{"id":53,"date":"2016-01-05T21:08:50","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T21:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opa\/?p=53"},"modified":"2019-07-16T15:00:09","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T15:00:09","slug":"pro-life-or-pro-abortion-speaker-of-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opp\/pro-life-or-pro-abortion-speaker-of-the-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-life or pro-abortion Speaker of the House?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louisiana Baptists can help sway Louisiana legislators\u2019 choice of a new leader.<\/p>\n

On Monday, January 11, the Louisiana House of Representatives will select a new Speaker and the outcome will have a dramatic impact on the influence of Christian vision and values in the public policy adopted by the state legislature.<\/p>\n

Among other duties, the Speaker assigns members to committees, whether proposed legislation will be handled by a hostile or favorable committee, and determines which bills will even be considered — essentially the Speaker sets the legislative process and so largely decides which proposed policies succeed or fail.<\/p>\n

According to pro-family and pro-life advocacy groups, the two leading candidates have dramatically different records on issues relating to the traditional family and the rights of the unborn. Consequently, the new Speaker largely will influence the outcomes of moral and social concerns pursued by Louisiana Baptists.<\/p>\n

The Louisiana Family Forum reports Rep. Cameron Henry has a record of supporting traditional family values 93 percent of the time and the Louisiana Right to Life Federation gives him a score of 100 percent on pro-life issues.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Rep. Walt Leger III earned a score of 44 percent from the Louisiana Family Forum and 65 percent from the Louisiana Right to Life Federation.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Dr. Gene Mills, director of the Louisiana Family Forum, says Leger\u2019s low scores are not \u201cthe whole story.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Mills, Leger \u201cstrategically opted to abstain in 9 out of the last 15 major pro-life votes\u201d while at the same time making the effort to vote \u201cfor government-funded abortions (Amendment 87A of HB 1247 (2010))<\/a>, against defunding Planned Parenthood (HCR 11, (2012)<\/a>; HCR 54 (2011)<\/a>), and against conscience protections for health care providers who wish to opt out of participating in abortion procedures (HB 517 (2009))<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mills also noted Leger voted for voluntary sex education for third graders (HB 359 (2015))<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are 14 legislators who have not yet publicly declared their support for either Henry or Leger, and their ballots likely will swing the vote for Speaker:<\/p>\n

District 12<\/a> \u2013 Ruston
\nRob Shadoin, (318) 548-5485<\/p>\n

District 13<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Jonesboro
\nJack McFarland, (318) 471-6424<\/p>\n

District 19<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Rayville
\nCharles \u201cBubba\u201d Chaney, (318) 334-1672<\/p>\n

District 27<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Pineville
\n\u201cChris\u201d Hazel, (318) 229-1660<\/p>\n

District 35<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Lake Charles
\nSteven Dwight, (337) 304-0781<\/p>\n

District 36<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Lake Charles
\nMarc Abraham, (337) 274-8015<\/p>\n

District 37<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Jennings
\nJohn E. Guinn, (337) 246-0021<\/p>\n

District 46<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Breaux Bridge
\nMike Huval, (337) 278-1539<\/p>\n

District 52<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Houma
\nZee Zeringue, (985) 709-1099<\/p>\n

District 53<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Houma
\nTanner Magee, (225) 287-2397<\/p>\n

District 68<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Baton Rouge
\n\u201cSteve\u201d Carter, (225) 226-2470<\/p>\n

District 71<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Denham Springs
\nRogers Pope, (225) 572-8996<\/p>\n

District 77<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Covington
\nJohn Schroder, (985) 373-4873<\/p>\n

District 94<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 New Orleans\/Jefferson
\nStephanie Hilferty, (504) 450-2318<\/p>\n

If your representative is listed, contact him or her and share how you would like to be represented in this very important matter.<\/p>\n

The vote could very well be determined by your phone call.<\/p>\n

For additional information about this issue or about Louisiana Baptists\u2019 stated beliefs and public policy positions, contact Dr. Will Hall at the Louisiana Baptists Office of Public Affairs, (615) 449-4348.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Louisiana Baptists can help sway Louisiana legislators\u2019 choice of a new leader. On Monday, January 11, the Louisiana House of Representatives will select a new Speaker and the outcome will have a dramatic impact on the influence of Christian vision and values in the public policy adopted by the state legislature. Among other duties, the Speaker assigns members to committees, whether proposed legislation will be handled by a hostile or favorable committee, and determines which bills will even be considered — essentially the Speaker sets the legislative process and so largely decides which proposed policies succeed or fail. According to pro-family and pro-life advocacy groups, the two leading candidates have dramatically different records on issues relating to the traditional family and the rights of the unborn. Consequently, the new Speaker largely will influence the outcomes of moral and social concerns pursued by Louisiana Baptists. The Louisiana Family Forum reports Rep. Cameron Henry has a record of supporting traditional family values 93 percent of the time and the Louisiana Right to Life Federation gives him a score of 100 percent on pro-life issues. Meanwhile, Rep. Walt Leger III earned a score of 44 percent from the Louisiana Family Forum and 65 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legislative-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louisianabaptists.org\/opp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}