 The state of Louisiana has been ranked the most pro-life state in the nation by Americans United for Life. With Louisiana being a predominantly conservative and anti-abortion state, Shreveport's Hope Medical Clinic for Women is one of only three clinics in the state that offers abortion healthcare to women in the area. I had the chance to speak with an administrator at Hope Medical Group about the issue and recent events regarding it. And this is what she had to say. Living and operating an abortion clinic in the Bible Belt as we come in is not for the faint of heart. I mean, there is always something. During our recent Supreme Court case, a lot of information was out there about Louisiana having the most stringent and the greatest number of abortion-related laws and requirements. In June of 2020, Hope Medical Clinic went before the Supreme Court to challenge a Louisiana law, a law that would further prevent women from being able to access abortions and ultimately restrict their abortion rights. When the admitting privileges requirement was passed in 2014, that came right behind Texas passing a similar law. The Texas case, which was Whole Woman's Health vs. Heller's Step, ended up going before the Supreme Court just, I think, four years ago. The clinics ultimately prevailed. The Supreme Court found that the admitting privileges requirement created barriers and did not provide any actual health benefits. So we thought it was said and done. Right after that decision came down, we received our decision in federal court stating the same. However, the state of Louisiana chose to appeal then. It went before the Fifth Circuit, which is very, very anti-abortion. Ultimately, we ended up going before the Supreme Court as well. Not only for the admitting privileges, but at the last minute, the state of Louisiana added another section that they wanted the Supreme Court to hear, and that involved having third-party standards, saying that we were providers, not patients, and our physicians did not get standing because we weren't the actual patients. So the Supreme Court did rule in our favor. Again, they reinforced their ruling from Whole Woman's Health. And in the matter of standing, they did agree that we did actually have standing. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of Hope Medical Clinic. However, abortion remains a divisive issue in America, and the future regarding abortion rights in the state still remains very much uncertain. Legal scholars would examine the actual ruling and the wording and note that it's not as clear-cut as it might seem, but for our purposes, it allowed all three clinics in Louisiana to remain open. Because you have to understand the whole matter involving admitting privileges was such that during the whole process, once we realized that the state was going to appeal and the Fifth Circuit overruled the district court, we continued to try to obtain privileges all three clinics did. So we would have been, we would have lost one if not two clinics in the state. You have to understand the licensing requirements in Louisiana to open a clinic are pretty, pretty stiff. There are a lot of hooks to jump through, but it is not something that is easily accomplished. And I think it's important that anyone hearing that, yes, we did win, we prevailed in this matter in June Medical Services, but that did nothing to advance reproductive rights in Louisiana. It did nothing to lessen barriers to access. All it did was maintain the status quo and allowed all three clinics to remain open. Despite Hope Medical School to educate people about sexual health, the state of Louisiana has one of the highest abortion rates and sexually transmitted diseases in the nation. First of all, nobody grows up thinking, oh good, I want to grow up and have an abortion one day. No, but in the state of Louisiana, the sex education that is provided in our public schools is so backwards, so incredibly backwards. And they limit who can provide education because I am an abortion provider. I cannot speak in the public schools to talk to people about sex education and how to protect themselves. And it's not just about pregnancy in Louisiana. Louisiana is one of the highest in the nation for gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis. It's crazy. Louisiana is either one or second in the nation in the number for maternal mortality. So there are so many things that need to be addressed that simply aren't being addressed. That is why our abortion numbers are as high as they are. And what we see are a lot of not just youth, but women, families that really, really suffer from lack of appropriate sex education. We are also a very poor state. Out of the patients we see here, 75% live at or below the federal poverty level. And as you well know, states that are poor actually have higher abortion rates. And I think it is very easy to pinpoint the reason for the high abortion rates. And it's primarily because of lack of appropriate medical care, routine reproductive health care. And I think one thing about the abortion providers in Louisiana, we do our very best to actually put ourselves out of business. I mentioned earlier, we educate. We try to ensure everybody has access to a reliable form of birth control when they leave our clinic. So, you know, we are trying to do our part. I just feel like the state of Louisiana itself has fallen short in many areas.