Illegal

Louisiana

Louisiana is enforcing its trigger ban which prohibits abortion entirely and includes civil and criminal penalties.

State Legal Details

Bans in Effect

  • Gestational Ban, 15-week LMP
  • Gestational Ban, 20-week LMP
  • Gestational Ban, 6-week LMP
  • Gestational Ban, Total Ban
  • Gestational Ban, Viability
  • Medication Abortion, Telemedicine Ban
  • Method Ban
  • Reason Ban
  • Trigger Ban

Restrictions in Effect

  • Biased Counseling Requirement
  • Mandatory Ultrasound Requirement
  • Parental Involvement, Parental Consent Requirement
  • TRAP Requirements: Facilities, Facility Requirements
  • TRAP Requirements: Facilities, Regulation of Location
  • TRAP requirements: Providers, Admitting Privilege Requirement
  • TRAP requirements: Providers, Reporting Requirement
  • Waiting Period Requirement

State Protections

Louisiana law does not include express constitutional or statutory protections for abortion. To the contrary, in 2020, Louisiana voters approved an amendment to the state constitution, specifying that the constitution does not protect abortion or require funding for abortion care. 1

Restrictions

On June 24, 2022, Louisiana began enforcing its trigger ban2, which prohibits abortion at all stages of pregnancy and without exception,3 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.4 The trigger ban was challenged in state court,5, but the lawsuit was dismissed,6 and the ban is in effect.

Louisiana has not repealed other laws related to abortion. Louisiana law retains gestational bans at six weeks LMP,7 fifteen weeks LMP,8  twenty weeks gestational age,9 and post-viability.10  State law prohibits medication abortion, 11 D&X and D&E procedures,12 and abortions after twenty-weeks gestational age sought for reasons of disability.13 Louisiana law continues to include requirements that pregnant people who seek abortion care must undergo a mandatory seventy-two hour waiting period;14 biased counseling;15 and an ultrasound.16 The state has prohibitions on public funding for,17 and private insurance coverage of abortion.18 It continues to require that a parent, legal guardian,19 or judge in the minor’s parish20 consent to a minor’s abortion.

Louisiana retains targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) laws, including requirements related to facilities;21 admitting privileges;22 and reporting.23 Louisiana law continues to restrict the provision of abortion care to licensed physicians24 and restricts providers from using telemedicine for the provision of abortion care.25 Providers who violate Louisiana’s abortion restrictions may face civil and criminal penalties.26

In 2024, , Louisiana enacted a law that designates mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV controlled substances under the state Controlled Substances Act.27

Historical Restrictions

Louisiana retains a statute that prohibits abortion, although federal courts have found it repealed by implication and, once the legislature amended and reenacted it, unconstitutional.28

Conclusion

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe, Louisiana is enforcing its trigger ban which prohibits abortion entirely and includes civil and criminal penalties.

  1. La. Const. art. I, § 20.1, Abortion. ↩︎
  2. La. Stat. Ann. §§ 40:1061, 14:87.7–8; Piper Hutchinson & Julie O’Donoghue, Louisiana bans abortion after Supreme Court ruling, La. Illuminator (June 24, 2022), https://lailluminator.com/2022/06/24/louisianas-trigger-law-to-restrict-abortion-goes-into-effect-with-supreme-court-ruling/. ↩︎
  3. See, e.g., H.B. 215, 2025 Leg., Reg. Sess. (La. 2025) (bill considered to amend La. Stat. Ann. § 14:87.1 to allow for exceptions for rape and other certain sex offenses). ↩︎
  4. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 597 U.S. 215 (2022), rev’d Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 945 F.3d 265 (5th Cir. 2019). ↩︎
  5. June Med. Servs. v. Landry, No. C-720988 (La. 19th Jud. Dist. Ct.). ↩︎
  6. June Med. Servs. v. Landry, No. C-720988 (La. 19th Jud. Dist. Ct. Mar. 4, 2024) (joint motion for substitution and voluntary dismissal). ↩︎
  7. La. Stat. Ann. § 40.1061.1.5 (prohibiting abortion after detectable cardiac activity). ↩︎
  8. La. Stat. Ann. § 40.87.8 (prohibiting late term abortion); see also LA. Stat. Ann. § 14.87.1 (defining late term abortion as abortion performed at gestational age of 15 weeks or more). ↩︎
  9. La. Stat. Ann.  § 40:1061.1.2(E). ↩︎
  10. La. Stat. Ann.  §40:1061.13 (prohibiting abortion after viability unless necessary to preserve the life or health of the pregnant person). ↩︎
  11. La. Stat. Ann. § 14:87.9; see also Louisiana v. FDA, No. 6:25-cv-01491 (W.D. La. filed Oct. 6, 2025) (challenging FDA action that removed an in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone). ↩︎
  12. La. Stat. Ann. §§ 40.1061.1.3 (banning D&E procedures), 40:1061.28 (banning D&X procedures). ↩︎
  13. La. Stat. Ann. § 40:1061.1.2. ↩︎
  14. La. Stat. Ann. § 40:1061.16 (pregnant people who live one hundred fifty miles or more from the nearest abortion provider are also subjected to a twenty-four-hour waiting period). ↩︎
  15. La. Stat. Ann. §§ 40.1061.17(B)(3) (requiring the physician to provide written and oral information about the fetus to the pregnant person), 40:1061.11.1 (requiring certain disclosure statements for misoprostol when mifepristone is administered, dispensed, or otherwise provided to a pregnant person). ↩︎
  16. La. Stat. Ann. §§ 40:1061.10, 40:1061.17. ↩︎
  17. La. Stat. Ann. § 40:1061.6.. ↩︎
  18. La. Stat. Ann. § 22:1014(B).. ↩︎
  19. La. Stat. Ann. § 40:1061.14.. ↩︎
  20. La. Stat. Ann. §§ 40:1061.14(B), 40:1061.21(A)(5)(c). ↩︎
  21. La. Stat. Ann. § 40:2175.4. ↩︎
  22. La. Stat. Ann. § 40:1061.10(A)(2)(a); see June Medical Servs. v. Russo, No. 3:14-cv-00525-JWD-RLB (M.D. La. 2022) (order vacating permanent injunction imposed prior to Dobbs); June Med. Servs. L. L. C. v. Russo, 140 S. Ct. 2103 (2020), abrogated by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 597 U.S. 215 (June 24, 2022). ↩︎
  23. La. Stat. Ann. § 40:1061.21(C).  Rape and incest claims must be reported to law enforcement. See La. Stat. Ann. § 40:1061.18. ↩︎
  24. La. Stat. Ann. § 40:1061.10 (limiting physicians that perform abortion care to be board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology or family medicine, or be a resident supervised by a board-certified physician in those practice areas). ↩︎
  25. La. Stat. Ann. § 40:1061.11. ↩︎
  26. La. Stat. Ann. §§ 14:87.7, 14:87.8, 40:1061.29, 9:2800.12. ↩︎
  27. La. Stat. Ann. §§ 40:964, 40:969. ↩︎
  28. Weeks v. Connick, 733 F. Supp. 1036, 1039 (E.D. La. 1990) (holding that pre-Roe criminal abortion statutes, LA. Stat. Ann. §§ 14:87, 87.4, 88, were repealed by implication); Sojourner v. Roemer, 772 F. Supp. 930, 931 (E.D. La. 1991), aff’d sub nom. Sojourner T v. Edwards, 974 F.2d 27 (5th Cir. 1992) cert denied, 507 U.S. 972 (1993) (holding LA. Stat. Ann. § 14:87 unconstitutional after reenactment). ↩︎