Does Bobby Jindal Think Women Seeking Abortions are “Criminals”?

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Anti-abortion lawmakers in Louisiana may not have succeeded in passing a blanket abortion ban this year, but they did get a new bill signed into law this week designed to deter women from following through with the procedure.

Here’s what the bill requires, as reported by the News Star of Monroe, Louisiana. (via Think Progress):

The bill would require a website, as well as signs posted in abortion clinics, to inform women about abortion alternatives.

The signs would state that it is illegal for others to coerce women into getting an abortion; that public and private agencies can help them during and after pregnancy; that the father is liable for child support; and that adoptive parents may cover the medical costs of pregnancy.

Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) signed the bill into law at the First Baptist Church of West Monroe on Wednesday, noting that bill will lead fewer women to seek abortions, because “the more they know, the more they’ll choose life and alternatives to abortion.”

Of course, information about alternatives in and of itself isn’t the problem. It’s that the measure is explicitly aimed at deterring women from seeking an abortion—not about allowing her to consider all her options. Jindal’s statements likening women to criminals, also reported in the News Star, didn’t really help matters:

Jindal said he couldn’t understand why anyone would be opposed to such a law considering even criminals receive the same privilege.

“When officers arrest criminals today, they are read their rights,” he said. “Now if we’re giving criminals their basic rights and they have to be informed of those rights, it seems to me only common sense we would have to do the same thing for women before they make the choice about whether to get an abortion.”

Of course, this is still a less outrageous bill than the other one proposed in the state this year that would have actually made it a crime for a woman to obtain an abortion.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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