Lift Louisiana, a Project of the Tides Center

Lift Louisiana builds a better future for women, girls, and gender-expansive people by advocating for reproductive health, rights, and justice. We work to ensure everyone, especially those most impacted by systemic oppression, has access to pregnancy care, abortion, comprehensive sex education, affordable contraception, and gender-affirming care. Through litigation, legislation, agency engagement, and community organizing, we are transforming systems and shifting power to create a more just and liberated Louisiana for all.

Lift Louisiana protects reproductive rights and advances reproductive justice through state law, policy, education, and community mobilization. Since our founding in 2016, we've led efforts to challenge harmful laws, build power in communities most impacted by abortion bans, and push for equitable access to reproductive health care across the state.

10 Years of Holding the Line

For ten years, Lift has been at the Louisiana Capitol—tracking legislation, organizing communities, and pushing back as harmful policies try to move forward.

A lot of this work doesn’t make headlines.

It looks like reading a bill line by line and catching language that could criminalize someone’s pregnancy outcome.
It looks like sitting through hours of testimony, paying attention when others tune out.
It looks like working behind the scenes to amend a bill, or in some cases, stop it entirely.

Before Dobbs, attacks on reproductive freedom were already happening in Louisiana. While national attention was elsewhere, abortion restrictions and criminalization quietly advanced. The opposition was organized and well-funded. Often, no one was pushing back.

Lift was built for that environment.

Today, the pressure hasn’t let up. If anything, it’s intensified. And as funding for advocacy in the South shrinks, the need for people who are paying attention—and willing to act—has only grown.

We’re still here. Still watching.
Still organizing.

Holding the line looks different every day. With your support, Lift Louisiana can continue building power across the state for reproductive freedom, prepared to meet whatever comes next.

Testimonials

One of the most memorable aspects of canvassing has been knocking on doors where people truly lack an understanding of how abortion bans impact real people. It’s not that they’re malicious or uncaring. It’s that they’ve never had to think about it beyond the headlines or political talking points. And when we meet those voters face-to-face, it’s a powerful reminder of why this work matters.

One conversation that stands out was with a woman who initially said she didn’t really follow the issue. She said, “I’m not political—I just think people should be more careful.” But as I gently asked questions and shared a story about a woman who experienced a miscarriage and was denied care, something shifted. You could see it in her posture, in her eyes. She started asking questions. She said, “Wait—this actually happens here?”

That moment—when someone realizes that these bans aren’t just abstract policies, but life-altering realities for their neighbors—is unforgettable. It’s in those moments of discovery, when people begin to connect the dots, that the work feels especially meaningful.

I walk away from those conversations knowing that even if the voter didn’t move on our scale, they left with a new perspective—and that’s a seed that can grow.

—Jennifer Bondio, Abortion Access Field Organizer