Louisiana's Republican attorney general blocks New Orleans flood funding over abortion: report

The city of New Orleans has been denied access to funds to help with flood recovery because its officials have refused to enforce Louisiana's abortion ban – right as hurricane season peaks.

Jezebel reported on Thursday, while New Orleans was under a flood advisory, that Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry successfully convinced the state's Bond Commission to strip the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board of a $39 million line of credit.

"The financing that’s being held hostage would, specifically, be used to build a power station for the Sewerage & Water Board to help combat flooding. Melinda Deslatte, a research director at Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, live-tweeted today’s meeting, in which Republican politicians decided to punish New Orleans, a Democratic stronghold in the state, for defending abortion rights in the wake of a near-total ban. (Officials in New Orleans, including even the police, have vowed not to enforce the state’s new ban, which has already pushed out all three of its abortion clinics.)," wrote Jezebel.

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"The power plant," State Senator Jimmy Harris (D-4th District) explained, "is expected to protect an estimated 384,000 people. Even Republican State Senator Bret Allain warned that because the sewerage and water board is a state-created agency, he finds it 'problematic' to target New Orleans over their abortion stance."

New Orleans lobbyist Paul Rainwater told the outlet that “to be very clear, we’ve got to keep this project going forward so it can be completed by 2024. It’s amazingly critical to this city to protect lives.”

But Landry's intentions were unambiguous.

“Now, the shoe is on their foot,” he said. “If they want this project to move forward, rescind the resolution.”

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