Known as the Love Life Amendment, Amendment #1 keeps abortion out of the state Constitution and makes sure all policy making remains in the hands of duly elected state legislators. Judges in 13 other states, including Kansas in 2019, found that various pro-life laws unconstitutionally infringed on individual rights, but thanks to the voters of Louisiana, that will not happen here.

Louisiana Right to Life looks forward to the day Roe v. Wade is overturned and Louisiana can once again protect all our citizens, including those waiting to be born. Remember, Louisiana has a law on our books right now that would protect every unborn baby from abortion the day Roe v. Wade is overturned. The Love Life Amendment now protects that law from pro-abortion court attacks.

In the short term before Roe v. Wade is overturned, the Love Life Amendment protects existing pro-life state laws such as informed consent and ultrasound laws prior to an abortion.  State judges can not overturned these laws based on a pro-abortion interpretation of the Louisiana Constitution.

Louisiana Right to Life Team in Campaign Headquarters

Benjamin Clapper, Executive Director of Louisiana Right to Life, along with members of the Louisiana Right to Life team watched anxiously as election returns rolled in once the polls closed. The team was ecstatic over the outcome, which confirmed to the nation that Louisiana is a strong pro-life state.  Clapper said:

“Louisiana has overwhelmingly passed the Love Life Amendment and shown its love for mothers and babies! With the passage of this amendment, our citizens have mandated that state judges can never use our Constitution to enshrine abortion or the taxpayer funding of abortion in Louisiana. We the people, through our legislators, can pass laws defending life without the intervention of judges.

“We look forward to the day Roe v. Wade is overturned and Louisiana can once again protect all our citizens, including those waiting to be born. Moving forward, the pro-life movement will continue to support mothers and babies and work toward a day when every child is protected by law and welcomed with love in our nation.”

Louisiana Right to Life led the push for the amendment’s passage through the Louisiana Pro-Life Amendment Coalition, a team of Louisiana citizens and organizations. State Rep. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe) and state Sen. Beth Mizell (R-Franklinton) were authors of the amendment resolution, which was overwhelmingly supported by both chambers of the Louisiana Legislature as well as Gov. John Bel Edwards. The amendment was also supported Republican elected officials including Senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, and Congressmen Scalise, Johnson, Higgins, Graves, and Abraham.

The Love Life Campaign was critical to the passage of Amendment 1.  Angie Thomas, J.D., Associate Director of Louisiana Right to Life, said the following after the vote:

“Even though Louisiana is a pro-life state, we knew from day one that we would need a strong Love Life Campaign to pass this amendment. Thanks to our generous donors, we raised and spent $823,000 in both amendment and educational funds enabling us to reach hundreds of thousands of voters in variety of ways!  Our partner churches who purchased church packages of yard signs, banners, road signs, and more were absolutely essential to this success!  Thank you to everyone who helped pass the Love Life Amendment!”

The grassroots Love Life effort was also essential to the passage of the Love Life Amendment, especially through the network of Love Life Captains in civil parishes statewide. Alexandra Seghers, Director of Education for Louisiana Right to Life, led the grassroots effort statewide.  She said,

“We are so thankful to our Love Life Captains and volunteers who worked extremely hard to promote the amendment. From yard sign distribution, church materials delivery, sign waving, text banking, and more, our volunteers made all the difference. We cannot express our gratitude enough to everyone who made sacrifices to help pass the Love Life Amendment!”

See our overview below of all our campaign did to reach voters across Louisiana!

Moving forward, Louisiana Right to Life encourages other states to follow suit and pass an amendment similar to the Love Life Amendment.  Dorinda Bordlee, Vice President and Senior Cousel of the Bioethics Defense Fund, was the legal architect behind the Love Life Amendment. Bordlee said,

“It was a honor to provide legal consultation in drafting Louisiana’s Love Life Amendment. Bioethics Defense Fund stands ready to consult with other states to pass similar amendments.”

It is important that Louisiana citizens do not lose their momentum in defending life.  Please contact us today to get more involved in the pro-life cause!

Look at the Numbers

Here are some notables figures about the passage of the Love Life Amendment!

• 1,274,167 Louisiana voters voted YES on the Love Life Amendment!
• We won 62% of the vote, while President Trump won Louisiana with 58% of the vote. We showed again the bipartisan pro-life spirit of Louisiana.
• Two weeks before the election, our last internal poll showed 69% of Louisianians had heard or seen from our campaign supporting Amendment #1 (29% had seen “a lot”). And that was before our final push! This is a testament to the great work of our teams and supporters statewide!
• We won every parish in Louisiana except East Baton Rouge (49%-51%) and Orleans (25%-75%). We have a lot of work to do there!
• Congratulations to the “80% Club” of parishes who exceeded 80% for life: Lasalle (87%), West Carroll, Grant, Acadia, Caldwell, Allen, and Cameron. Of those, Acadia had the largest population. Click here to download full parish results.

Our Love Life Campaign

Here are just a handful of our outreaches from the Love Life Amendment in no particular order!

• Church Outreach: Through a coordinated effort over the span of a year, we collaborated with churches of all denominations to promote the Love Life Amendment, resulting in an untold number of churches promoting the Love Life Amendment across Louisiana.  Over 119 churches across Louisiana coordinated directing with us through our Church Packages to receive yard signs, push cards, large signs, and more.  Thank you to all our church partners for your tremendous support of life!
• Yard Sign Distribution: We distributed just over 25,000 yard signs across Louisiana!  The red “Vote Yes on #1” became the hallmark of the Love Life Campaign.
• Road Sign Distribution: We distributed over 2oo large 4×4 road signs across Louisiana in front of churches and businesses!
• Text Messaging Voters:  Our team of volunteers sent Get-Out-The-Vote text messages to over 270,000 prospective voters!
• Billboards: While not the focus of our effort, we did have billboards up promoting the amendment in Metairie, Monroe, Baton Rouge, Houma, and elsewhere.
• TV Advertising: Our TV campaign in support of the Amendment focused on primetime ads on the cable channel Fox News in the last three weeks prior to the election, reaching hundreds of thousands of voters over the course of the weeks.
• Radio Advertising: Our radio advertising campaign was statewide, reaching a large number of voters over the air!
• Automated Phone Calls: We made 866,904 “robocalls” to prospective voters across Louisiana urging them to vote yes on Amendment #1.
• Social Media: Our initial report on our social media paid ad outreach for the Love Life Amendment reached at least 506,753 individuals with a total of 2,041,332 impressions.  These numbers will likely grow as we make final reviews of our social media outreach and include organic and non-paid posts.