Ahead of the November 8 midterms, FRANCE 24 takes you on a tour down the Mississippi River with a series of reports by Fanny Allard. The second of five episodes brings us to La Crosse, Wisconsin, where all abortion clinics in the state have closed since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark ruling guaranteeing American women access to abortion. Since then, new female voter registration has surged in Wisconsin, and activists are hoping the right to abortion will be a key issue in the elections.
On the same day 23-year-old college student Sam White was supposed to get an abortion, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.
“I got a call from Planned Parenthood and they told me they were unable to see me, [as] effectively abortion in Wisconsin had immediately been made illegal. I was upset about the impact it had on the country but also the impact it had on me as an individual.”
Working evenings as a waitress to pay for her studies, White says she wouldn’t have been able to raise a child on her own.
Despite her struggles, she was able to make it to neighbouring Minnesota in time to get an abortion.
Since the 1973 landmark Roe v Wade ruling was overturned on June 24, it has become a felony to provide an abortion in Wisconsin except when the mother's life is at risk, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
Ahead of the midterms, women’s rights activists, including the Planned Parenthood organisation, are encouraging women to get registered and vote to have the ban lifted.
“It’s important from our standpoint that we elect reproductive champions who will fight to restore that access and do what they can at the legislative and judicial levels,” says Joella Striebel from Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin.
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