After 42 years, Hope Medical Group for Girls will shut as a result of Louisiana has banned virtually all abortions. The clinic director and a few employees could transfer to a state the place abortion is authorized.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A for-sale signal just lately went up in entrance of the – one of many final clinics to supply abortions in Louisiana. As Rosemary Westwood from member station WWNO reviews, following Louisiana’s near-total ban on abortions, the clinic has been pressured to shut.
ROSEMARY WESTWOOD, BYLINE: Kathaleen Pittman stands exterior the clinic she runs, Hope Medical Group for Girls, on a current sweltering afternoon in Shreveport. It is a squat, beige constructing that hasn’t modified in a long time. The signal is pale. The paint’s peeling.
KATHALEEN PITTMAN: It is wanting slightly worse for put on.
WESTWOOD: Stephanie Chaffee is the clinic’s second-in-command.
STEPHANIE CHAFFEE: After which the opposite day, we got here out and seen that the signal with the hours of operation had simply type of, like, fallen off the door.
WESTWOOD: And so they haven’t any plans to repair it. The parking zone is empty. The protesters are gone. After 40 years of constructing positive girls on this rural a part of the South had entry to abortions, Hope is closing. Inside, chairs and packing containers are stacked in a nook. There’s an empty journal rack and a corkboard that used to carry messages of assist.
CHAFFEE: I nonetheless have my vegetation in right here as a result of that is one thing that is dwelling and rising. , the quiet is type of – it is simply eerie.
WESTWOOD: Hope opened in 1980. Because the story goes, founder Robin Rothrock, who’d been working at a girls’s clinic in Florida, was sitting at a seaside bar questioning whether or not to open a brand new clinic in Louisiana. She requested for an indication from God. Pittman says Rothrock went to the women’ room.
PITTMAN: And on the within of the stall door, it mentioned, if males may get pregnant, abortion could be a sacrament. That was her signal.
WESTWOOD: Pittman joined Hope a couple of decade later and took over after Rothrock handed away. In recent times, the clinic carried out about 3,000 abortions yearly. Pittman says they served girls from each stroll of life.
PITTMAN: From the evangelical church buildings, from the extra liberal church buildings – we have seen relations of politicians come by means of.
WESTWOOD: Miranda Slavoff was a affected person a number of years in the past. She’s the mom of 5 from a conservative Christian household, and she or he apprehensive her newest being pregnant – after earlier issues – may kill her.
MIRANDA SLAVOFF: The one factor that I had that I knew I may flip to was this clinic. , what do you do then if you do not have that to show to?
WESTWOOD: Through the years, Hope has confronted bodily assaults. At one level, its home windows had been shot out. And it is fought dozens of authorized battles towards legal guidelines limiting abortions. The last word blow got here final June when the U.S. Supreme Courtroom overruled Roe v. Wade. Hope held on for a number of months and fought a Louisiana set off ban that criminalizes almost all abortions. However a state courtroom ruling shut the clinic for good final month. Since then, it has been quiet at Hope, aside from the telephones that maintain ringing, typically with a dozen calls a day.
CHAFFEE: Hope Medical Group. That is Stephanie. Might I make it easier to?
WESTWOOD: A girl on the road says she simply came upon she’s pregnant.
CHAFFEE: You are most likely possibly Kansas, Illinois, or if there’s a spot you may get in in Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Kansas, Illinois or Florida?
CHAFFEE: Sure, ma’am.
WESTWOOD: Chaffee thinks most of their former clientele cannot afford to journey for an abortion. Many dwell within the surrounding low-income communities, and the bulk are Black girls. However on these calls, Chaffee cannot resist urging them to do the one factor that might at some point deliver again abortion rights in Louisiana.
CHAFFEE: You should take note of who you are voting for and vote. That is…
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Proper.
CHAFFEE: That is why we’re like – that is why we’re having all this proper now.
WESTWOOD: Pittman and Chaffee are persevering with the combat too. Hope is transferring to a state the place abortion stays authorized. Pittman will not say the place, however the objective is to be as near Louisiana, and the ladies right here who want abortions, as potential.
PITTMAN: I wish to exit by myself phrases and never be the person who acquired shut down. I will not have it.
WESTWOOD: Within the meantime, Pittman plans to return to work and sit in her cleared-out workplace till the constructing sells and she or he’s pressured to depart for good.
For NPR Information, I am Rosemary Westwood in New Orleans.
Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content might not be in its closing type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could range. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.
