The full Senate has approved the state’s 26-billion dollar spending plan for the next fiscal year. It does not fully fund the TOPS scholarship program and it also cuts state funding for safety-net hospitals that provide care for the poor. Governor Edwards will push legislators to restore the cuts in a special session that begins next week.
Final passage has been granted to a bill that would allow patients direct access to a physical therapist rather than getting a doctor’s referral first. Dr. Amanda Brewer with the Louisiana Physical Therapy Association says this allows patients to able to get into physical therapy sooner and result in decreased cost for the patients and an increased quality of life.
Opponents of the legislation believe therapists don’t have the training of a doctor and could miss diagnose a life threatening health problem. Despite opposition, the measure now heads to the Governor’s desk.
Governor Edwards signs into law a measure that prohibits a common second trimester abortion procedure called dilation and evacuation. Louisiana Right to Life Legislative Director, Deanna Wallace, says this legislation ends a brutal practice known as dismemberment abortion, where an abortionist tears body parts from a live, unborn child….
But Amanda Allen with the Center for Reproductive Rights says they are concerned it’s getting more difficult for women in Louisiana to receive safe and legal care.
State courts have blocked similar legislation in two other states. Despite opposition, the law goes into effect on August 1.