Two Louisiana journalists discuss the challenge and urgency of covering issues that affect their lives
For Rosemary Westwood and Lorena O’Neil, journalists covering reproductive health in Louisiana, the overturning of Roe v. Wade has affected both their work and their lives.
After all, as Lorena points out: “There are lots of reporters doing great work, but there is a difference between reporting on this from DC or New York where it is legal, and reporting on it while you are living in a place where it is not, and while you are a woman with a uterus.”
Collectively, Rosie and Lorena have spent thousands of hours chronicling the legal, medical, and personal impact of abortion bans in Louisiana and beyond. Through grueling legislative sessions, emotionally charged public health meetings, and a rapidly changing political landscape, they have built a friendship that has become a source of professional inspiration and much-needed support.
Their conversation was recorded by StoryCorps Studios as 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. This project was produced in collaboration with Glamour and the Newcomb Institute at Tulane University.
I’m constantly thinking about: Who are the people trying to get abortions? What’s happening to them? … And how can we tell those stories?
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