For birth workers and advocates Latona Giwa and Tasia Stewart, supporting pregnant people means embracing abortion care
Tasia Stewart is a birth doula who has worked with some of the most marginalized communities in New Orleans, including pregnant or parenting youth experiencing homelessness and survivors of sexual assault. Nearly two years to the day after Roe v. Wade was overturned, she joined her mentor, Latona Giwa, a birth worker and birth justice advocate, to talk about how their work has changed because of Louisiana’s abortion bans.
For both Tasia and Latona, their work is rooted in a fierce commitment to advocating for their patients. “It kind of started to be … a spiritual thing for me, helping mothers,” says Tasia of her early years as a doula. Both agree that abortion bans and restrictions in Louisiana are making it increasingly difficult for pregnant people to receive the care and support they need, creating harm that ripples out across entire communities.
Latona and Tasia’s conversation was recorded by StoryCorps Studios, part of Abortion in America’s collection of interviews with people in Louisiana about the ways in which the state’s abortion ban has affected their lives.
[F]rom the beginning it just felt kind of obvious to me that if we’re caring for pregnant people, abortion is going to be part of that care.
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