New Orleans, United States – Jen* had been sitting outside the New Orleans Women’s Health Care Center for an hour. It was 34°C (93°F) on a Monday afternoon in mid-June, and as Jen, who is in her 40s, waited on a shaded bench for someone to answer the door, she scrolled through her phone, trying one number after another. She wasn’t there as a patient, but as a mother: she wanted to make an appointment for her daughter, who just found out she is 14 weeks pregnant.
At this stage of pregnancy, her daughter would require an in-clinic abortion. Dressed in a tan jumpsuit, Jen ticked off her few options, sounding steady and pragmatic. “Baton Rouge doesn’t have anything until the 24th.” Eleven days away. She had no way to know it then, but that would be the day abortion access ended in Louisiana. “Same with Shreveport.”
