BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry wants funding withheld from New Orleans and Orleans Parish after leaders there have said they won’t be enforcing the state’s abortion laws.
Recently Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said his office won’t be prosecuting abortion providers. NOPD and Orleans Parish Sheriff’s officials have also said they won’t investigate or arrest them.
Landry is now calling on the Louisiana Treasurer and his fellow Bond Commission Members to delay any applications and funding for the City until its officials have affirmed they will enforce State laws.
“As Attorney General and member of the Bond Commission, it is my belief that a parish or municipality should not benefit from the hard-working taxpayers of this State while ignoring laws validly enacted by the people through their representatives,” said Attorney General Landry. “In light of the City’s open defiance of the will of the people of Louisiana, I urge the Bond Commission to defer any applications for the City of New Orleans, Orleans Parish, and any local governmental entity or political subdivision under its purview. In addition, any other funding that will directly benefit the City of New Orleans should also be paused until such time as the Council, Mayor, Chief of Police, Sheriff, and District Attorney have met with and affirmed that they will comply with and enforce the laws of this State and cooperate with any state officials who may be called upon to enforce them.”
Read the letter Landry sent to Louisiana Treasurer John Schroder.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell released a statement on the comments made by Attorney General:
“The Attorney General’s hostility towards reproductive freedom comes as no surprise. However, what is surprising and troubling, is that the Attorney General would place critical infrastructure and state assets in harm’s way just to score political points for his run for Governor,” said Mayor Cantrell.