As a schoolgirl, Hames encountered a schoolteacher who stated that the only acceptable time for an abortion was "when a black man raped a white woman.
The Ford Foundation had funded this project with the goal of preventing confrontations between civil rights demonstrators and law enforcement.
[3] In 1970, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society hired Hames to contest a 1968 abortion law in Georgia.
[4] Sandra Cano was attempting to gain a divorce and custody of her previous two children at the time she sought legal representation.
In 2006, as part of a court challenge, Cano (died September 30, 2014) claimed that Hames lied to her and pressured her into participating in Doe v. Bolton.