BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA –– Today, Free & Just’s “Ride to Decide'' national bus tour stopped in Baton Rouge to highlight what’s at stake as extremist lawmakers work to ban abortion nationwide. 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 treatment. 

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

“Women are being sent to other states for care, and that’s just unacceptable,” said Kaitlyn Joshua of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who was turned away from two different hospitals while bleeding heavily and suffering a miscarriage. “We need our families and our friends to get educated on this issue, and understand the intersectionality of abortion care and basic maternal health care – you can’t have one without the other.” 

“I am furious, I am angry, and I am disgusted,” said Nancy Davis, who was forced to travel nearly 1,500 miles to receive care in New York, when she learned that the baby she was pregnant with had acrania, a rare, but fatal condition. “This wasn’t just a denial of medical care – it was a denial of compassion, rights, and justice.” Outraged by her experience, she founded the Nancy Davis Foundation, which aids individuals who have endured trauma due to a prenatal developmental defect during pregnancy and advocates for reproductive justice.

“The restrictions imposed on women seeking abortion care in Louisiana are not just legal barriers – they are barriers to our autonomy, our health, and our rights,” said Bree Anderson, the co-founder of the A’sani Heartbeat Foundation, a local organization dedicated to advancing reproductive justice. The A’sani Heartbeat Foundation is named for Anderson’s daughter, who was born prematurely and passed away after eight days in the NICU. “These are not just policies, they are injustices that disproportionately affect women, especially those from marginalized communities.”

“I don’t have a personal story about abortion that I can share, but when Bree, and Nancy, and Kait, and thousands of other women are denied access to care – it happens to me,” said Dr. Alfreda Tillman Bester, the former Louisiana Secretary of Labor who served as General Counsel for the Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP. Dr. Tillman Bester thanked the women for sharing their stories, and urged her fellow Louisianans to understand how dangerous abortion bans are.

Angela Adkins, the Executive Director of 10,000 Women Louisiana, who served as the Director of Operations for two of the last three abortion clinics in Louisiana, described her work as a clinic escort as attacks from anti-abortion extremists escalated. “This work, while it was very hard and extremely stressful, was the most rewarding work I’ve ever done.”

The “Ride to Decide” tour is headed to Shreveport, Louisiana next, where local storytellers 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.