News & OpinionNooze Hounds

Nooze Hounds: Calla Hales on Abortion Rights in Charlotte

Episode 61

abortion clinic
Calla Hales speaks at a 2017 press conference calling on the city to help mitigate increasingly turbulent protests outside of A Preferred Women’s Health Center, an abortion clinic she runs in east Charlotte. (Photo by Ryan Pitkin)

On episode 61 of the Nooze Hounds podcast, we spoke to Calla Hales, co-owner and executive director at A Preferred Women’s Health Center, a network of abortion clinics that includes four locations: one in east Charlotte, one in Raleigh and two in Georgia. 

 

Hales discussed what it was like growing up in a family of abortion providers and how she’s seen the environment change both politically across the country and physically in front of her clinics since she took over at A Preferred Women’s Health Center. 

Of course, we also discussed the recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and how that will affect her work and the work of other abortion providers in the area. 

Speaking at a protest in front of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center on June 24, Hales called the Supreme Court illegitimate and called the United States “a country that is becoming a nation of conservative Christofascism.”

After stating the many reasons she had to be enraged over the decision and the political climate surrounding it, Hales said, “Tonight I’m reminding us all that this is not the moment to lose ourselves in our heartbreak. There is too much at stake to lose ourselves in the oblivion of grief. Instead, it’s the moment to lose ourselves to rage and let it radicalize us. Our personal rights, our freedoms and our lives are at stake.”

Love Life Charlotte held the last Week 40 Prayer Walk in November 2019. (Photo by Grant Baldwin)

On the podcast, she discusses some of the local organizations who are doing the most important work and could use your support — financial or otherwise. 

You can find much of our reporting on what’s been happening outside of A Preferred Women’s Health Center here

Remember you can catch Nooze Hounds on Spotify and other places where you find podcasts, and be sure to check out Queen City Podcast Network for a slew of other great Charlotte podcasts that aren’t quite as good as ours but pretty damn close. Find past Nooze Hounds episodes here


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