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Louisiana Board Withholds New Orleans Flood Aid over City Council’s Defense of Abortion

HeadlineAug 22, 2022

Louisiana’s State Bond Commission is withholding nearly $40 million in funding for flood control in New Orleans after the state’s Republican attorney general objected to city officials’ opposition to Louisiana’s strict abortion ban. The funding is meant to pay for drainage pumps critical to protecting New Orleans from flooding and rising sea levels due to the climate crisis. Attorney General Jeff Landry successfully pushed commissioners to withhold the funds as punishment, after the New Orleans City Council passed a resolution asking law enforcement officers not to enforce Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban — which does not include exemptions for rape or incest. This comes after a Baton Rouge resident who was 10 weeks pregnant was denied an abortion at a Louisiana hospital even though an ultrasound showed her fetus was developing without a skull. The condition, known as “acrania,” does not appear on a list of accepted conditions for an abortion in Louisiana.

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