House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, worked to oppose a bill last year that would have criminalized abortion in Louisiana for all parties involved, according to text messages which Johnson sent to a pastor and state lawmaker seen by The Sentinel.
Louisiana Republican State Representative Danny McCormick introduced a bill last spring that would have protected preborn children from the moment of fertilization with “the same laws protecting other human beings” and “treat as void” all other statutes which “deprive an unborn child of the right to life or prohibit the equal protection of such right.” The bill, despite earning approval from the Louisiana House Committee on Criminal Justice, failed to pass the Louisiana House floor on May 12, 2022.
Johnson, a former member of the Louisiana House who at the time was serving as vice chair of the national House Republican Conference, had asked a number of state lawmakers to avoid supporting the bill ahead of the floor vote, according to a video exposé from anti-abortion ministry End Abortion Now which featured Pastor Brian Gunter of First Baptist Church in Livingston, Louisiana.
Johnson told Gunter and McCormick on a May 7, 2022 phone call that they should refrain from advancing the legislation, contending that the “timing” of the bill came at a “super-fragile legal and electoral moment,” according to text messages from Johnson meant to summarize the call which Gunter provided to The Sentinel. The vote came days after a leaked draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito indicated that the Supreme Court would imminently overturn the Roe v. Wade decision.
Johnson also said “pro-life conservatives will lose their seats” as a result of the bill. “There is a time for every purpose under heaven, and this is the wrong time,” he texted in an apparent reference to the book of Ecclesiastes. “Zeal without wisdom is folly.”
Johnson, who has served in the House of Representatives for six years, replaced former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last month after the latter was unexpectedly ousted from his position.
Gunter added in the exposé that Johnson had convinced Louisiana Republican State Representative Alan Seabaugh, a member of the Louisiana House Committee on Criminal Justice who had exclaimed “absolutely” while casting his vote on advancing the legislation to the floor, to withdraw his support from the bill. Seabaugh ultimately argued against the bill on the Louisiana House floor and sought to amend the text, prompting McCormick to withdraw the legislation.
Other Republican lawmakers in the Louisiana House likewise pulled their support after several dozen national pro-life organizations published a letter asserting that “women are victims of abortion” and clarifying that the groups stand against “any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women.” The letter, published on the day of the floor vote, was endorsed by Louisiana Right to Life Executive Director Benjamin Clapper.
Members of the Louisiana House instead approved a bill which moved to increase abortion regulations, yet included a provision which said that any “pregnant female shall not be held responsible for the criminal consequences” outlined in the legislation.
Debate over legal immunity for women who choose to solicit abortions comes as self-managed chemical abortions emerge as the most popular method of murdering preborn children in the United States. Various conservative states have tightened regulations on abortion since the overturn of Roe v. Wade last summer, yet abortion rates have increased in many of the states as women rely on ordering abortion pills through the mail instead of soliciting abortion clinics.
