Louisiana Considered

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast expands its pre- and post-abortion services; what’s driving a spike in syphilis among babies

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A Planned Parenthood location on Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans on June 5, 2020.
Claire Bangser for WWNO/WRKF

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast expanded its service in Baton Rouge this month, following a similar expansion at the organization’s New Orleans location earlier this fall.

Neither clinic performed abortions before the state’s near-total ban went into effect last year. Since then, both clinics have added pre- and post-abortion care and are connecting patients to abortion providers out of state. Tamika Thomas-Magee, director of clinical services, joins us to discuss the new services and how her organization is adapting to the post-Roe v. Wade landscape.

Louisiana saw a spike in cases of syphilis among newborn babies last year. Samuel Burgess, director of the Louisiana Department of Health’s STD/HIV program, explains the magnitude of the problem and how public health experts are addressing it.

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karen Henderson. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and assistant producer is Aubry Procell. Our engineer is Garrett Pittman.

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Karen Henderson is an award-winning journalist whose stories have aired nationally on NPR.
Aubry is a reporter, producer and operations assistant in Baton Rouge.