Fighting for One of the Last Abortion Clinics Standing in Louisiana
March 4 will mark a pivotal day for reproductive rights in America. The Supreme Court will hear June Medical Services LLC v. Russo, the first abortion access case it’s presided over since conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh were confirmed.
At the center of the case is Act 620, a Louisiana state law that prevents doctors from performing abortions unless they have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where the abortion is performed. Considering abortion is one of the safest outpatient procedures and patients rarely require emergency care, admitting privileges requirements do not make patients safer, they just reduce access. If upheld, Act 620 would shut down all but one remaining abortion care providers in Louisiana (three exist now), leaving a single doctor to provide abortion services for the roughly 10,000 women who seek them in the state every year. “Whenever people don’t have access to abortion that is safe, they will resort to other means,” says A.J. Haynes, the front woman of the Louisiana-based soul rock band Seratones and an abortion counselor of 10 years.
Passed in 2014, the law was immediately challenged by three plaintiffs, including Hope Medical Group—the Shreveport, Louisiana, clinic where Haynes volunteers—subsequently preventing it from going into effect. In 2016, an identical Texas law was presented to the Supreme Court in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. Ultimately, it was deemed unconstitutional on the grounds that limiting clinic availability was an undue burden on women seeking legal abortions, which is a constitutional right as determined by Roe v. Wade in 1973. “What’s pivotal about this case is that it’s not just about abortion, this is about the integrity of the Supreme Court,” says Haynes. “The state of Louisiana is openly defying the constitutional precedent that was established in 2016. How massive is that?”
The case is the latest in a string of attacks that signals a larger national assault on women’s reproductive rights. As of June 2019, six states—Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginia—had only one abortion clinic left, and according to a May 2019 report by The New York Times, 11.3 million American women of reproductive age are more than a one-hour drive to the nearest abortion facility. On a state-by-state basis, dangerously strict laws pertaining to when and if abortion should be allowed have been proposed all over the country: In Alabama, Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed a 2019 law banning abortion at any stage of pregnancy, including in cases of rape and incest; in Georgia, Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a 2019 “fetal heartbeat” law that would effectively ban abortion after six weeks. These are just some of the onslaught.
As Haynes points out, abortion restrictions disproportionally affect women of color and low-income women. A 2014 study by the Guttmacher Institute reveals that 75 percent of U.S. abortion patients are poor or low-income, and 62 percent identify as non-white. “The people, who are the most vulnerable and the most marginalized, are going to suffer the most,” she says. “This case is about stopping cycles of poverty in states like Louisiana, which has the third-highest poverty rate in the country. Why are we creating barriers for people to have access to something they need?”
Having volunteered at Hope Medical Center since her senior year at Centenary College of Louisiana in 2009, Haynes has become all too acquainted with the threats that abortion rights have long faced. Though it would be easy to chalk the affront on abortion access up to the rule of the Trump presidency and the Republican-majority senate, the reality is this has been going on far longer than the last four years. It’s only because of the increasingly polarized political climate, says Haynes, that people are finally paying attention. “I’ve been working in reproductive health for over a decade, so I’ve known what time it is. It didn’t take a complete dumpster fire of an electoral college and people’s apathy for me to realize the reality of what the most marginalized and vulnerable people have been dealing with, regardless of what happened in 2016. I saw the writing on the wall. That’s what’s been happening in Louisiana.”
Haynes first became involved with Hope Medical Center after her college cover band played a set at the clinic’s Christmas party. (Two of the band members went on to cofound Seratones with Haynes.) She struck up a conversation with Kathleen Pittman, the clinic administrator, and asked if they needed any help. The following week, she started her role as a part-time counselor, meeting with patients ahead of the state-mandated 24-hour waiting period—which Haynes describes as “just another barrier to access”—to ensure they understood everything about the abortion process and felt supported and informed. “People walk in with all these preconceived ideas and a lot of misinformation—they’re really scared sometimes because of the stigma that surrounds abortion,” says Haynes, emphasizing its safety. “My role is to be a listener, to make sure that people are informed about their decision, and to make sure they have all the resources they need. Above all, I just need to sit there and shut up, and let people explain to me what they feel.”
Throughout her time as a counselor, Haynes’s music career has bloomed. She went from playing in a college cover band to make money for textbooks to founding the Seratones with three other musicians in 2013. Two years later, they were featured in NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series; in 2016, they released their first album, Get Gone; and between it all, they toured internationally, playing festivals with the likes of South by Southwest and Hangout Fest Stateside, and Reading and Leeds in the United Kingdom. “In a lot of ways, coming home to work at Hope is a stabilizing force in my life as an artist,” she notes.
Most recently, Seratones released Power (2019), a rousing 10-track album that, as its name suggests, is meant to inspire strength in anyone who gives it a listen. “The way I’m interested in creating is very rooted in the day-to-day struggle of people and the day-to-day victories of people,” explains Haynes. “What are the daily things that we don’t talk about, how do we reflect on our own narratives and really find the power that’s in those? I feel like oftentimes we—especially women, especially marginalized people—don’t feel like our stories are worth telling. Part of working at Hope has informed the necessity and the importance of people’s stories.”
The album’s title track has become an anthem of sorts for fighting for change in the face of adversity. “We take two steps forward / They take one step backward / We take each step to lift us up higher,” sings Haynes, later adding, “We take each step / ’Cause we have the power.” Fittingly, Seratones performed the track at the Center for Reproductive Rights’ 2019 gala held in New York City’s Lincoln Center.
“That was like, man, that’s what I’m supposed to do as an artist. I’m supposed to take something, this frustration and anxiety, and figure out how to position it as power and create something that we need to hear,” says Haynes. “No matter what happens [with this case], we’re going to move forward and make sure we have access to the things that we need. I have that hell-or-high-water mentality, because what else is there? We need this win, and it needs to happen. The end.”
To help combat abortion restriction in Louisiana and across the United States, consider donating to The Goldstein Fund, the New Orleans Abortion Fund, the National Abortion Federation, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Hope Medical Center and its fellow plaintiffs in the upcoming case.
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