What you need to know about HB 166 and SB 371:

• Louisiana’s House Representative Delisha Boyd is the sponsor of HB 166 which states: “In addition to any other penalties provided by law, any person who is convicted of a sex offense as defined in R.S. 15:541 may be subject to a vasectomy procedure.”
• HB 166 has passed the Louisiana House with 80 yeas and 12 nays.  Now in the Senate.

 

• Louisiana’s Senator Regina Barrow is the sponsor of SB 371 which would allow for convicted sex offenders (male and female) who have committed an aggravated sexual offense against a victim under 13 years old to be surgically castrated by the state.

 

• SB 371 has passed the Louisiana Senate with 29 yeas and 9 nays.  Now in the House.

 

• Florida Action Committee normally issues a Call to Action only for registry matters in Florida, but these bills are so heinous and appear likely to pass.  We do not want to see these bills spread to other states, including Florida. 

 

Please do the following:

• Email or call members of the Louisiana legislature.  Contact information is provided below.

 

• State that you are OPPOSED to these bills and why you oppose them.

 

• If you are a constituent of a Louisiana legislator, make sure you mention that.

 

• If you do not reside in Louisiana, you do not have to mention this fact.  You are an American citizen who is alarmed that people in this country could have their body mutilated similarly to the way it is done in some Middle Eastern countries.

 

• If you choose to call and voicemail picks up, leave your name (if you are comfortable doing so) and a message.  Voicemails should be counted.

 

• Ask family members and friends to contact the Louisiana legislators to OPPOSE these bills.

 

• Always be cordial in your communications with the legislators.  They are more likely to listen to you.
• If you choose to use some of the talking points given below, please do not copy/paste everything.  Write as much as you can in your own words.  It is not necessary to try to use all the talking points, only the ones you choose to use.

 

• You do NOT have to use our talking points if you have your own that you prefer.

 

Talking points:

 

Both bills are state-sanctioned eugenics.  These bills, if enacted into law, would violate the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as it would mandate forced mutilation resulting in a permanent loss of an important bodily function as a form of criminal punishment.

 

If passed into law, these two bills will both be challenged with lawsuits and will not stand up in a court of law.

 

You are apprehensive about visiting a state where amputation and mutilation is used as a form of punishment for certain crimes.

 

If these bills pass in Louisiana, what will be next?  Will a bill be introduced to cut off the hands of all thieves hoping that if a defendant does not deserve such a barbaric sentence, the judge will figure it out?

 

Pertaining to HB 166 (forced vasectomy):

 

• Sponsor Delisha Boyd, a Democrat who represents part of New Orleans in the Louisiana House of Representatives, is sponsoring HB 166 which would require all persons convicted of ANY SEX OFFENSE in the state of Louisiana to undergo a FORCED VASECTOMY, resulting in irreversible, lifelong sterilization.  

 

 

• According to the text of the bill, a forced vasectomy would become part of the criminal punishment for any offense requiring registration as a sex offender in Louisiana, regardless of its severity or whether there was an actual victim.

 

 

• Per capita, there are twice as many black males on the sex offense registry in the U.S. as there are white males.  Boyd’s bill, which would result in state-sanctioned eugenics, would dilute the African-American population of Louisiana.  Rep. Delisha Boyd claims to fight for the rights of the citizens of her district, which is overwhelmingly African-American, but she is in fact sponsoring legislation that could ultimately ravage the African-American community.  This is shocking considering that Boyd is African-American.

 

• Unfortunately forced sterilization has a sordid history in the United States and has often been used against African-Americans.  

 

• Boyd’s bill would apply to ALL sex offenses, regardless of their severity.  Is lifelong sterilization and the permanent inability to have a family an appropriate and proportionate punishment for indecent exposure, prostitution, or an 18-year-old dating a 15-year-old while in high school, all of which will place someone on the sex offense registry in Louisiana?  Apparently, Delisha Boyd thinks so.

 

• Rep. Boyd introduced this bill in protest against the anti-abortion bill that Louisiana recently passed.  This bill would allow for permanent, lifelong sterilization for offenses such as indecent exposure and prostitution.  An LSU student who is convicted of a misdemeanor for streaking while drunk could be mutilated for life.

 

• We respect Rep. Boyd’s right to oppose (or support) any law but not at the cost of mutilating other human beings.  Seeking revenge for the passing of a law she strongly opposes (recent Louisiana anti-abortion bill) should not be allowed for any law maker.  HB 166 is all about revenge.

 

• The provisions of HB 166, which based on its text could permanently sterilize anyone convicted of a sex offense, including misdemeanors and those committed by minors, have already been declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535 (1942).

 

Pertaining to SB 371 (forced surgical castration for males and females):

 

• This bill applies to females and males with both being eligible for surgical castration if their victim was under the age of 13.

 

• Louisiana Senator Ed Price has pointed out that surgical castration is permanent.  What about the people who are exonerated after they have been mutilated?

 

• The sponsor of this bill, Senator Regina Barrow, has acknowledged that Louisiana has a HIGH NUMBER of wrongful convictions when compared to other states, but said that the bill provides for judges to use their own discretion.  Barrow HOPES that judges will be able to see through the aspects of cases and MAYBE not sentence persons to have the surgical castration, if appropriate.  Assuming that judges could be relied upon for making wise decisions is foolhardy, particularly given that Louisiana is one of the national leaders for wrongful convictions.

 

• Senator Ed Price stated that the punitive amputation provisions of this bill would apply to female sex offenders and male sex offenders alike, thus making female genital mutilation a lawful punishment in Louisiana, something that the United Nations and United states have universally condemned.

 

• Based on its existing wording, SB 371 applies to ALL sex offenses against those under 13, even non-contact offenses.  SB 371 would allow for offenders to be forcibly sedated, dragged to the nearest operating room and subjected to punitive amputation and mutilation, something that is currently only lawful in a small handful of extreme Islamic States, including Iran and Saudi Arabia.

 

• Castration for a female offender is a radical clitoridectomy, also known as “female genital mutilation,” something practiced by terrorist groups such as ISIS, Al-Shabaab, and the Republic of Gilead, an atrocity that the United States has condemned.  SB 371 allows for this mutilation to be part of the punishment for any female convicted of an aggravated sex offense against a minor under 13.  This would mean that a woman who exposed herself to a 12-year-old in Louisiana would be forced to undergo female genital mutilation.

 

• Male castration would mean removal of the testicles, equally as barbaric.

 

Louisiana legislators’ email addresses:

 

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Phone numbers for Louisiana’s House of Representatives can be found here:

https://house.louisiana.gov/H_Reps/H_Reps_FullInfo

 

Phone numbers for Louisiana’s Senators can be found here:

https://senate.la.gov/Senators_FullInfo