In response, Archbishop Joseph Naumann, the chair of the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee, said that the law simply required "basic health standards" of abortion clinics. He said that the court's stay, together with the abortion industry fighting the law, are "further evidence of how abortion extremism actively works against the welfare of women."
State Rep. Katrina Jackson, a Democrat from Monroe who sponsored the Louisiana legislation, in October said the case concerns whether a state is able "to enforce its duly enacted laws aimed at protecting the health and safety of its citizens."
"Together with my colleagues, our legislature passed the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act by a wide bipartisan margin to protect the health and safety of women," she said, according to the Baton Rouge-based newspaper The Advocate. "Abortion has known medical risks, and the women of this state who are often coerced into abortion deserve to have the same standard of care required for other surgical procedures."
Though the legislation sponsor is a Democrat, national Democratic leaders have weighed in against the bill. Nearly 200 Members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have submitted a brief opposing the Louisiana law, National Public Radio reports.
The American Bar Association has also filed an amicus brief against the Louisiana law. It objected that the law is contrary to existing pro-abortion precedent and the case "raises significant concerns about adherence to basic rule of law principles."
Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, M.D., a Florida-based radiologist who is a policy advisor for The Catholic Association, in October told CNA the law did nothing more than provide commonsense protections for women's health.
The law "ensures that women suffering from dangerous complications do not show up at emergency rooms where doctors who don't know them can only guess at the surgical intervention that was done at the abortion facility," she said.
Louisiana law currently bars abortion after 20 weeks into pregnancy and requires a 24-hour waiting period between the first consultation and the abortion procedure.
Two other Louisiana laws restricting abortion could take effect, pending judicial decisions regarding similar Mississippi laws: a restriction on abortion to 15 weeks into pregnancy; or when a fetal heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks into pregnancy.
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards signed both laws and cited his pro-life positions in his recent successful re-election campaign.