Gov. John Bel Edwards has always treated it as an article of faith that, to succeed politically in Republican-leaning, religiously conservative Louisiana, a candidate must oppose abortion.
His own experience has borne that out; the Amite Democrat was elected twice to the state’s top job, even as the rest of the Louisiana’s top political leadership fell into GOP hands.
So it seemed like a pretty dramatic break when Luke Mixon, the Democrat running with Edwards’ support and very much in his mold against Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, announced Wednesday that if elected, he’d vote to reinstate the conditions laid out by the now-defunct Roe v. Wade decision.
“As I’ve always said, I am personally pro-life,” Mixon in a video posted on Twitter. “But these extreme laws like the ones we’re seeing right here in Louisiana are simply too radical. There’s nothing pro-life about forcing the victim of rape to bear their assailant’s child. There’s nothing pro-life about threatening prosecution or jail time for a mother who chooses to terminate a pregnancy that threatens her very own life. And I just don’t trust the government to make these decisions.”
More likely Mixon’s video is a sign of rapidly changing times, and a landscape that has shifted significantly since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the longstanding precedent legalizing abortion and sent the decision back to the states.
Louisiana was ready for that moment, at least on paper. In 2006, lawmakers adopted a "trigger law" declaring most abortions illegal immediately upon the end of Roe. An update passed just this year, after a draft of the court’s decision was leaked. Neither included exceptions for rape and incest victims, but despite their stated reservations over the omission, Democratic Govs. Kathleen Blanco and Edwards signed these bills into law. The voters spoke as well when they backed an amendment in 2020 clarifying that the right to an abortion does not exist anywhere in the state constitution.
But now that we’re living under a harsh new reality in which children can be forced to carry pregnancies created by horrific abuse, women must travel far from home to access services or even abortion pills, and doctors may be told by lawyers that they can’t provide once-standard treatment before a situation becomes catastrophic — or fear they might be arrested if they do — it’s not at all clear that Louisianans were prepared.
Bringing that question to the fore last week was a stunning electoral result out of Kansas, another deep-red state, where voters turned out in droves in a dead-of-summer election to oppose removing the right to an abortion from that state’s constitution. The successful campaign against the change relied on language often used by Republicans promoting freedom from government overreach, a message that Mixon echoed.
That Mixon’s public shift came the day after Kansans voted did not go unnoticed. Asked Friday if it was a direct response, he described it more as the result of an evolution over many restless nights since the high court acted. He said he’s wrestled with how to ensure that those who need it most can get access, and concluded the only way was to put Roe’s protections into federal law — even though doing so would also enshrine the right to abortion on demand (with some restrictions).
“I struggled with it, and I came to the conclusion that it was the only way,” he said.
As for the Kansas vote, he said that “I think it’s a reflection that there are a lot of people like me who have re-examined the consequences of our new reality.”
Now, Mixon’s just one person, but he’s a person who’s running a statewide campaign, listening to voters — who he says have absolutely conveyed a sense of urgency to him — as well as female friends and relatives. And of course he’s shopping for votes among those who want Kennedy out, many of whom are unlikely to be energized by someone they view as wishy washy on this issue.
Kennedy is now avowedly anti-abortion, although decades ago, as a Democrat, he did back abortion rights, and two other well-known Democrats on this fall’s ballot, Gary Chambers and Syrita Steib, are outspoken supporters of abortion access. In this field, Mixon is the one in the middle.
And whether his change of heart is more personal or political, the much more interesting question is how many other Louisianans who share that middle ground are also rethinking things.