Rosemary Westwood

The cost of an abortion has skyrocketed in the wake of Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban, costing many patients more than $2,000 and forcing them to travel 1,900 miles round trip, according to abortion rights groups.

Louisiana ranks as one of the worst states in the nation for maternal and infant health, especially for Black and Native American women, according to the latest report from the March of Dimes. Experts said the state’s abortion ban, which went into effect immediately after Roe v. Wade was overturned this year by the U.S. Supreme Court, could make pregnancy and birth even more dangerous.

Louisiana Right to Life — the state’s most powerful anti-abortion group — has been celebrating a victory it’s spent over 50 years fighting to achieve, but it wants to go further. It wants to end an exception to the ban that allows for abortions for so-called “medically futile” pregnancies in the next legislative session.

Un grupo de cuatro operadoras telefónicas dedicadas a difundir el propósito de Women With A Vision, un grupo que defiende el derecho al aborto, se sentaron en torno a una mesa de conferencias en las oficinas situadas en Nueva Orleans aproximadamente un mes antes de las elecciones de mitad de mandato para llamar por teléfono a los votantes de todo Luisiana y preguntarles sobre los derechos reproductivos.

Nationally, the midterms are set to be a referendum on abortion rights. But in Louisiana, where the anti-abortion movement holds a political monopoly, abortion rights supporters are faced with the question of how to fight back when they’ve already lost so much.

A Democratic candidate for Congress is taking aim at Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban in a newly released campaign ad that shows video footage of her giving birth — the latest in a push among Louisiana Democrats hoping to galvanize voters by focusing on abortion rights.

After 42 years, Hope Medical Group for Women will close because Louisiana has banned almost all abortions. The clinic director and some staff may move to a state where abortion is legal.

Nancy Davis made national headlines this summer after she was denied an abortion at Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge — despite carrying a fetus with no brain or skull that would not survive birth. Public health reporter Rosemary Westwood recently spoke with Davis and her attorney, Ben Crump, about what Davis has been through, and why she’s sharing her story.

Hope Medical Group for Women lost a legal battle to stay open after Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban took effect, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. After 42 years of providing abortions to women in this rural corner of the Deep South, Hope has essentially closed.