Louisiana Residents Emergency 4/28 Call to Action (CTA): fight bills HB 166 (forced vasectomy) and SB 371 (forced surgical castration)

Source of the email ACSOL received: UV4SOR.org (contact@uv4sor.org)

Fellow Advocates,

We have an Emergency Call to Action (CTA) and need your voice to oppose HB 166 (forced vasectomy) and SB 371 (forced surgical castration) currently before the Louisiana Legislature.  We are doing both bills together as one CTA in the interest of time and the similarities (and heinous nature) of these 2 bills. 

The Senate and House Reconvene Monday at 1:00 PM CDT, so we need your response to be sitting in their inboxes or on their voicemails by 4/29 Monday morning. Let’s stop these unconstitutional, cruel, and draconian bills before they pass and are copied by other states. Please tell your friends and families to respond. We need everyone to have their responses completed so they know we mean business!

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

HB 166 (Forced Vasectomy) is currently in the LA Senate. HB166 requires all persons convicted of any sex offense under, RS14.45.1, in the state of Louisiana, whether felony or misdemeanor, to undergo a forced vasectomy, resulting in irreversible, lifelong sterilization. Representative Delisha Boyd is the sponsor.

• HB 166 was passed by an overwhelming majority in the House, was sent to the Senate, where it was amended slightly, and is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

SB 371 (Forced Surgical Castration) is currently in the LA House. This bill was sponsored by Senator Regina Barrow who is President Pro Tempore of the Senate. If passed, the bill will allow the State to force anyone, male or female, convicted of a contact or non-contact sexual offense where the victim is under age 13, to be surgically castrated. 

• SB 371 passed the Senate by a wide majority, but it had been amended slightly (engrossed). The bill was sent to the House on 4/25 where it was “Read by title, under the rules, referred to the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice”

WHAT WE NEED YOU TO DO:

1. We need everyone to email or call the Louisiana legislators. 
2. If you are a Louisiana resident, please make sure to email and/or call your elected LA representative and Senator. 

• • You do not need to give any personal details except that you are a concerned citizen. If you don’t feel comfortable talking with someone in person, call after hours and leave a message.
    • However, you must leave your first and last name and a real telephone number.

1. • Here are the telephone numbers for Louisiana Representatives:
     • https://house.louisiana.gov/H_Reps/H_Reps_FullInfo
   • Here are the telephone numbers for Louisiana Senators:
     • https://senate.la.gov/Senators_FullInfo

The CTA team has provided talking points as well as opening and closing statements at the bottom of this message which you can use for email or phone calls.

We have a list of emails for all legislators attached in Word and PDF formats so that you can copy and paste all the email addresses into a single email or a few smaller emails if your email system has an address limitation.

• Please do not feel that you must use our talking points or opening and closing statements. They are here for convenience and to save you time. We encourage you to customize your CTA response and to make it your own.

Here is the format for email:

• Please make the Email subject line: I oppose HB 166 and SB 371.

(Opening Statement or write your own)

Honorable Legislator:

I am a concerned citizen voicing my opposition to proposed bills, HB 166 and SB 371. I do not support these bills and I urge you not to support these bills either for the following reasons:

 (If you are a Louisiana resident, please use one of the following opening statements)

I am a resident of Louisiana and a concerned citizen voicing my opposition to proposed bills, HB 166 and SB 371. I do not support these bills and I urge you not to support these bills for the following reasons:

OR

I am a resident of Louisiana, a concerned citizen, and a constituent of Representative ________ voicing my opposition to proposed bills, HB 166 and SB 371. I do not support these bills and I urge you not to support these bills for the following reasons:

(Choose 2 – 4 talking points from the list to copy and paste under your opening paragraph or add your own).

(Closing Paragraph)

I am vehemently opposed to both HB 166 AND SB 371 and urge you to reject them based on their violations of the U.S. Constitution and the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. These bills are not well-thought-out, both are poorly written with unclear language, and retributive without preventing sexual harm. The citizens of Louisiana that you represent deserve better treatment than these flagrant violations of their God-given rights and both bills eliminate the opportunity for forgiveness, redemption, and rehabilitation.

Respectfully,

Your Real Name

Your email address

Phone number (recommended, but optional)

We encourage you to use your real name. If you feel uncomfortable using your real name and are not a resident, use either your first and middle name or if you are married, use your maiden name. However, you must put a real email address they can respond to if needed.

Talking Points:

• I do not condone sexual abuse of any kind. The practice of “state-sanctioned eugenics” and passing legislation that disproportionately harms African Americans, which will result in a decrease in Louisiana’s African-American population, is equally abhorrent.
• In Louisiana, Black men are required to register as sexual offenders at twice the rate of white men, so passing either of these questionable bills will dilute the African American population.
• I am dismayed and appalled that both of these bills are introduced and sponsored by African American female legislators!
• If passed, these bills will set Louisiana back over 100 years, to a time when forced sterilization of African Americans was common. These bills are violations of the U.S. Constitution’s 8th Amendment, and the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
• Neither bill will result in a crime reduction, as this is a population with astoundingly low recidivism rates, as documented by the federal government. In other words, people charged with sex offenses very rarely re-offend.

HB 166

• According to KTAL 6 News, and in Representative Boyd’s own words, this bill was proposed in response to Louisiana’s abortion ban
• I do not understand how an abortion ban justifies forced vasectomy.
• What is the punishment for women offenders?
  • Are they sterilized?
  • Do they have their Fallopian tubes tied or do they receive hysterectomies?
• The bill also applies to not only felonies, but all misdemeanors considered sex offenses, such as streaking, mooning, public urination, and consensual Romeo and Juliet romances.
• Since this bill applies to both misdemeanors and felonies, is it the legislature’s intent to permanently sterilize tourists at Mardi Gras or persons attending Grambling, LSU, Tulane, and other university football games who streak?
• One of the offenses this bill would make vasectomies mandatory for is the offense “Interference with the Custody of a Child” (RS14.45.1). Does this mean that a grandfather interfering with visitation/custody of his grandchild will be forced to undergo a vasectomy? Will the State of Louisiana sterilize a grandmother for this interference offense since she cannot receive a vasectomy? If the answer is no, you must not pass this bill.

SB 371

• SB 371 requires surgical castration of individuals who are convicted of certain offenses against children under 13.
  • This barbaric forced sterilization of persons convicted of these offenses leaves no room for judicial or procedural errors, subjecting US citizens to a lifelong punishment when they may be innocent of the crime of which they are accused.
    • What remedy will compensate for that amount of loss?
• Louisiana State Senator Ed Price stated: “Castration is permanent, whether it’s female or male. How do we get by someone who may get exonerated after, and then this has happened to them?”
  • Senator Price’s statement indicates that Senator Barrow, author of SB 371, and its sponsors are contemplating female castration or female genital mutilation (FGM) for female sex offenders with victims under 13 and if passed, would apply to any sex offense with a victim under 13, even non-contact offenses.
  • The bill language needs clarification to distinguish if the proposed female castration is internal (partial or total hysterectomy) or external (FGM), or both.
  • The state of Louisiana seems prepared to pass a law allowing for female genital mutilation of female offenders with victims under the age of 13. However, this practice has been outlawed by the United Nations and is primarily carried out by organizations that have been declared terrorist groups.
• Can passing this bill really be justified by the “if it saves just one child” mentality and rhetoric?

Talking points applicable to both bills:

• When deciding on a punishment for a crime, the US Supreme Court asks three questions:

1. Is the proposed punishment cruel or excessive?
2. Is the punishment proportional to the offense?
3. Can the state achieve its punishment goal through less intrusive means?

• • These bills, with their one-size-fits-all approach, subject persons convicted of a sexual offense to lifelong changes, and do not consider the possibility of rehabilitation of the individual.
  • These bills are inappropriate responses without informed consent and violate the 1st, 8th, and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution.
    • 1st- The bills violate a person’s right to free speech by attempting to regulate and control their minds or punish them for their thoughts.
    • 8th – In a society that values freedom, it is cruel, unusual, and excessive to remove the autonomy of one population, creating a subset of second-class citizens.
    • 14th- These citizens will be denied the equal protection under the law that everyone else in our country enjoys.
  • Forced surgical castration and vasectomies are physical mutilation, and we as a nation criticize and condemn other countries for this practice. How can we justify eliminating the autonomy of our own citizens?
    • There are many alternatives to these merciless techniques that are already used with this population of offenders. Behavioral and group therapies, addiction therapies, and avoidance techniques are just a few examples of humane alternatives to the inhumane and oppressive techniques suggested by these bills.
  • HB 166 and SB 371 are an overreach of state-sanctioned eugenics on a group that very rarely re-offends and will not reduce sexual harm. Both bills are human rights violations with harmful, far-reaching, and lifelong effects on our US citizens if these two bills are passed.

Thank you for your help. Please respond to these 2 heinous unconstitutional bills before Monday, April 29, 2024. Anyone with questions or who is having difficulty responding can reach out to Pammy Jean or Elena Advocates all weekend. Please find their email addresses in the email distribution list.

UV4SOR has a shout-out to our CTA Team members Elena Advocates, Pammy Jean, and June Chaplin as well as our friends and fellow advocates at Florida Action Committee’s CTA team (FAC) who shared their unique perspectives on responding to this CTA and encouraged us to incorporate theirs alongside our own strategy. FAC also supported us by providing an entire list of the LA legislators’ email addresses to save all of us time and also provided encouragement and moral support. Thank you, FAC.

UV4SOR has also sent a letter from the organization opposing these bills. Thank you, Fearless Leader, Shawn Barrera-Leaf.

CTA Team, Elena, Pammy, June, 

Advocacy Participation Team, Kimberly Hall

Download the email addresses:

Louisiana State Legislators Email Addresses.pdf