators who voted on it to join me in continuing to build a better Louisiana.”
Democratic state Sen. John Milkovich introduced the bill.
The Louisiana law follows the passage of another dozen anti-abortion laws, passed in conservative states such as Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Jackson put forth an amendment to the state’s constitution in April that would make clear there was no right to abortion in the state constitution.
[Related: Activist fringes dominate abortion debate as voters favor the middle]
