How US abortion organisers are learning from Honduran activistsc

As networks, some clandestine, form to help women access abortion in the US, they look to Central America for a road map – and a warning.

By Delaney Nolan
Published On 19 Feb 2023

New Orleans, United States – The half dozen women gathered in the backyard pause for a moment to listen to the television next door. The neighbour is playing a football game at high volume. It’s loud. That’s good – it gives them cover.

“I couldn’t hear anything from the sidewalk,” says Ana,* referring to the women’s conversation. “I think we’re OK,” says another. The rest are reassured.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/2/19/how-us-abortion-organisers-are-learning-from-honduran-activists

Bleeding and in pain, she couldn’t get 2 Louisiana ERs to answer: Is it a miscarriage?

December 29, 2022
ROSEMARY WESTWOOD
7-Minute Listen with transcript

BATON ROUGE, La. – When Kaitlyn Joshua found out she was pregnant in mid-August, she and her husband, Landon Joshua, were excited to have a second baby on the way. They have a 4-year-old daughter, and thought that was just the right age to help out with a younger sibling.

At about six weeks pregnant, Joshua, 30, called a physicians' group in Baton Rouge. She wanted to make her first prenatal appointment there for around the eight-week mark, as she had in her first pregnancy. But Joshua says the woman on the line told her she was going to have to wait over a month.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/29/1143823727/bleeding-and-in-pain-she-couldnt-get-2-louisiana-ers-to-answer-is-it-a-miscarria

Louisiana woman faces ‘horrifically cruel’ abortion choice over fetus missing skull

Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans
Sat 20 Aug 2022

A pregnant Louisiana woman faced with either carrying a skull-less fetus to term – for the baby to likely die within hours – or traveling several states away to obtain an abortion has hired a prominent civil rights attorney as she weighs how to move forward.

Nancy Davis, 36, has retained lawyer Ben Crump as she becomes the latest to embody the gut-wrenching decisions some women are being forced to make after the US supreme court’s decision in June to strip away nationwide abortion rights, according to a statement from the attorney’s office.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/20/louisiana-abortion-woman-nancy-davis-benjamin-crump

20.08.2022

fatal fetal abnormality

Abortion access in two ‘stalwart’ states in the South a focus of post-Roe court fights

By Tierney Sneed and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
Mon August 8, 2022

Just how far people in the South will have to travel to access abortion care will be defined by legal challenges unfolding in Louisiana and Georgia.

Almost every state in the Southeast bans the procedure or limits it to all but the earliest stages of pregnancy -- with laws that were allowed to go into effect with the Supreme Court's reversal this summer of Roe v. Wade. But abortion rights advocates are fighting in state court for orders blocking those restrictions.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/08/politics/abortion-south-georgia-louisiana/index.html

USA – Six Months in a State of Emergency

By Andrea González-Ramírez
Mar. 1, 2022

During the past six months, Kathaleen Pittman has often noticed some of her staff at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, Louisiana, are on the verge of tears. Every day, more and more patients reach out hoping to schedule an abortion at one of the state’s three remaining clinics, and the one closest to the Texas border. And every day, the employees who answer the phone have to tell callers — who are already frustrated by having to plan around a 24-hour waiting period that forces them to book two appointments — that the clinic may not be able to fit them into its schedule because of overwhelming demand.

“We’re compassionate people. Hearing these women, who are so afraid and so upset, has certainly taken its toll on the staff,” says Kathaleen Pittman, the clinic’s administrator. She’s been working at Hope since 1992, when she started as a part-time patient’s advocate. Over the past three decades, she’s witnessed a full-scale assault on abortion access in Louisiana: TRAP laws, a 20-week ban, mandatory waiting periods, a prohibition on telemedicine, and requiring parental consent for minors. And yet, Pittman tells me, “Never have I been so afraid of what’s happening.”

Continued: https://www.thecut.com/2022/03/sb8-texas-abortion-ban-effects-six-months.html

Uncertainty overwhelms abortion clinics in Louisiana

PBS, Nation
Dec 13, 2021

NEW ORLEANS – Before Texas enacted the nation’s strictest abortion law this fall, sending hundreds over the Louisiana border to seek care, those in need of abortion services could get medical attention in a matter of days. But the possibility of an imminent Supreme Court decision allowing states to further restrict access has pushed the wait for people seeking abortions in Louisiana to weeks, said Kathaleen Pittman, the clinical administrator at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport.

The stress is overwhelming clinics in Louisiana, already among the most restrictive states for abortion in the nation.

Continued: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/uncertainty-overwhelms-abortion-clinics-in-louisiana

A Judge Allowed a Louisiana Teen to Get an Abortion. So Her Mom Sued the State.

Advocates say this judicial bypass case is a grim look at how anti-abortion activists use their connections with state lawmakers to advance their agenda.

Nov 9, 2021
Caroline Reilly, Rewire News

In October, a Louisiana teen asked a state judge to be allowed to have an abortion. She was seeking a judicial bypass—the procedure in which young people who cannot involve a parent in their abortion decision can be granted permission by a judge.

Her mother sued the state to stop it.

Despite the constitutionality of judicial bypass, which must exist in the states that require parental involvement for minors’ abortions, the Louisiana mother’s challenge was enough for a judge to grant a temporary restraining order, blocking all judicial bypasses in the state.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2021/11/09/a-judge-allowed-a-louisiana-teen-to-get-an-abortion-so-her-mom-sued-the-state/

A Louisiana clinic struggles to absorb the surge created by Texas’ new abortion law

October 7, 2021
Sarah McCammon, Lauren_Hodges, Jonaki Mehta

The day before a federal judge blocked enforcement of Texas' restrictive new abortion law, the parking lot of Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, La., was filled with Texas license plates. Women held the door open as the line spilled out onto the sidewalk and into the grass.

"I drove 6 hours and 58 minutes," said M. from Corpus Christi, who didn't want to give her full name for privacy reasons. "I got here at 8:55 a.m. this morning. So I have not ate, we can't bring in anything to drink. My boyfriend's in the car asleep."

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/07/1044045564/a-louisiana-clinic-struggles-to-absorb-the-surge-created-by-texas-new-abortion-l

Even if Roe is gone, the abortion conflict is far from over

BY MARY ZIEGLER, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
11/06/20

When it comes to abortion, all eyes are currently on the Supreme Court. But in the states, pro-life and pro-choice forces are already shadowboxing about what a post-Roe v. Wade America will look like.

Two states with abortion on the ballot this week just offered a very different perspective on the shape of battles yet to come. By a 62.1 to 39.1 percent margin, Louisiana amended its constitution to declare that there was no state right to abortion or abortion voting. By contrast, in a closely watched Colorado vote, the state rejected a ballot initiative banning abortion at 22 weeks by a 59.1 to 40.9 percent.

Continued: https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/524671-even-if-roe-is-gone-the-abortion-conflict-is-a-far-from-over

What Louisiana’s abortion ban means for sex workers and the rest of us

By Tracey Anne Duncan
November 4, 2020

As we all drown in the uncertainty of the presidential race, one thing is becoming abundantly certain: Our reproductive rights are under attack. Last night, Louisiana passed an amendment which says that the state’s constitution does not protect a person’s right to abortion or in any way allow public funding of abortion. I asked sex workers to explain what this abortion amendment means for them — and the rest of us. People who work in the sex industry tend to be better informed about the laws and policies that govern our bodies and sexual behavior than basically everyone and are also often more comfortable speaking candidly — and with deep insight — about controversial topics.

Continued: https://www.mic.com/p/what-louisianas-abortion-ban-means-for-sex-workers-the-rest-of-us-41684900

04.11.2020