In fight for rape exception to abortion ban, New Orleans legislator draws on mother’s painful past
New Orleans Rep. Delisha Boyd shares her personal reasons for pushing for rape and incest exceptions to the state's abortion ban.
When state Rep. Delisha Boyd was born in September 1969, abortion was illegal in Louisiana. Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision, was still more than three years away.
So when her 15-year-old mother conceived her after a statutory rape by a 28-year-old man, Boyd said, she had few options. She could carry the pregnancy to term or flee to a state that allowed abortions.
Today, a girl in Louisiana could face a similar choice.
Understanding that reality prompted Boyd, a Democrat who has represented Orleans Parish since 2021, to launch an uphill political crusade to add exceptions for rape and incest to Louisiana’s abortion ban.
Despite broad support for such measures in the state and nationally, Boyd’s first attempt failed last year, amid opposition from Republican legislators and anti-abortion groups, like Louisiana Right to Life. “Every person deserves the same protection under the law, no matter the nature of their conception,” the group recently wrote on its website.
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