What It's Like to Get an Abortion in Louisiana
"There was a huge table of protesters outside the clinic, trying to hand me flyers and rosaries and yelling at me."
by Claire Lampen
Mar 12 2020
Louisiana is notoriously hostile to reproductive rights, and has now become the first state in the Trump era to escalate a legal battle over abortion restrictions to the Supreme Court. On March 4, opening arguments began in June Medical Services LLC v. Russo, a case about whether requiring doctors who provide abortions to secure admitting privileges at local hospitals constitutes an “undue burden” on access.
Abortion opponents in Louisiana and elsewhere see the case as a challenge to Roe v. Wade at the federal level, and if that precedent were overturned, abortion would be illegal in Louisiana, because it has what's known as a "trigger law" on the books. Even with Roe in place, Louisiana could ban abortion at six weeks, if a federal appeals court upholds a similar bill in Mississippi. (Although in that event, it’s likely that Louisiana’s so-called “heartbeat bill” would face its own legal challenge.)