AR STORY//OUR STORY
“This is about the state appropriating our narrative…”
AR STORY//Our Story was shot in the months following the Dobbs Decision, in my home state of Arkansas.
The Dobbs Decision, issued by the Supreme Court June 24, 2022, removed federal protection of Abortion Rights, leaving roughly half of American women of reproductive age with limited or no access to Abortion care.
The goal of this project was to document the resistance in red states, like Arkansas, dubbed the “Most Pro-Life State” for the fourth consecutive year.
This project seeks to answer:
‘Why this issue? Why has this campaign been so effective? And what are the potentially
dire impacts upon people’s lives created by this policy?’
This project also examines the political, cultural, & legal conditions that gave rise to the
ideological campaign that effectively blocked/limited access to reproductive health care for half of American women of reproductive age.
This story is told in “AR” words, by the women who lived it, originally in long-form interviews.
These women worked to provide basic healthcare: reproductive access and/or needed it, in a world of ever-dwindling access and multiple bans that culminated into a Trigger law and complete Abortion ban, certified the day of the Dobbs Decision.
These voices include: the head of the ACLU - who fought the policies in court, the last
Abortion Provider from Arkansas, clinic escorts; the founders and administrators of
AASN - including a mother/daughter team and a 5th generation Seventh Day Adventist; a local Grassroots organizer, minister, and doctor; the former President of Planned Parenthood, who also taught sex ed in schools and worked on contraceptive
research in the early 60's, and a woman, a mother of two, who “got the call” June 24th,
canceling her appointment and leaving her without options.
AR VOICES Include:
Roz Creed &
Alexandra (Ali) Taylor
AASN
Dr. Anika Whitfield
Grassroots Arkansas
Dr. Whitfield, a native of LIttle Rock, is a civil rights activist, physician, and ordained minister. A co-chair of Grassroots Arkansas, Dr. Whitfield says reproductive rights are
“common sense”. Dr. Whitfield works from an “abolition mentality” for Prison Abolition
and equitable distribution of and access to resources, preaching a message of “love thy neighbor”, including the fight for Reproductive Justice.
Dr. Janet Cathey
Planned Parenthood
Janet Cathey is a lifelong Arkansan and Board Certified OB/GYN. Cathey was born in Mt. Home, Arkansas, raised in Arkansas and educated in Arkansas, where she has been practicing and taking care of the women of Arkansas for nearly 40 years. Cathey has been providing Transcare for most of her career. Previously in private practice, Dr. Cathey has served as faculty at UAMS - the University of Arkansas of Medical Sciences, the teaching hospital in Little Rock, where Dr. Cathey also
started the first Transcare clinic in Arkansas. Dr. Cathey was the last abortion provider in the state from Arkansas and currently works at Planned Parenthood in Little Rock, she has been for the last six years and serves as the Director of Transgender Education for Planned Parenthood of Great Plains.
Holly Dickson
Executive Director ACLU of Arkansas
Holly is the Exectuive Director of the ACLU and has served as Staff Attorney since 2006.
Dickson has been involved in active litigation: fighting unconstitutional legislation
since 2006, and most recently fought against the ban on providing gender-affirming
care to Transgender Youth in Arkansas and won.
Austin Bailey
The Arkansas Times
Bailey was formerly an Editor/Reporter at The Arkansas Times, Arkansas’ only left-leaning newspaper, where Austin, a mother of two teenage boys, covered local: Central Arkansas and state government. Austin is currently serving as the first female Editor-in-Chief of the Arkansas Times.