‘We are still fighting’: Shreveport abortion clinic, Hope Medical Group for Women, still open

SHREVEPORT, La. – Fielding a call from a woman seeking an abortion, the director of Hope Medical Group for Women tried to answer as best she could.

Yes, federal protections for abortion had been overturned, she said. The clinic was still open – but there’s a waiting list and a court hearing on Friday that could change everything, she added.

“We are still fighting,” clinic administrator Kathaleen Pittman told the woman before hanging up Wednesday.

By Pittman’s own description, you have to be an optimist to work in abortion services. Now, with confused patients calling for help and a looming court date threatening to put an end to almost all abortions in the state, that optimism is being tested like never before.

For years, Louisiana’s abortion clinics have operated under increasing layers of restrictions designed to limit who can get an abortion and when. Then the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that provided federal protection for abortions, leaving the decision up to individual states.

Read this: Shreveport abortion clinic reopens Tuesday after judge stays Louisiana abortion ban

Previous coverage: Louisiana abortion clinic, rape counselors prepare for SCOTUS ruling

Like many states, Louisiana has a trigger law designed to immediately halt abortions if Roe is overturned. But nearly two weeks after the June 24 ruling, the Shreveport clinic was still open and providing abortions to patients from all over Louisiana, as well as states like neighboring Texas and Mississippi.

The clinic filed for a temporary restraining order to allow the state’s three clinics to remain open, arguing that multiple trigger provisions in the law make it unclear exactly when the ban takes effect and that the law’s medical exceptions are unclear.

A judge in New Orleans granted the temporary measure pending a Friday court hearing. The state’s attorney general appealed directly to the Louisiana Supreme Court, but on Wednesday the court declined to immediately intervene, leaving the abortion ban on hold.

At Hope, which is open Monday through Saturday, doctors perform abortions three days a week. On the other days, doctors hold consultations with patients, who are also given an ultrasound. There is a state-mandated 72-hour waiting period between the consultation and an abortion.

There were about 20 consultations Wednesday – a relatively light load, Pittman said. She attributed that to the confusion surrounding future abortion access in the state, and patients worried they would come for a consultation but not be able to get an abortion.

Outside, volunteers escorted clients into the clinic – giving them tips like backing into parking spots so protesters have a harder time getting their license plate numbers. On the sidewalk, two anti-abortion protesters handed out plastic bags containing a paper rose, a scrunchy and flyers encouraging women not to have abortions.

The ticking clock of the legal battle is not lost on the staff.

Nurse Charla Roshto has worked at the clinic for over a dozen years. Despite the leak of a draft opinion weeks earlier, she didn’t expect justices would go so far as to overturn Roe. She said she had to look at the news on a colleague’s phone to believe it.

Now it’s hard to figure out what to tell patients, she said. She used to be able to advise them clearly on when they’d be able to schedule their abortion, and now she can’t promise anything. She can direct them to websites and hopefully funds that can help them pay for travel to get an out-of-state abortion.

But, she said, even that can be hard because funders are concerned about the legal ramifications of helping patients cross state lines. She tells them to stay positive and keep their spirits up and, pointing to the calendar hanging on the wall, says that hopefully, come Saturday, the clinic will still be providing abortions.

After Roe was overturned, Roshto had to call patients and tell them that their abortion was canceled. Then when the temporary restraining order was put in place, Roshto called them back to reschedule. She was relieved when she saw many were able to come back.

But even with all this uncertainty, Roshto says that each day the clinic is open and providing abortions is another person they can help.

“If we’re fighting for one day, then we’re fighting for one day,” she said. “Some of these people really need that one day.”

Caught up in the legal back-and-forth was a patient from Texas who drove nearly two hours for her consultation Wednesday. She didn’t want to be identified due to the stigma still surrounding abortion.

She said she’d been in New Orleans for a family reunion when the news came down that Roe was overturned. She and her partner watched for over an hour, grappling with what it meant for them and others in a similar position. She already has two children – ages 9 and 13 – and said she and her partner weighed whether to keep this pregnancy, but finally decided it wasn’t the right time for another child. Child care is so expensive, she said, and even baby formula is scarce.

Previously: Protestors gathered in Downtown Shreveport to speak out against SCOTUS abortion decision

More: New Orleans court blocks enforcement of Louisiana's trigger law outlawing abortion

Eight years ago, she’d gotten pregnant and, at that time, there was no way she felt able to have a baby. She had come to Hope for an abortion. This time, she’s prepared to keep the pregnancy if it turns out she can’t get one.

She explored going to Kansas or California, but the cost and the hassle were too much. But she’s worried about other women in much more desperate situations than she is.

“I feel like women should have rights, you know. My body, my choice. … I stand by that 100%,” she said.

Haley Brand, Hope’s director of patient advocacy, said everyone at Hope, whether they work full-time or part-time or volunteer, believes in reproductive justice and the power to decide one’s own life course.

“But in 10 years, when I look back on everything that’s happened over the last two weeks … I will know that we did the best that we can for the people that we’re trying to help. And I have no regrets over that.”

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Louisiana abortion clinic still open after overturning of Roe v. Wade