00:06This is Kentucky's last abortion clinic.
00:14EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville is the only clinic that has stayed open in the entire state,
00:19despite the efforts of Governor Matt Bevin.
00:25Now, Bevin's administration is taking EMW to court,
00:29on the grounds that it lacks transfer agreements with a hospital and an ambulance service in the event of a
00:34medical emergency.
00:38Each morning at 7 a.m., protesters and patient escorts gather outside the clinic in preparation for the first appointments
00:45of the day.
00:48My name is Erin Clark, and I am here today because we have a lot of protesters outside of our
00:54clinic here in Louisville, Kentucky,
00:56and it makes it really chaotic for the clients trying to access abortion services.
01:01The governor is very anti-abortion and has been using a lot of technicalities to try to shut down clinics
01:08or not allow other clinics like Planned Parenthood to open and offer abortion services.
01:12The technicality for specifically for EMW and Louisville is that the state law requires that you have to have a
01:20transfer agreement with a hospital.
01:22Well, they said that the transfer agreement was not signed by the right person.
01:28All their licenses were revoked.
01:32No one should have to stay pregnant if they don't want to be pregnant.
01:37Abortion is 14 times safer than staying pregnant and giving birth.
01:42So I think it's unfair to ask people to take that kind of risk if they are not willing to
01:48do that.
01:57Much of the support for the anti-abortion movement stems from the fact that 80% of Kentucky's population identifies
02:03as Christian.
02:06My name is Peggy Strange.
02:09I'm down here.
02:10I give my testimony into the window to women because I had an abortion years ago when I was about
02:1924,
02:20and I lived with mine for 28 years.
02:23I buried it very deep, and I went into drugs and alcohol trying to kill a pain.
02:32I was always angry, didn't know why, and then things started coming to the surface.
02:39And I went and got help through a Bible study about, you know, my abortion, and it did help me.
02:52I agree with the state closing this clinic. I am. I agree with it.
03:02Other Kentucky locals don't think that a pro-choice stance and the Christian faith are necessarily incompatible.
03:13I'm Reverend Millie Horning-Peters, and I'm currently co-chair of the Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
03:23and coordinator of Concerned Clergy for Choice.
03:27When I was a young adult, I was interested in women's rights,
03:31and then serving as a clergywoman in Illinois.
03:36The issue of women's rights was prominent.
03:42Women were not well received in the pulpit at that time.
03:47There's been a big difference.
03:48I wasn't sure I would live to even see the day that a woman could stand in the pulpit
03:54and a big issue not be made out of it, but that day has arrived.
03:59And I'm hopeful that the same thing will happen with our reproductive issues.
04:05The real thing is a woman's right to determine what happens to her own body.
04:13Just the freedom to make those choices.
04:17And I've always been about that.
04:20Roe v. Wade is the law of the land.
04:24The 14th Amendment says that we have the right to the laws of the land.
04:33And these restrictions and burdens are being placed to try to undo that
04:40and take that particular freedom of choice away from women and families.
04:47And it isn't the place of politicians to determine that.
04:53The Unitarians, including First Unitarian, have been strong with LGBT, Black Lives Matter,
04:58gun control against violence.
05:01There is another religious viewpoint. There's more than the one.
05:05We're not well organized as a big group or well financed.
05:10We're not out raising money for our cause.
05:14But we are compassionate people who listen, who have understanding and empathy.
05:25And we're living compassion.
05:33The arc of justice, they say, is always leaning forward.
05:40But it doesn't move on its own.
05:44And it moves slowly and gradually.
05:48But it's moving.
05:50And I think that that's where we are.
05:52We're moving forward as a network of justice people.
05:57The federal trial began in early September.
06:01It was expected to last two to three days.
06:06The frontier and the south of the woods.
06:0894.
