Speaker 1: I consider my abortion the greatest act of self love
Speaker 1: that I did. I chose my life like I chose Michaels.
Speaker 1: And the reason why I get so emotional is it's
Speaker 1: just thinking back and like wishing I could go back
Speaker 1: and hug myself and um and tell myself that that
Speaker 1: it's okay to have an abortion. And that's what I
Speaker 1: want every wants to know. It's May eleven, eight ten
Speaker 1: in the morning, and we are here at the last
Speaker 1: standing abortion clinic in the entire state of Missouri. It's
Speaker 1: a great, pretty nondescript building with a very large royal
Speaker 1: blue Planned Parenthood sign in the front. What has been
Speaker 1: like for the people working here? What has been like
Speaker 1: for the people coming here? That's what we're here to
Speaker 1: find out. Hi, ladies, good morning, How are you good.
Speaker 1: Nice to see you. My name is Nicky and I'm
Speaker 1: a registered nurse at the Planned Parenthood location in St.
Speaker 1: Louis also though in Fair Behinds, Illinois. There's twelve recovery
Speaker 1: chairs in this area, and there was a time where
Speaker 1: it was packed and we were super busy and um,
Speaker 1: we would see fifty patients in a day. But because
Speaker 1: of the restrictions, it just is not worth it for
Speaker 1: patients to jump through this many hoops. I have all
Speaker 1: these activist friends in St. Louis that are are in
Speaker 1: Missouri that are panicking about you know, the ROVERSUS wade
Speaker 1: news in Texas and Oklahoma and whatever, and I'm like, guys,
Speaker 1: we're ahead of them. It's like this is already happened here,
Speaker 1: Like they just don't know that. They don't understand. But
Speaker 1: this has been going on since late so we, I mean,
Speaker 1: we effectively are I almost feel like it's symbolic U
Speaker 1: to do abortions here just to be able to say
Speaker 1: we can still provide that service. But it doesn't make
Speaker 1: sense staffing wise, it doesn't make sense for the patients.
Speaker 1: It's just too many restrictions. The dominoes keep falling in
Speaker 1: the push to overturn Roe V. Waing the abortion flashboard
Speaker 1: all across the country, the Ohio governor signing today the
Speaker 1: most restrictive abortion law in the country, Alabama passing the
Speaker 1: nation's most restrictive abord Today, Missouri became the latest state
Speaker 1: to pass what Oklahoma passing a near total Texas law
Speaker 1: that would face up to fifteen years in prison nine
Speaker 1: years in prison for performing an abortion immediately. Hi everyone,
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Kuric and this is Abortion The Body Politic,
Speaker 1: a six part series from Katie CURRK Media and I
Speaker 1: Heart Media. Good fifty years ago this January, the landmark
Speaker 1: ro VERSUS Way decision guaranteed the right to a safe
Speaker 1: and legal abortion. In just a few weeks, the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court is expected to reverse that decision. This could be
Speaker 1: the most consequential opinion in decades. Hundreds of protesters rallied
Speaker 1: outside the Supreme Court Monday evening afternoons of the Court's
Speaker 1: draft opinion broke. While the US is taking away that right,
Speaker 1: the rest of the world is riding a wave of
Speaker 1: abortion law liberation. Mexico's Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday
Speaker 1: that penalizing abortion is unconstitutional action. This is my friends,
Speaker 1: This is a time to act that This is not
Speaker 1: the time to be silent. How did we get here?
Speaker 1: And what will abortion access look like in a post
Speaker 1: row world. Over the course of the next six episodes,
Speaker 1: we're going to try to answer those questions by digging
Speaker 1: into our country's complicated reproductive history, by tracing abortion storylines
Speaker 1: in pop culture, and by looking abroad for potential role models.
Speaker 1: But first we need to start here in the present
Speaker 1: because for so many we're already living in a post
Speaker 1: row world. A lot of the conversations around access right
Speaker 1: now have been concentrated on the legality of rome and
Speaker 1: so one of the things that I keep like saying
Speaker 1: over and over is yes, Rob Wade made abortion legal,
Speaker 1: but not necessarily pessible. My name is Oriaku and Jaku
Speaker 1: Yi and they pronounced and I'm co founder and executive
Speaker 1: director of Access Reproductive Care Southeast. We've been funding abortion
Speaker 1: since July of and every single year there has been
Speaker 1: some sort of abortion banner restriction in every one of
Speaker 1: the states that we work in. About of folks in
Speaker 1: our region live in a county without an abortion provider. Um.
Speaker 1: When we're thinking about the Southeast, the state of Georgia
Speaker 1: has more abortion clinics than Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and South
Speaker 1: Carolina combined. The reality is that people are traveling hours,
Speaker 1: crossing state lines just to get simple healthcare. Oriaki Najaku's
Speaker 1: organization AR Southeast is an abortion fund. Abortion funds have
Speaker 1: become a key part of accessing abortions in today's increasingly
Speaker 1: restrictive climate. In fact, there are more than ninety grassroots
Speaker 1: organizations across the country working to help people get the
Speaker 1: abortions they need. Abortion funds are like mutual aid funds,
Speaker 1: and so essentially we're making sure the material conditions of
Speaker 1: folks who are seeking abortions are being met. And so
Speaker 1: what that looks like is providing rides, lodging, childcare, translation
Speaker 1: and interpretation services. Um. You know, there's like a whole
Speaker 1: range of things as far as things that might be
Speaker 1: barriers for people to get to the appointment, where abortion
Speaker 1: funds step in to support people in their community. According
Speaker 1: to the Goopmaker Institute, one was the worst year for
Speaker 1: abortion rights in almost half a century. Conservative led state legislators,
Speaker 1: emboldened by the Supreme court six to three anti abortion majority,
Speaker 1: enacted one d eight abortion restrictions in nineteen states. That's
Speaker 1: the most of any year since Roe was established. The
Speaker 1: thing is, restrictions don't stop people from seeking out and
Speaker 1: getting abortions. Just look at Texas. After it's six week
Speaker 1: abortion BAM went into effect in September, abortions in that
Speaker 1: state dropped by only much less than expected. Instead, more
Speaker 1: Texans traveled out of state or ordered abortion pills online.
Speaker 1: Once again, here's Oreaku. You know, I think that we're
Speaker 1: prepared for this moment that we're in. Um, We've gotten
Speaker 1: a lot of practice, getting people across state lines, getting
Speaker 1: people out of the region to get care. And for me,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not taking a doomsday approach and doing
Speaker 1: this work. And it's not to not honor the realness
Speaker 1: you know, of the situation that we're in, but it's like,
Speaker 1: what are we what are we doing? Like, what are
Speaker 1: we building power for? That? Future? To me is like
Speaker 1: so dreamy and so amazing that I'm like, I will
Speaker 1: do whatever it takes to try to get people to
Speaker 1: be like, come on, this is for our collective liberation.
Speaker 1: So how far are you willing to go? What risks
Speaker 1: are you willing to take? Because personally, I don't want
Speaker 1: to be here fifty years from now, still talking about
Speaker 1: the legality of Rome, still trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to overcome all of these barriers, and I want to
Speaker 1: experience reproductive justice in my lifetime, you know, not only
Speaker 1: for me, but for future generations too. Would you be
Speaker 1: open to sharing your abortion story? Wow? Like, I love
Speaker 1: telling my story. Actually, one of the things that was
Speaker 1: important to us and making this series was sharing first
Speaker 1: person abortion stories because these restrictions, this Supreme Court reversal
Speaker 1: affects real people, real lives, and real families. The stories
Speaker 1: will share over the course of this series span generations,
Speaker 1: socioeconomic status, is gender identities, and the country itself. When
Speaker 1: I had told him that I was pregnant, he was
Speaker 1: kind of like, Okay, we'll go get an abortion, like
Speaker 1: it was going to be so easy, like one too right.
Speaker 1: I found out I was pregnant a week before sp
Speaker 1: E went into effect. All I could think when I
Speaker 1: called planned parenthood was I will not die because of
Speaker 1: this pregnancy and because no one will listen to me
Speaker 1: and no one will help me. We went home that
Speaker 1: day knowing that our pregnancy likely would need to be terminated,
Speaker 1: but with no real clear answer on when we would
Speaker 1: know exactly what was causing the issue. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot of like big abortion clinics um around me where
Speaker 1: they disguised themselves as oh, come here to seek you know,
Speaker 1: you're pregnancy crisis, like abortion care, and they're not really
Speaker 1: there to help you get an abortion. I just remember
Speaker 1: walking in and seeing so many people boll there. So
Speaker 1: we're still in the pandemic and there's at least fifty
Speaker 1: people in that waiting room. And so that alone gave
Speaker 1: me anxiety. And I called my insurance and I was confused,
Speaker 1: and they explained that, oh, actually, only medically necessary abortions
Speaker 1: are covered. I can't afford an abortion. I was a
Speaker 1: Medicaid recipient and because of the Height Amendment that you
Speaker 1: can't medicate recipients, can't you know, use their Medicaid to
Speaker 1: cover abortion costs. It was also a full time student
Speaker 1: at the time a couple of years emancipated from the
Speaker 1: foster care system, so I was essentially like on my own.
Speaker 1: I didn't have any money at the time. I was
Speaker 1: working at like Planet Fitness, so a gym for like
Speaker 1: ten dollars an hour. Despite this being the largest public
Speaker 1: university in the state, the nearest clinic was over an
Speaker 1: hour and a half away. I didn't have a car.
Speaker 1: Public transit in Georgia is questionable at best. I almost
Speaker 1: missed the twelve week mark down her because of how
Speaker 1: it back up. But there is there's only one clinic
Speaker 1: in my area that, um, you know, manages abortion here.
Speaker 1: She refused to give me the medication because she was
Speaker 1: afraid that I would change my mind. I didn't know
Speaker 1: if it was actually gonna work. I didn't know if
Speaker 1: I was going to bleed out. I didn't know what
Speaker 1: to expect, even though I knew an abortion was what
Speaker 1: I wanted. I had spent so many years having shame
Speaker 1: about abortion like instilled an ingrained into me that I
Speaker 1: was too scared to ask any of my friends for help.
Speaker 1: I think that was just like the hardest part of
Speaker 1: it was the feeling that like internalized shame when I
Speaker 1: knew there was nothing to be ashamed about. More than
Speaker 1: thirty people and county have shared their experiences for this project.
Speaker 1: It's my producer, Lauren Hansen, who's been on the listening
Speaker 1: end of most of these stories. Each person's story is unique.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're totally uneventful, and sometimes they're wrapped up in
Speaker 1: so much trauma and like this raw emotion. But then
Speaker 1: a lot of them have these threads. Like every single
Speaker 1: person I have spoken to, no matter if they had
Speaker 1: a support system around them, no matter if they were
Speaker 1: completely alone and scared, they all felt in some way
Speaker 1: alone and they felt a lot of shame. And it's
Speaker 1: remarkable to me that across decades, across race and class,
Speaker 1: that is true with abortion stories, and it's crazy. And
Speaker 1: that's what all those shout your abortion and we testify
Speaker 1: groups are trying to do, is like this does not
Speaker 1: need to be the case. You yourself had an abortion
Speaker 1: and it's something that you're willing to talk about now,
Speaker 1: perhaps something that you didn't feel comfortable talking about before
Speaker 1: you really explored this whole subject. What has made you
Speaker 1: more willing to tell your story? I mean, it's so funny,
Speaker 1: it's so true. I really hadn't told many people, and
Speaker 1: then I started reporting this and I literally just started
Speaker 1: saying the word abortion. It was like the word abortion
Speaker 1: made me like talk smaller, you know, And by just
Speaker 1: having these conversations, I would want more comfortable and someone
Speaker 1: would share their story and I'd be like, well, actually,
Speaker 1: I had an abortion too, and I felt like it
Speaker 1: helped make us be more on the same page and
Speaker 1: make it like a safe space and to some degree
Speaker 1: I understood what they went through. So I actually, through reporting,
Speaker 1: shared my story just one on one with a few people.
Speaker 1: And I certainly felt that if I was asking others
Speaker 1: to come to the table and share their story, that
Speaker 1: I should absolutely do the same. So yeah, I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I might as well share my abortion story and tell me,
Speaker 1: can you share it with me? Now? Yeah, it's well,
Speaker 1: it's funny. It's definitely one of those that's not it's
Speaker 1: not much of a story because I was so privileged
Speaker 1: to live in New York at the time, have insurance,
Speaker 1: and I had a support system my boyfriend who became
Speaker 1: my husband. We got pregnant. How old were you at
Speaker 1: the time. I was twenty four and I've been out
Speaker 1: of school for a few years. I had just gotten
Speaker 1: what I considered like a real job. Um. I was
Speaker 1: a publicist at an art book company and I was
Speaker 1: being asked to like fly to London for this publicity
Speaker 1: conference and I go to have what I thought was
Speaker 1: my abortion. So I'm already like calling it my boss
Speaker 1: and saying, I have a root canal. I can't come
Speaker 1: in because I know nothing, you know nothing about the process.
Speaker 1: And so I go in and I was really early.
Speaker 1: I was so early that you couldn't see it in
Speaker 1: the the sonogram that goes inside. And at that time,
Speaker 1: which would have been two thousand and four, UM, I
Speaker 1: guess you did have to see it, even in New York.
Speaker 1: And so they were like, you have to come back.
Speaker 1: So I made an appointment, but in between my I
Speaker 1: had a week three weeks, so I was pregnant for
Speaker 1: like three more weeks, which felt crazy to me. I
Speaker 1: flew to London on that trip that I was so
Speaker 1: excited about my first time abroad, and then I was
Speaker 1: out at dinner with like the more senior women and
Speaker 1: they were also cool, like they're editors of these art
Speaker 1: books and I just loved everything about them. And one
Speaker 1: of them was like, Lauren, how was that flight for you?
Speaker 1: And I was like it was fine. They're like, you know,
Speaker 1: because of the the root canal and I was like, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it actually now that you say it, and stopping to
Speaker 1: eat and you know, just like falling over my lives
Speaker 1: and we get I get back to New York and
Speaker 1: my my appointment is coming up, and I went to
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn based Planned Parenthood and I had my abortion.
Speaker 1: It was unbelievably easy, I think it. I was there
Speaker 1: for maybe like an hour, like remember like being given
Speaker 1: cookies afterward and sitting in this room and there were
Speaker 1: other women in this room and it felt like easy
Speaker 1: and safe, and my boyfriend came and picked me up
Speaker 1: and we walked. I remember walking back to his apartment
Speaker 1: and we watched the OC the rest of the afternoon
Speaker 1: and it was so easy. But I what's crazy to
Speaker 1: me looking back on how easy that was. And I
Speaker 1: felt supported by my boyfriend. There was no question that
Speaker 1: this was my decision, and we were both like a duh,
Speaker 1: Like I just got this job, I had this whole
Speaker 1: life ahead of me. But I never told anyone. I
Speaker 1: lived with like four roommates at the time, and I
Speaker 1: had the light of them or keep it quiet, and
Speaker 1: and it was not for judgment. I mean maybe I
Speaker 1: just didn't know. I didn't know how to share it.
Speaker 1: It felt weird to share, so we just kept it
Speaker 1: between us. And I never told my parents, and then,
Speaker 1: you know, in preparation for this podcast, I was like,
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell my parents. Like my parents are very
Speaker 1: supportive people. So I was on vacation with them just
Speaker 1: the other month and talking about doing this series, and
Speaker 1: it was after dinner and I was like, well, actually
Speaker 1: been meeting to tell you guys that twenty years ago
Speaker 1: I had an abortion. And my mom goes, oh, I
Speaker 1: actually had an abortion too, And I was like what
Speaker 1: And if we just talk about these things, you realize
Speaker 1: like how common it is that thing of you know me?
Speaker 1: Like everybody does know someone who has an abortion and
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be a story, or it can
Speaker 1: be traumatic, but it exists and it's necessary for that person,
Speaker 1: whatever their reason is. We'll be right back. It's an
Speaker 1: extremely hot day here in Illinois. I am walking into
Speaker 1: the Fairview Heights Planned Parenthood Facility and Regional Logistics Center
Speaker 1: to talk to staff members, hopefully a uple of patients,
Speaker 1: to really get a look at what life is like
Speaker 1: in a clinic that provides abortion care. Let's go. This
Speaker 1: is a new facility and it's really beautiful, supermodern, clean
Speaker 1: and very cool. I might add, this Planned Parenthood clinic
Speaker 1: is buzzing with activity compared to the Missouri clinic we
Speaker 1: visited just across the state line. And on the day
Speaker 1: we're here, a patient is willing to share her story. Hi.
Speaker 1: How are you? Hi? I'm Katie. I'm Hannah. It's nice
Speaker 1: to Hannah, very nice to meet you too. Who's this?
Speaker 1: That's Azrael Hi? He is sixteen months. Anna and I
Speaker 1: meet in the clinics family room, a bright, sunlit space
Speaker 1: with toys being bag strewn about and a giant blackboard
Speaker 1: with chalk and some leftover scribbles from other families who
Speaker 1: have also used the space. Hannah and I sit on
Speaker 1: one of the great couches. Her son plays next to her.
Speaker 1: Tell me about yourself, Hannah. How old you are? And
Speaker 1: you're thirty years old? Yes, God, it took thirty years
Speaker 1: to get here, but I guess we're here now. And
Speaker 1: you have a little boy obviously sixteen months, Yes, I do.
Speaker 1: And I also have twin girls that are eight there
Speaker 1: will be nine in June. Yes, so we have. We
Speaker 1: got a full house at home, like, it's very full.
Speaker 1: Our family is. So it's not that I don't want kids,
Speaker 1: I really do, but uh, this this time around was
Speaker 1: just a bit different. We had some big plans and
Speaker 1: so that those big plans really didn't include a little
Speaker 1: bity one. Do you have a partner? I do? Yes,
Speaker 1: I have a boyfriend. We've been together for now almost
Speaker 1: two years. And how do How does he feel about
Speaker 1: your decision to terminate the pregnancy. He doesn't know, He
Speaker 1: doesn't know the plot thickens. He doesn't know what kind
Speaker 1: of hardship would it be for you to have another baby?
Speaker 1: At this point? The more the merrier is what I've
Speaker 1: always said, but I don't know with all the time
Speaker 1: that I lost, I felt like I didn't lose the
Speaker 1: time because I got to raise him, you know, for
Speaker 1: the first year of his life. But I want my
Speaker 1: job back. I want a career, and I want my
Speaker 1: children to know, like mommy went to school and mommy
Speaker 1: does this now, and mommy makes money. You're here, You're
Speaker 1: here to pick up a till to have a medication abortion? Yes,
Speaker 1: why did you choose that? It was less invasive? And
Speaker 1: it was also less time. I you that if we
Speaker 1: had we had to take care of this, so to speak,
Speaker 1: in a god this sounds horrible, but in a in
Speaker 1: a more secretive way, this was the best option. And
Speaker 1: we were early enough. You know, I caught it at
Speaker 1: like five weeks, so it was extremely early, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I took probably about two two and a
Speaker 1: half weeks to think about it, and then the rest
Speaker 1: of the time was scheduling it. You couldn't get this
Speaker 1: in the state of Missouri, and so you had to
Speaker 1: How far did you come? It's a three and a
Speaker 1: half hour drive, but we took our time. We stopped
Speaker 1: off with a candy story, you know, and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I know. So it took took about five hours.
Speaker 1: Took about five hours about that, Yeah, because we took
Speaker 1: our time. Did the people in front of the clinic
Speaker 1: try to pressure you or approach you? Yes? So that
Speaker 1: was as scary I thought they worked here. What did
Speaker 1: they say? They were talking about? How? She said, did
Speaker 1: you have an ultrasound yet? Have you gone and seen
Speaker 1: the doctor? Every question under the sun. Hey, I'll adopt
Speaker 1: your baby. She wanted to adopt my baby, and I
Speaker 1: was like, you have no idea who I am. Would
Speaker 1: it be easier if you could do this near your
Speaker 1: home in Missouri? Yes? Oh gosh, yes, so much easier
Speaker 1: if I didn't have to travel. I mean, do you
Speaker 1: know that I have had eleven dollars okay, eleven, and
Speaker 1: it was gonna get me lodging, It's gonna get the
Speaker 1: five dollars for the pill, and then it's gonna get
Speaker 1: me my gas. I drive a Yukon. It's the nineties.
Speaker 1: It's a gas guzzler. So it's it's extremely extremely costly
Speaker 1: to have to not be in my own stamped and
Speaker 1: to have to not be near anybody that I know.
Speaker 1: It like, I don't know anybody here you know, so
Speaker 1: last night, and I didn't get to bring anybody either.
Speaker 1: So last night, you know, I had like a probably
Speaker 1: about an hour and a half off of just bawling,
Speaker 1: you know, so not being near my home. That also
Speaker 1: stuff that I didn't have my best friend, my god,
Speaker 1: you know, so it sucked perfect finding your medicine here
Speaker 1: for you are writing my drugs man. Okay, so the
Speaker 1: doctor has to be the one to give you the
Speaker 1: first dose of medicine. Okay, this is the medicine that
Speaker 1: you're going to take home. Put all four tablets in
Speaker 1: between your teeth and your cheek, okay, and they need
Speaker 1: to be in there for at least thirty minutes, and
Speaker 1: it's the exact twenty four or forty eight hours between
Speaker 1: twenty four I'm just making sure I get this, okay, Okay, awesome.
Speaker 1: There's two types of abortion. There's medication abortion, and then
Speaker 1: there's what we call procedural abortion. I know it's commonly
Speaker 1: referred to as surgical, but I think that can be
Speaker 1: really scary for patients to hear because it's, you know,
Speaker 1: a surgery. Sounds gets really intense, and we're not actually
Speaker 1: doing any cutting. We're not using a scalpel. We're actually
Speaker 1: using an opening that already exists in the body to
Speaker 1: remove the pregnancy from the uterus. My name is Dr
Speaker 1: Mira Shaw and I am a family medicine physician. I
Speaker 1: am the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Heads of
Speaker 1: Mechanic in New York. I'm also the medical director of
Speaker 1: Whole Women's Health Alliance in South Bend, Indiana. So the
Speaker 1: other method of abortion is medication abortion. It's a process
Speaker 1: where patients take first one pill called Mifie prestone. And
Speaker 1: what Miffi pristone does is it stops the pregnancy from
Speaker 1: growing and from thriving in the uterus. It is safe
Speaker 1: up to eleven weeks gestational age. And what patients do
Speaker 1: is they first take the Miffie prestone and then they
Speaker 1: follow up with four pills of a medication called missa Prostel.
Speaker 1: What missa Prostel does is that it induces cramping and
Speaker 1: bleeding and expulsion of the pregnancy from the uterus. We
Speaker 1: have patients typically take one set of four pills if
Speaker 1: they're below nine weeks, if they're between nine and eleven weeks,
Speaker 1: and we'll have them take two sets of those four
Speaker 1: pills four hours apart from one another. We provide them
Speaker 1: with anti nausea medication because they may already be nauseous
Speaker 1: from being pregnant, but sometimes the mesa prostyl can induce
Speaker 1: nausea if they weren't already nauseous before um. And we
Speaker 1: also give them high dose ibprofen to help ease the
Speaker 1: cramping that they that they will feel um while they're
Speaker 1: expelling the pregnancy. The way that the f d A
Speaker 1: has regulated NiFi pristone is it's kept it on the
Speaker 1: REMS list, which means that it is highly regulated and
Speaker 1: restricted from being freely accessible to patients, and it makes
Speaker 1: it harder for physicians to prescribe the medication. That said,
Speaker 1: there's been a few changes in the in the past
Speaker 1: few years. So when I first started out, it used
Speaker 1: to be that the patient had to take the medication
Speaker 1: in the office and we had to watch them swallow
Speaker 1: the pill. There's no reason for this medically speaking, but
Speaker 1: that was the case, and that you know, we follow
Speaker 1: all the rules and so we were doing that. The
Speaker 1: FDA changed the labeling around Miffi pristone several years ago,
Speaker 1: and New York State interpreted it in a way. That
Speaker 1: made it so that the physician could just administer the
Speaker 1: Miffi pristone, but the patient could take it home and
Speaker 1: start the process when they felt most comfortable. Another more
Speaker 1: recent change is that abortion medication can now be mailed
Speaker 1: to patients instead of them having to come into their
Speaker 1: local health center. This was a temporary pandemic allowance that
Speaker 1: became permanent. The patient receives an appointment through a teleconferencing
Speaker 1: platform through our protected electronic medical record. We date the
Speaker 1: pregnancy based on their last menstrual period, and if we
Speaker 1: feel confident in their dates and that they meet criteria
Speaker 1: um of less than eleven weeks and they have no
Speaker 1: medical contra indications, which you know most people don't, then
Speaker 1: we can mail the Miffi perstone and the MISO to
Speaker 1: their home. That said, this is the case in New York,
Speaker 1: this is not the case everywhere. So in Indiana, for example,
Speaker 1: um where I'm a medical director of a clinic, there
Speaker 1: there is an outright ban on telemedication abortion, not telemedicine,
Speaker 1: but telemedication abortion. In Indiana, the individual still has to
Speaker 1: go to a health center in order to get the medication.
Speaker 1: So whenever they come in for the appointment is when
Speaker 1: the process is initiated. The government has essentially taken that
Speaker 1: autonomy out of the patient's hands. It's really hard for
Speaker 1: me to see restrictions just get worse over time. But
Speaker 1: last time I was in Indiana, I was told that
Speaker 1: we now have to give a copy of the ultrasound
Speaker 1: image to the patient, whether they ask for it or not.
Speaker 1: In some states they have to actually look at it
Speaker 1: or hear the sounds of the cardiac activity, but in Indiana,
Speaker 1: we have to actually give them a copy of the ultrasound.
Speaker 1: I just tell them that this is a law, and
Speaker 1: I put the image in a Manila envelope and then
Speaker 1: give it to them and say, you can do what
Speaker 1: you want with this, but it is required by law
Speaker 1: that I give it to you. And I apologize for
Speaker 1: that because I don't think that it's medically necessary. Every
Speaker 1: time I go to Indiana, I'm shocked it hasn't become
Speaker 1: normalized for me because I am able to provide a
Speaker 1: very different type of care to my patients in New York.
Speaker 1: And you know, the zip code in which you live
Speaker 1: should not determine the type of healthcare that you receive,
Speaker 1: but unfortunately that is the case, we'll be right back. Alright,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna walk to the back um, which is
Speaker 1: in our recovery area, so you can meet Dr Bomb,
Speaker 1: which is one of our A B providers and he's
Speaker 1: also our medical director. All right, follow me this way.
Speaker 1: Back at the Missouri Clinic, I met with Dr Margaret Bomb.
Speaker 1: Dr Bomb, how are you very nice to meet? Since
Speaker 1: there weren't any patients there, we sat in two chairs
Speaker 1: in the recovery room. How difficult or challenging has it
Speaker 1: been for you to work in the state of Missouri. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's a good question. You are in the only freestanding
Speaker 1: abortion providing facility in Missouri, and we are, as you know,
Speaker 1: right at the Illinois border. And that is an advantage
Speaker 1: for us, but not an advantage for everyone else. Right,
Speaker 1: the vast majority of oriens don't live right here in St. Louis.
Speaker 1: Missouri has some of the strictest restrictions on abortion in
Speaker 1: the country. So we have a seventy two hour waiting period,
Speaker 1: means patients have to come twice correct, And in fact
Speaker 1: what that means is right now, there are only two
Speaker 1: of us that provide abortions here at this facility in
Speaker 1: the entire state, myself and my partner, and so we
Speaker 1: do other things too, which I'm not available to be
Speaker 1: here to do abortions every seventy two hours. So if
Speaker 1: you want an abortion in Missouri, you either have to
Speaker 1: see myself or my partner. So part of the law
Speaker 1: is that actually for your first visit, the consent visit
Speaker 1: has to be done by a physician, which is certainly
Speaker 1: not the case in most places, and it has to
Speaker 1: be done by the physician who will then perform the abortion.
Speaker 1: So today I have four patients who are scheduled to
Speaker 1: see me to just do a consent process. I don't
Speaker 1: know where they're coming from. They could be coming from,
Speaker 1: you know, five hours away in Missouri, they could be
Speaker 1: coming from St. Louis, I don't know. And then they
Speaker 1: will be scheduled for their procedure in a week. So
Speaker 1: that means number one, they have to wait a week
Speaker 1: to have their procedure and have their pregnancy progress another week, well,
Speaker 1: because that's the next time I am here providing services.
Speaker 1: And if something happens, so if they get sick, or
Speaker 1: they don't have childcare, or their work says you can't
Speaker 1: be off next Wednesday, or I get sick and I
Speaker 1: can't come in. They can't have their procedure with my partner.
Speaker 1: They would have to recome back and consent with her
Speaker 1: or consent with me, wait another week and have their procedure.
Speaker 1: What other obstacles have they put up in this um? So?
Speaker 1: Missouri has mandated pelvic exams with abortions, and so for
Speaker 1: a surgical abortion, we do pelvic exams. That's part of
Speaker 1: the procedure. I'm going to be instrumenting your pelvis and
Speaker 1: your uterus. I'm going to do an exam before I
Speaker 1: do it. Completely normal. They also mandated pelvic exams with
Speaker 1: medication abortions, so that is completely unindicated. So if I
Speaker 1: see someone in Illinois for a medication an abortion, uh,
Speaker 1: typically they get an ultrasound. I review the ultrasound. I
Speaker 1: talked to them. Nobody takes any clothes off. I give
Speaker 1: them the pill, they take the second pill at home.
Speaker 1: They have their medication abortion at home. There's no need
Speaker 1: to do a pelvic exam. And in fact, we really
Speaker 1: have equated this to your dermatologists saying I'm going to
Speaker 1: take that mole off your arm, let me do a
Speaker 1: pelvic exam first. It's completely inappropriate right to insist that
Speaker 1: someone takes off their pants that I touched their genitals
Speaker 1: when it is not indicated. So we as a practice
Speaker 1: decided that medication abortions will not be offered in Missouri.
Speaker 1: You can't get a pill abortion in Missouri. So what
Speaker 1: is the rationale by lawmakers to mandate that. Well, that's
Speaker 1: a good question. I mean, this is where where you
Speaker 1: really see that they do not understand the process that
Speaker 1: we're doing. Right, there is there is. I can't imagine
Speaker 1: why I would need to do a pelvic exam before
Speaker 1: a medication abortion. It would not give me any information
Speaker 1: that would make me say, yes, the patient should have
Speaker 1: a medication abortion. No, they shouldn't. I should recommend some
Speaker 1: alternative alternative procedure. I can't imagine this in a medical
Speaker 1: correct scenario in which that would happen. It is a
Speaker 1: barrier to care. They are putting up additional barriers to
Speaker 1: make it harder and harder for patients in Missouri to
Speaker 1: access abortion services. So, speaking of things that make things
Speaker 1: difficult in Missouri, this is Missouri's in form consent booklet.
Speaker 1: We have to give this to every patient presenting for
Speaker 1: an abortion of Missouri. Now what I say is I
Speaker 1: have to give this to you. You don't have to
Speaker 1: read it, and you can leave it, you know, on
Speaker 1: the table, but we have to give this to you.
Speaker 1: This is how it starts the life of each human
Speaker 1: being begins a conception. Abortion will terminate the life of
Speaker 1: a separate, unique, living human being. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: not medical information, correct. Um. So this is full of
Speaker 1: all kinds of misleading facts that we are required to
Speaker 1: give to patients. This is the informed consent form that um,
Speaker 1: we have to fill out again that the physician has
Speaker 1: to fill out most of with a patient seven two
Speaker 1: hours at least before their procedure. So some of this,
Speaker 1: you know, you have to know the name of the physician,
Speaker 1: Ask questions, okay, and then the nurse does most of this.
Speaker 1: And then I am required to read this paragraph to
Speaker 1: every patient that says the immediate and long term medical
Speaker 1: risks to me associated with the proposed abortion, including but
Speaker 1: not limited to, infection, hemorrhage, cervical tear, or uterine perforation,
Speaker 1: harm to subsequent pregnancies or the ability to carry a
Speaker 1: subsequent child to term, and possible adverse psychological effects. That
Speaker 1: sounds really scary, doesn't it? And it's not true. No,
Speaker 1: I mean there are with any procedure, there are risks.
Speaker 1: The risks are very minimal with abortion. But this maximizes
Speaker 1: the risks and minimizes how actually safe that abortion is
Speaker 1: and doesn't minimize your your chances of getting pregnant. So
Speaker 1: some of the some of these are just blatant correct,
Speaker 1: And I I always say, I didn't you know, doctors
Speaker 1: did not write this. This was written by legislators. But
Speaker 1: I am required to read this and give this information
Speaker 1: to a patient when this clinic closes, because Missouri has
Speaker 1: a trigger law right if ROW is overturned, like I
Speaker 1: believe twenty six other states, they will make abortion illegal
Speaker 1: in those states. So this clinic will, I guess the
Speaker 1: abortion care part of this clinic will have to shut down.
Speaker 1: That is correct, abortion services we will only provide at
Speaker 1: our Illinois location. What will that mean for the women
Speaker 1: of Missouri? So it's it's a little bit additional travel.
Speaker 1: And so you know, if you're already coming three or
Speaker 1: four hours from Springfield, Missouri, you know is another twenty
Speaker 1: minutes into Illinois, you know, so much bigger? Um? Maybe not?
Speaker 1: But also I do feel like there is there that's
Speaker 1: a barrier, right to say you have to leave your state,
Speaker 1: the state in which you live and pay taxes and
Speaker 1: send your children to school, to go to another state
Speaker 1: to have again a legal, normal medical procedure, that that
Speaker 1: is a barrier. It feels like that we are not
Speaker 1: taking care of the patients that I live in Missouri.
Speaker 1: I grew up here in Missouri, I have a family here,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to work here and provide care, and
Speaker 1: certainly this has become a Missouri has made it extremely
Speaker 1: difficult to do so. Meanwhile, other states like New York, California,
Speaker 1: and Illinois are expanding their services and preparing for the
Speaker 1: upcoming influx of out of state abortion patients. Attached to
Speaker 1: the clinic that I visited in Illinois is the brand
Speaker 1: new Regional Logistics Center. It's kind of like an abortion
Speaker 1: fund meets travel agent meets doctor's office. It's abortion Care
Speaker 1: of the future. The center's president, joem Elci Rodriguez, shows
Speaker 1: me around. This is the our facility that we just
Speaker 1: open in January. So this is the hard where we're
Speaker 1: doing all of the navigation work, on the scheduling, providing
Speaker 1: financial assistance, traveling um and other logistics accommodations. So this
Speaker 1: is like air traffic control for people who want to
Speaker 1: get abortions but don't have the money or don't know
Speaker 1: where to go, maybe need transportation, hotel rooms. Before it
Speaker 1: was very piecemeal. You just had to kind of try
Speaker 1: to put put the pieces of the puzzle together to
Speaker 1: allow you to be able to do this correct and
Speaker 1: and that that was a whole vision behind this. Right,
Speaker 1: what if we can have just one the patient will
Speaker 1: just have to make one phone call to one place,
Speaker 1: and we could connect them to all of the resources,
Speaker 1: not just the abortional appointment, but all of the wraparound
Speaker 1: really support that they were going to need to make
Speaker 1: it to an appointment. And we build it thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: we know that there's going to be a lot of
Speaker 1: women from Missouri that are going to come here. But
Speaker 1: what we've seen in the patient that the support person
Speaker 1: I was talking to just came from Texas, you all
Speaker 1: are going to be very busy. We have been very busy.
Speaker 1: Certainly after the Texas abortion man. There has been this
Speaker 1: ripple effect or patients are been displaced right from their
Speaker 1: home state and everybody has been forced to travel x
Speaker 1: amount of time because there's just not enough providers out there.
Speaker 1: This facility. It's expecting fourteen thousand additional patients a year
Speaker 1: if Row falls. What is the impact of this decision.
Speaker 1: It's hard to overstand. This is Mary Ziggler, she's one
Speaker 1: of the country's pre eminent abortion legal scholars. We spoke
Speaker 1: after the Supreme Court draft was leaked, a draft Politico
Speaker 1: called a full throaded, unflinching repudiation of the ninety three
Speaker 1: just viition. Oh yeah, there's no question. I mean it's
Speaker 1: I don't know how much more full throated or repudiation
Speaker 1: you could have, so that that characterization of the draft
Speaker 1: is absolutely right. I mean, they're going to be impacts
Speaker 1: on on lots of people's lives, people who can be pregnant, um,
Speaker 1: just as was the case with the War on drugs.
Speaker 1: We would expect those impacts to be felt the most
Speaker 1: acutely by people who are in the most heavily policed communities,
Speaker 1: who are the people are most likely to be found
Speaker 1: out if they're having abortions. There will be people impacts
Speaker 1: on people who never seek abortions, because doctors will be
Speaker 1: reluctant to treat ectopic pregnancies or incomplete miscarriages or other
Speaker 1: things that may be perceived as abortion because they're unwilling
Speaker 1: to lose their licenses or go to prison. Um. It's
Speaker 1: going to affect people in blue states who are going
Speaker 1: to see people traveling from out of state to seek abortions. Um.
Speaker 1: It's going to affect doctors in blue states who may
Speaker 1: be potentially sued or charged with a crime in red states.
Speaker 1: It's going to shake up the two mid terms, it's
Speaker 1: going to shake up the presidential elections, and you know
Speaker 1: as a historian, and it also is going to have
Speaker 1: unpredictable effects. Right. I think the Supreme Court felt very
Speaker 1: confident in nine three that it knew what would happen
Speaker 1: after Robie Wade was reversed. And of course we know
Speaker 1: fifty years later that they were absolutely wrong. Um. And
Speaker 1: there's no reason to think that we can absolutely predict
Speaker 1: what's going to happen after this decision in much the
Speaker 1: same way. How were they wrong? Can you give us
Speaker 1: some insight into that? Yeah, I mean Justice Blackman had
Speaker 1: a clipping in his files that said, essentially, you know,
Speaker 1: seventy something percent of Americans think of Worshi should be
Speaker 1: a decision between a woman and her doctor. The numbers
Speaker 1: were very similar then as now, and so he thought, okay, well,
Speaker 1: if if the Court says it worshions a decision between
Speaker 1: a woman and her doctor, and there's a sound constitutional
Speaker 1: foundation for that, people are going to just accept that
Speaker 1: and move on. And we know that didn't happen. This
Speaker 1: Supreme Court somehow seems to think that if it sends
Speaker 1: this back to the States with lots of winks and nudges,
Speaker 1: that maybe other precedents can be overturned and maybe if
Speaker 1: petal personhood is going to be recognized, this is going
Speaker 1: to go away when that opinion will be running against
Speaker 1: popular opinion that it's insane. Right, So people are sort
Speaker 1: of like this is all over, just really whether their
Speaker 1: appro choice or per life or not paying attention, like
Speaker 1: this is going to just be the opening salvo in
Speaker 1: a much much longer battle. Um, and people I would
Speaker 1: imagine who support abortion rates are going to be in
Speaker 1: this for the long haul. Two And we may be
Speaker 1: looking at, you know, decades down the road, a Supreme
Speaker 1: Court decision reinstituting abortion rates. So if the Court thinks
Speaker 1: it can put an end to this one way or another,
Speaker 1: or it can remove itself from the conversation. It has
Speaker 1: another thing coming. This is called why We Hold Our
Speaker 1: Tongues Finally, a poem by Sonya Renee Taylor. To say
Speaker 1: I had an abortion is to join the blood covered
Speaker 1: to be sister with the worst of our ilk, sister
Speaker 1: with the one who strapped hers and seatbelts, sit the
Speaker 1: car skipping like rocks, to drop in a lake. Sister
Speaker 1: with the hand that pressed her five children to the
Speaker 1: liquid casket of a bathtub. This is to say, I
Speaker 1: know how people will clutch their grace until I bring
Speaker 1: them an amulet of sorrow. How this hive expects my
Speaker 1: sales turn regret. If not a baby, at least bring
Speaker 1: us the seregacy of your shame. To say the word
Speaker 1: abortion is to say I am ashamed thing a womb
Speaker 1: turned earned. It is to say I killed, died, and dead.
Speaker 1: As I speak to you now, it is to say,
Speaker 1: even my teeth wish to flee my mouth, the leper
Speaker 1: of my gums. I must be liar, Please be liar.
Speaker 1: If I say I'm not sad, to say I'm not
Speaker 1: sad is to say I am monster. I am heartless
Speaker 1: as tile a physician's claw is to say I am
Speaker 1: receptacle food made rancid by my own hands. Can you
Speaker 1: smell my stink? The rotting of me? To say I
Speaker 1: called the clinic on a Tuesday night, made an appointment
Speaker 1: for Wednesday morning, It's never to say I was nineteen,
Speaker 1: he was nineteen. Our teenage mothers began dissolving our futures
Speaker 1: and crack pipes when we were five. Never that he
Speaker 1: washed the dishes of American dreamers till his hands callous.
Speaker 1: Never my wins at their touch. Never that a black
Speaker 1: girls to wish him for a better life is fourteen
Speaker 1: hour work days plus classes. Less the glass slipper fairy
Speaker 1: tale of a stripper's pole, an old man Semen find her?
Speaker 1: Never that I almost chose an old man Semen To
Speaker 1: say when the nurse handed me a photo a marble
Speaker 1: of tissue growing, I only asked if I would feel
Speaker 1: better when it was done. Is never to say we
Speaker 1: would have just been another thing for you to hate.
Speaker 1: A food stamp, tick, fat lazy breeder, did be prison number,
Speaker 1: a white trash trailer hitch, a rape, a black boy
Speaker 1: with a gun and no daddy, A bitter, exhausted nail
Speaker 1: holding up our own crucifixion a thing to pity, promote,
Speaker 1: donate to a poverty gutter. To gather your own reigning
Speaker 1: self esteem in To say I cried from my best
Speaker 1: friend as I took my panties down and laid on
Speaker 1: the table is to sever the stitch of shame, To
Speaker 1: let the milk of this choosing spill from me until
Speaker 1: I am fresh vessel. It is to unlatch my wrist
Speaker 1: bound in penance to the unhelpful, to the watchers with
Speaker 1: only birds to give. To say the doctor's face was
Speaker 1: a blur of soft cotton, but his voice was a
Speaker 1: crisp still speculum is to free the pigeon of truth
Speaker 1: from its cage, so that it might return dove. To say,
Speaker 1: in the recovery room, I smelled the twenty shades of
Speaker 1: Crimson escape fleeing down all the women's thighs is to
Speaker 1: say I am seer and to story and conqueror and
Speaker 1: scared teenage girl thirteen credits shy of statistic to say
Speaker 1: that I have never spent three hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 1: more wisely is to hang my two degrees in a
Speaker 1: house whose shoulders refused to slump. To stare down the
Speaker 1: brick and backhand of this world without reproach in the
Speaker 1: land that would sooner fuck or forget us, that would
Speaker 1: rather see me orphan than owner of my own flesh.
Speaker 1: To say that I did not choose to keep that
Speaker 1: which I know would have been beautiful and brutal, is
Speaker 1: to say unashamedly that I did choose life. To say
Speaker 1: unapologetically that I did choose life. I did choose life
Speaker 1: mine abortion. The Body Politic is executive produced by me
Speaker 1: Katie Couric and was created by small team led by
Speaker 1: our intrepid supervising producer Lauren Hansen. Editing and say ound
Speaker 1: designed by Derrick Clements and Jessica krin Chich, researched by
Speaker 1: Nina Perlman, and a special thanks to case Um producers
Speaker 1: Courtney Litz and Adriana Fasio