By: Melissa Flournoy

Do you want to know why young people are leaving Louisiana and moving to more progressive cities? They want to plan for the future, not cling to the past; they want rights to health care, education and respect for all people and races.

They want good-paying jobs and a high quality of life. They want to embrace the future.

Most people who work on, or follow, civil rights issues in the U.S. woke up on Thursday, June 8, 2023, with a feeling of impending doom. That morning, the U.S. Supreme Court was expected to announce its ruling in the Allen v. Milligan case, which derived from a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s congressional map for diluting the voting power of Black voters in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), the law’s most critical remaining provision. The Court’s decision would determine whether the VRA, one of the most important laws in U.S. history, remained in place in any meaningful form. Few, if any, thought it would survive.

By: Melissa Flournoy

Louisiana advocates continue to fight for access to reproductive health care. Nearly 80% of Louisiana voters support abortion for victims of rape and incest and for women who need to terminate a pregnancy because of health reasons, including ectopic pregnancies or fetal anomalies.

The total ban on abortion is too extreme.

Hosted by: Jim Engster