When the dams might no longer withstand the water, everything happened very quickly. The floods pushed into the urban area of New Orleans by hurricane “Katrina” flowed into the Lower Ninth Ward, the low-lying district inhabited mainly by poor African Americans was meters high under water within a short time. Hundreds of people died in the first hours following “Katrina” hit land, others had to persevere on the roofs for days in the sweltering heat without supplies until help came.
17 years later, New Orleans and its residents are still scarred by the disaster, which killed 1,800 people and caused more than $80 billion in damage. Most recently, the documentary “Katrina Babies” described the ongoing traumatization of an entire generation of children who were already marginalized.
The political discussion regarding the causes of the poor preparations flares up regularly. The dam systems, which should have protected the jazz metropolis from the water, were not only outdated, but also completely undersized in places, which to this day fuels the suspicion among many in New Orleans that there might have been better prevention and evacuation measures if it would have been a richer and whiter city.
Strict ban on abortion
An above-average hurricane season has now been forecast for this autumn. Some dams urgently need to be strengthened, and a power plant needs to be secured to ensure the electricity and water supply even in the event of a disaster. The city of New Orleans has already been promised urgently needed loans of 39 million dollars from the state of Louisiana. According to the city, the money might be used to protect up to 400,000 people from flooding and critical infrastructure failures in the long term.
But just under two weeks ago, the politically-loaded Louisiana State Debt Commission voted by a slim majority of 7-6 to freeze those already pledged funds. However, the background to the decision is not a dispute regarding the use of the funds. Rather, Republicans at the state level see the money for hurricane prevention as a political bargaining chip to be able to get their way in the abortion debate that is currently keeping the United States in suspense. The Debt Commission has already officially declared that funds would be frozen until New Orleans officials took an oath to abide by Louisiana’s strict abortion law. “The decision is another step in ensuring cities are complying with state law,” Jeff Landry, Louisiana’s Republican attorney general for the governorship, wrote on his Facebook page.
Louisiana’s abortion law is one of the strictest of its kind, prohibiting abortion in cases of incest and rape. Similar to the democratically governed cities of Atlanta and Indianapolis, however, New Orleans decided in a resolution following the controversial Supreme Court verdict not to implement the strict law of the state of Louisiana with its own resources. Violations will not be prosecuted by the police or under criminal law. “This law is unacceptable. It is a declaration of war on women, on women’s right to make personal decisions,” said LaToya Cantrell, the Democratic Mayor of New Orleans, immediately following the Supreme Court’s decision was announced. The African-American mayor is the first woman to hold the office and began her political career with her neighborhood engagement for post-Katrina reconstruction. Catrell’s exchanges of blows with the hardliner Landry are legendary and are seen as exemplary for the conflicts of liberal cities in the southern states.
Despite refusing to enforce the law, abortions are no longer legal in New Orleans. Because the city council resolution is only a programmatic declaration that cannot legally give doctors any guarantee of impunity, all three providers in New Orleans have now closed their clinics or relocated to other states. If you type “New Orleans” into Abortionfinder.org, all you get is a blunt reminder that abortion is completely illegal in Louisiana, but you can travel to another state to have an abortion.
“Born to Bury”
Most recently, a case made headlines in which a woman pregnant with a fetus diagnosed as unviable was denied an abortion. “You are forcing me to give birth to my child to bury it,” the woman said, commenting on her condition on US television. Still, Attorney General Landry is defending the Debt Commission’s decision to freeze the funds, which some Republicans also voted once morest. He categorically rejects criticism from his own ranks that the connection between the two topics is irrelevant. One should not hesitate to use any means available to persuade New Orleans to turn around.
Abortion advocates in particular accuse Cantrell and other Republican abortion opponents of hypocrisy. “They say they care regarding life. But once we’re born, they don’t care regarding our lives. Then we can drown. That’s what pro-life means to them,” the 20-year-old African American college student told Selma the local TV station WDSU.
The opponents of abortion are unlikely to be successful with their strategy in New Orleans anyway, because neither the mayor nor the city council want to back down on the matter. “For women and as a woman, I cannot make this law work,” Mayor Cantrell said. She will defend the right to self-determination and ensure that the infrastructure is modernized to prevent flooding as best she can – if necessary without state funding.
