Introduction
Katrina Renee Jackson (born July 1977) is a lawyer from Monroe, Louisiana, who is a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate for the 34th district, serving since 2020. From 2012 until 2020, Jackson served in the Louisiana House of Representatives for the 16th district, which includes Morehouse and Ouachita parishes.
Education
Jackson earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe and a Juris Doctor from the Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge.
Career
Jackson was elected to the state House in 2011. She serves on the Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture, and Rural Development Committee, the Commerce Committee, the Health and Welfare Committee, the Appropriations Committee, the Committee on Joint Budget, and the House Executive Committee. Jackson is a member of the Louisiana Legislative Women's Caucus and the Louisiana Rural Caucus, and is the head of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus.
In 2014, Jackson who unlike most national Democrats is pro-life, authored House Bill 388, which requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges with a hospital near their clinics. The law, approved with only five dissenters in the House, would reportedly result in three of the state's five abortion clinics closing immediately. This law has not gone into effect to date, as it is being litigated as unconstitutional under the precedent set by the decision in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt.
On January 22, 2016, Jacksonwas a guest speaker at the March for Life in Washington, D.C.
In the nonpartisan blanket primary on October 12, 2019, Jackson was elected unopposed to succeed term-limited Democratic lawmaker Francis C. Thompson for District 34 in the Louisiana State Senate. Thompson is instead seeking to return to the state House in which he served for thirty-three years prior to 2008. Thompson seeks to replace the term-limited Republican representative Charles "Bubba" Chaney of Richland Parish.
Jackson is pro-life and has written an abortion law that was eventually struck down by the Supreme Court of the United States.