The Louisiana legislature on Monday approved a bill that provides surgical castration as a sentencing option for certain aggravated sexual offenses against children younger than thirteen.

Aggravated sexual offenses under Louisiana law include rape, molestation and human trafficking for sexual purposes. The surgical castration may be an addition to the original sentences of the offenses and is “to be administered by the [Louisiana] Department of Public Safety and Corrections by a licensed physician.” The offender may face three to five years of imprisonment with the option of hard labor if he does not comply with the castration. The convicted offender may only be sentenced to surgical castration if he is seventeen or older and if his offense occurs after July 31.

The bill was originally sponsored by Senator Regina Barrow. According to Louisiana Radio Network, Louisiana Senator Mark Abraham opposed the bill and told Barrow that he did not want to “commit two crimes” by allowing castration for first offenders because he believes in second chances. According to Louisiana Radio Network, Barrow stated that the bill would reduce the “sexual impulses and aggression of sex offenders” and that when it comes to children, “one time is too many.”

The US Supreme Court in Skinner v. Oklahoma held an Oklahoma act was unconstitutional because it allowed the sexual sterilization of habitual criminals. The court reasoned that the right to procreation was a “fundamental right” protected by the US Constitution’s Equal Protection clause under the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Douglas wrote in the opinion that “in evil or reckless hands [a sterilization sentence] can cause races or types which are inimical to the dominant group to wither and disappear.”

The bill awaits approval from the Louisiana governor to become Louisiana law.