Episodes

Within hours of the new administration’s return-to-office, disorder took over. A foreign aid freeze, a stop-work order, and the dismantling of key foreign aid institutions commenced almost immediately. Gayatri Patel, Senior Fellow with rePROs Fight Back, sits down to talk with us about glimmers of hope for protecting this foreign assistance funding and relevant agencies, as well as how we can prepare for the realistic, long-term impacts of these attacks. 

April 11th- 17th officially marks Black Maternal Health Week—a week-long campaign centered on activism, awareness, and community-building for Black mamas and Black birthing people. Elizabeth Dawes, Director of Maternal and Reproductive Health and Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation and Co-Founder of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, sits down to talk with us about the status of the Black maternal health crisis in the U.S. and the myriad, ongoing attacks to the Black community’s health, rights, and wellbeing from the new administration.

A new case with tremendous possible consequences for U.S. sexual and reproductive health and rights has made its way onto the Supreme Court docket. Medina v. Planned Parenthood of South Atlantic is a culmination of decades of anti-choice activist’s attacks to Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health care providers, specifically targeting efforts to kick these providers out of Medicaid. Jessica Mason Pieklo, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor of Rewire News Group and co-host of Boom! Lawyered, sits down to talk with us about the implications of this case for the country’s most vulnerable.

rePROs Fight Back released its 13th annual 50-State Report Card on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. The United States, overall, received an ‘F’ grade, while 5 states received an ‘A’ and 25 states failed. Jennie Wetter, Director of the rePROs Fight Back initiative and host of the rePROs Fight Back podcast, sits down to discuss this staggering loss of rights and the continuous fight for our right to bodily autonomy with Tarah Demant, Interim National Director of Programs, Advocacy, and Government Affairs at Amnesty International USA.

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is a landmark federal law that revolutionized the right to emergency healthcare and provides crucial protections for pregnant people. Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, Deputy Director at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, sits down to talk with us about the status of the case and what we can continue to do to protect emergency abortion services.

Medicaid, the United States’ largest public health insurance program, currently insures over 72 million people with low incomes. Medicaid covers a host of health needs, including those related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Madeline Morcelle, Senior Attorney at the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) and co-chair of the National Coalition for Gender Justice in Health Policy, sits down to talk with us about how Medicaid is indispensable for SRH coverage and how recent proposed cuts would impact those who are enrolled.

A complete lack of abortion access and a climate of fear amongst patients and providers has descended over Texas in the past few years. Wendy Davis, former Texas state senator and Senior Advisor for Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, sits down to talk with us about the current landscape for abortion access in Texas and her famous 2013 filibuster.

Reproductive justice is the human right to control our bodies, our sexuality, our gender, our work, and our reproduction. This right can only be achieved when everyone, especially those most marginalized, have the complete economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about their bodies, families and communities. Bridgette Jackson, Director of Public Policy at In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, Kat Olivera, Director of Government Relations at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice (NLIRJ), and Fajer Saeed Ebrahim, Senior Policy Manager at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), sit down to talk with us about the reproductive justice policy agenda.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was previously the largest bilateral donor across the world, was created in 1961 to use the U.S.’s soft power to influence and assist other countries. It has since grown into a department with more than 13,000 employees, the majority of which have worked overseas to provide emergency and humanitarian response, food assistance, economic growth activities, and more. Elissa Miolene, reporter at Devex, sits down to talk with us about the impact of the past few week’s chaotic attacks to USAID.