SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA –– Today, Free & Just’s “Ride to Decide” national bus tour arrived in Shreveport to highlight what’s at stake as extremist lawmakers work to ban abortion nationwide. The event was hosted at the former Hope Medical Group for Women, which provided abortion care to the community for forty-two years before being forced to close due to Louisiana’s harsh abortion ban.

The “Ride to Decide” bus tour comes as attacks on reproductive freedom escalate across the country. Support for legal abortion has increased since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, but that hasn’t stopped anti-abortion extremists and conservative lawmakers from continuing to undermine Americans’ access to abortion care, birth control, and IVF treatments. 

At the event, local patient storytellers and community members shared how attacks on reproductive freedom harm women and families in Louisiana and across the country.

“I saw firsthand what it is like to live under a strict abortion ban,” said Kaitlyn Joshua of Baton Rouge, who was turned away from two different hospitals while bleeding heavily and suffering a miscarriage. “We are on the frontlines of reproductive justice here in Louisiana, and it’s so energizing to see women, men, and families fighting to take our power back.”

Billy Anderson, an organizer with the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice reflected on the role of the now-closed Hope Medical Group for Women in the Shreveport community: “The clinic where we are today has given women in the Shreveport area the opportunity to continue their lives. I want that for my friends and for my family.”

“Not only did my abortion allow me time to grow into the woman I am now, it also allowed me to be the mother I am today,” said April Smalley, a Shreveport mom who came to Hope Medical Group for Women for abortion care in her early twenties. “We deserve access to care and the privacy to make decisions about our own bodies. These are decisions that should be made by women, not lawmakers.”

The “Ride to Decide” tour is headed to Florida next, where storytellers in Miami, Tampa, and Orlando will spotlight the real-life impacts of abortion bans and attacks on reproductive freedom and share why federal action to protect access to abortion and reproductive health care has never been more important.

You can watch the event here. If you are interested in speaking with any of the participants in the press event, please contact kelly@freeandjust.us. 

Free & Just is committed to fighting for reproductive freedom. Join us in sharing stories, raising voices, and securing our future. 

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Free & Just is fighting to stop attacks on reproductive freedom and rights. We’re working with people across the country to share real stories to show the devastating consequences of attacks on our reproductive freedom. We all deserve the right to control our bodies and lives. That’s why we’re sharing our stories, raising our voices, and fighting for our future.