Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wige F Daily. We
Speaker 1: meet your girl, Danielle Moody. Recording from the Rhode Island Bunker.
Speaker 1: I am bundled up because it is damp and cold
Speaker 1: as I record this, friends, I'm really excited to bring
Speaker 1: to you today an episode with Joanna Jojoe Sweat. She
Speaker 1: is a retired former marine and it is an advocate
Speaker 1: for women's reproductive rights and health as it pertains to military.
Speaker 1: In this interview, I became so enlightened by the issues
Speaker 1: that obviously we have been fighting for in the United States,
Speaker 1: as it pertains to the overturning of Rob Wade, access
Speaker 1: to healthcare, and that meaning all forms of reproductive healthcare.
Speaker 1: And I will tell you, as I told Joanna, it
Speaker 1: did not occur to me that as we are marching,
Speaker 1: as we are fighting and working on legislation to try
Speaker 1: and secure a pathway to reproductive health for women, it
Speaker 1: didn't occur to me what women in the military are
Speaker 1: facing and how egregious their treatment is. Joanna will illuminate
Speaker 1: the fact that women who are active in the military
Speaker 1: have to pay for their own feminine hygiene products that
Speaker 1: if you were to let's say fall ill because of
Speaker 1: you know, broken bones, or you had let's say appendicitis,
Speaker 1: or or some cause of bodily harm due to war.
Speaker 1: You're treated right on the base, right and then you're
Speaker 1: sent to a top notch hospital. If in fact you
Speaker 1: need an abortion, you have to pay for that yourself
Speaker 1: and find a way to get that care if in
Speaker 1: fact you're in a country that does not provide access
Speaker 1: to abortion. We talk and touch upon the issues of
Speaker 1: rape within the military, which we know that Senator Krisen
Speaker 1: and Gillibrand this has been something that she has been
Speaker 1: advocating and championing for quite some time, which is the
Speaker 1: order in which women have to report cases of sexual
Speaker 1: violence and then are doing so to people who they
Speaker 1: report to. Do you know what I'm saying, Like, so,
Speaker 1: there is no safe space, There is no safe space,
Speaker 1: and there's no protection for women in any forms of
Speaker 1: care that they may need, whether it is requiring an abortion,
Speaker 1: whether it is proper reproductive healthcare as it pertains to
Speaker 1: birth control pills, feminine hygiene products, any of these things.
Speaker 1: These women are out fighting for America liberty and democracy,
Speaker 1: and we can even cover their basic fucking needs. So
Speaker 1: this interview was very illuminating and shocking to me. I'll
Speaker 1: ask Joanna at the end of the interview, what is
Speaker 1: it that people who are not active military can do
Speaker 1: in order to advocate on behalf of our women's service members,
Speaker 1: and she'll provide that answer. Folks. I'm very excited to
Speaker 1: be joined on woke F Daily today by Joanna Jojo Sweat,
Speaker 1: who is a Marine Corps of veteran, an advocate and activist,
Speaker 1: an organizer, and is the co founder of Arizona That's
Speaker 1: Forward and it is the national organizing director for Common Defense. Joanna,
Speaker 1: I read your peace an NBC think that you wrote
Speaker 1: last year after the overturning of Roe V. Wade, and
Speaker 1: I got to tell you that I was so appreciative
Speaker 1: for it because I had not thought about because I
Speaker 1: am not I don't have family that are active military.
Speaker 1: I've never been in the military myself. And when we
Speaker 1: think about what the repercussions are for the overturning of
Speaker 1: Roe V. Wade, for just the treatment of you know,
Speaker 1: of women and reproductive health in this country, I never
Speaker 1: thought about the impacts of women in the military, and
Speaker 1: you know, just to read your piece and just I
Speaker 1: want to lift up a couple of points for folks,
Speaker 1: that women have to pay for their own sanitary products,
Speaker 1: their own feminine hygiene products, which I just think is outrageous.
Speaker 1: The fact that you know you could be out, as
Speaker 1: you would mentioned in in your piece, in the field
Speaker 1: for hours upon hours without the ability to be able
Speaker 1: to again care for your your mentional cycle in any
Speaker 1: type of way. And the fact that you know you
Speaker 1: have access to one type of birth control pill, and
Speaker 1: what if that doesn't work for you? Right, So, I
Speaker 1: wanted to give you an opportunity to talk, you know,
Speaker 1: in more detail about what women in the military have
Speaker 1: faced and are facing, and how this heinous Supreme Court
Speaker 1: decision that came down last year affects you all who
Speaker 1: are doing the Lord's work and trying to defend our
Speaker 1: country and our democracy and our freedom that you clearly
Speaker 1: don't have. Absolutely. I was floored when the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: came down with that decision, and I didn't know what
Speaker 1: else to do. Right, You know, you yell online, you
Speaker 1: can just get really angry and frustrated and feel stuck.
Speaker 1: And for me, writing has always been cathartic. I'd like
Speaker 1: to call myself a writer. I'm attempting attempting at least,
Speaker 1: And so sitting down to write that article, I wanted
Speaker 1: to think about things from my past from when I served,
Speaker 1: how that affects the women that are serving now, and
Speaker 1: even the women who are in transition, who are exiting
Speaker 1: from the service and going back to the civilian world.
Speaker 1: And why I'm so worried about them. It's because we
Speaker 1: are already a population that is treated less than right.
Speaker 1: We came into the military in full force because they
Speaker 1: needed us. It was essential for us to be as
Speaker 1: a country having the military readiness that we needed and
Speaker 1: not having enough folks volunteering and so opening up the
Speaker 1: rents to women. Back when I joined in the nineties,
Speaker 1: they opened up a lot of the support of combat
Speaker 1: role jobs for women that hadn't ordinarily been previously allowed
Speaker 1: to serve in. So like somebody like me, I came
Speaker 1: in in communications. I was a radio operator, and there
Speaker 1: were a lot of units before that I couldn't go to,
Speaker 1: and that slowly changed over time where you're deploying and
Speaker 1: being used as a radio operator, even with an all
Speaker 1: male unit that's going out to do whatever mission that is.
Speaker 1: And so sitting down to write that article, It made
Speaker 1: me realize how how even more tragic yes decision is
Speaker 1: because it compromises our military readiness. It compromises the women
Speaker 1: who have made the sacrifice sign that blank check to
Speaker 1: the United States and said that I will serve this
Speaker 1: country and that first engagement and the service, you really
Speaker 1: understand like that you're just a body that belongs to
Speaker 1: the service. Right, so when you go to boot camp,
Speaker 1: you get inoculated with all your immunizations, right, oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it happens in the service to include your COVID back. Yes,
Speaker 1: and that's been happening since the beginning of time. And
Speaker 1: then on top of that, for women, we go through
Speaker 1: where they're just they hand out the birth control pills
Speaker 1: while you're at recruit training for you know, thirteen some
Speaker 1: weeks not engaging in sexual activity. But it's almost like
Speaker 1: conditioning your body a to not get pregnant, and then
Speaker 1: just in case you have access to get pregnant, you
Speaker 1: don't get pregnant. But it just to me, creates this
Speaker 1: cycle that you know, your body doesn't belong to you,
Speaker 1: it belongs to us, and whatever we want to put
Speaker 1: in it is what we're going to put in it. Now.
Speaker 1: Once you leave recruit training. You have access to services,
Speaker 1: a primary care doctor and whatnot. But generally you're going
Speaker 1: to get like an ied, you're going to get a
Speaker 1: pill option, and there's some other ones I think that
Speaker 1: they've come out with that they've given but then decided
Speaker 1: not to provide anymore because of the complications. And so
Speaker 1: that administering of your birth control doesn't include a lot
Speaker 1: of conversation about how you want to impact your reproductive
Speaker 1: health long term. Right, So maybe you don't want to
Speaker 1: have babies now while you're in the service, but if
Speaker 1: you're going to have babies later, your service is going
Speaker 1: to affect that. Right. I'm a Vietnam or a child.
Speaker 1: I have health conditions derived from my father who served
Speaker 1: in Vietnam and was exposed to agent Orange. So it
Speaker 1: just doesn't start with me entering this service, right, But
Speaker 1: nobody has that conversation about my previous health conditions, my
Speaker 1: current health issues, and potentially what the feature would look
Speaker 1: like for me if I want to have a child.
Speaker 1: And so that's a very haphazard process you're going through.
Speaker 1: Like the naval hospitals, it doesn't come with great bedside manner.
Speaker 1: You know, your primary care physician almost feels like somebody
Speaker 1: who is also a supervisor over you because they're an officer,
Speaker 1: they have that authority. You're enlisted, and so it's very
Speaker 1: difficult to have that conversation. And my sisters and friends
Speaker 1: who still serve in the service, you know, get excited
Speaker 1: when they get a primary care provider that actually looks
Speaker 1: like them or is from their same culture, right because
Speaker 1: we know, especially as black women, we don't get the
Speaker 1: same care from providers as it is. So that's definitely
Speaker 1: going to translate in the service as well. And I
Speaker 1: can give you an example of kind of like the
Speaker 1: rhetoric that you get in the service is that one
Speaker 1: of my best girlfriends who's still serving, Black woman and
Speaker 1: intelligence amazing marine, just made a Facebook post about how
Speaker 1: excited she was to get a black PCM, a primary
Speaker 1: care manager that was in the Navy that was assigned
Speaker 1: to her as her doctor that she could talk to
Speaker 1: about her mental health, her reproduction health, all the fact
Speaker 1: and her And she was so excited because that first
Speaker 1: visit with the doctor, the doctor had looked at her
Speaker 1: whole file and was like, honey, let's talk about these
Speaker 1: things that have been that I can see you have
Speaker 1: been going through that we need to address and the
Speaker 1: empowerment she felt from that experience, and then to share
Speaker 1: it in a white male marine came on there and
Speaker 1: just wrote if I would have said the same thing,
Speaker 1: I would have been ran at it hell. And it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: you don't ever have to say that same thing, right,
Speaker 1: because there are white doctors everywhere everywhere, that's the norm,
Speaker 1: like ninety nine percent of the medical staff out there.
Speaker 1: That is your doctor, your surgeon is gonna be white.
Speaker 1: So it's like people don't even take the time to
Speaker 1: think before speaking. And if that's coming from one person
Speaker 1: who serves, he got that rhetoric right, And so that's
Speaker 1: a cultural thing. So we have a real problem. And
Speaker 1: so dropping Roe v. Wade and those protections the women
Speaker 1: in our service who are being raped such you know,
Speaker 1: suchially he's assaulted or not wanting to carry a baby
Speaker 1: to term because of their financial situation. You don't make
Speaker 1: a lot of money serving. I've joined the service married
Speaker 1: with a child and we suffered, thinking that it was
Speaker 1: going to change the trajectory of our life, but it
Speaker 1: did not. And again I had two babies while serving,
Speaker 1: and it was a very transactional experience I went in
Speaker 1: to give birth, I gave birth, and they sent me
Speaker 1: on my way. There was none of this amazing care.
Speaker 1: And I have that experience to gauge in on because
Speaker 1: as a dependent daughter of an airman at the time,
Speaker 1: when I had a baby as a teenager at my
Speaker 1: senior year, I got access to try care benefits and
Speaker 1: that was a phenomenal experience where like I got to
Speaker 1: say at the hospital for three days post birth. I
Speaker 1: know they don't do that anymore because they just don't know.
Speaker 1: They do not like, oh, women be given birth, they
Speaker 1: can just go home, and those things matter to deal with,
Speaker 1: like postpartum depression. And then on top of that, you
Speaker 1: when I was in I only got six weeks maternity leave.
Speaker 1: And after I had my third baby, after six weeks
Speaker 1: and I was trying to breastpeed my son, I got
Speaker 1: sent to a training exercise and so there Joan, let
Speaker 1: me let me because I haven't heard two questions that
Speaker 1: I want to that I want to ask one in
Speaker 1: the beginning, when you're talking about the birth control pill,
Speaker 1: is that a choice or women are just given it
Speaker 1: and you have to take it like that is part
Speaker 1: of your regular care, Like it's not a choice of
Speaker 1: whether or not to take the pill. Um. It is
Speaker 1: you do have the choice, okay, but they issue it
Speaker 1: to you, right, And so when they issue it to you,
Speaker 1: it almost just becomes like this becomes a part of
Speaker 1: your process. And when you're in recruit training, you're pretty terrified.
Speaker 1: So like the sanitary napkins and it goes to community
Speaker 1: property and then a recruit carries it around. You don't
Speaker 1: even have direct access to it, and then you have
Speaker 1: to ask for mission from your drill instructor to make
Speaker 1: a head call to use the restroom to attend to that,
Speaker 1: and then you're like counted down. You get real real quick.
Speaker 1: And so the stress helps minimize that experience. UM, but
Speaker 1: that that's the model of life you're living, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's it doesn't feel good, you know, you don't
Speaker 1: feel clean, you don't it's just not sanitary overall. Has
Speaker 1: there been any I mean, obviously you have since um
Speaker 1: retired from service and are now an advocate, what kind
Speaker 1: of pushes have there been to create a more holistic
Speaker 1: and humanized experience since you since you began for for
Speaker 1: for women in the military. You know, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of the legislation that tried to get past regard
Speaker 1: adjudication of the criminal activity that happen in service, specifically
Speaker 1: to military sexual trauma, is that that conversation opened up
Speaker 1: avenues for the military to obviously have to address these issues.
Speaker 1: So what I do know from my friends that are
Speaker 1: still serving, that they are levels of working groups that
Speaker 1: are happening things specific to women and their hairstyles, women
Speaker 1: of color and natural hairstyles. So we're seeing an evolution
Speaker 1: of change that's happening in the service. And I will
Speaker 1: say that those changes usually it's like that direct reflection
Speaker 1: of what needs to be happening in our society, because
Speaker 1: the military is a microcosm of our American society, the
Speaker 1: true diversity of it, and so what's happening inside the
Speaker 1: military is definitely happening in our greater world. And whatever's
Speaker 1: happening in our greater world impacts every serviceman, and I
Speaker 1: think people need to hear that more because they think
Speaker 1: that like we're a carve out and then where there's
Speaker 1: separate society that's not affected by what's going on, but
Speaker 1: we're very much affected. Our families are affected, and we
Speaker 1: also have to return back to those communities. And so
Speaker 1: if we don't have adequate resources access to universal healthcare,
Speaker 1: that's why we have so many veterans that fall in
Speaker 1: this transition nightmare, right, And so it is they are
Speaker 1: making changes to make those processes better. And I will
Speaker 1: say the VA and the Secretary of the VA and
Speaker 1: Chairman Mark Takano, who's a representative from California, has been
Speaker 1: extremely vested in protecting women, especially in that transition space.
Speaker 1: And I was a part of a roundtable group that
Speaker 1: made a decision that if you are a veteran and
Speaker 1: you have access to be a healthcare and you're picking
Speaker 1: up birth control or any prescriptions, you can literally ask
Speaker 1: for a Plan B and they'll just give it to you.
Speaker 1: And so that's how you're trying to mitigate things and
Speaker 1: then also create safe places for women who are on
Speaker 1: active duty to access those things. Because as it is
Speaker 1: right now, if a woman on active duty needs to
Speaker 1: terminate a pregnancy for whatever reason, she has to source
Speaker 1: that and pay for that herself, and then she has
Speaker 1: to take leave. She doesn't get like a medical shit
Speaker 1: of leave unless then she reports it to the doctor
Speaker 1: and staff on posts. But then that just becomes like
Speaker 1: this very you know, everybody's privy to what I was
Speaker 1: going to say, I was I was going to ask you.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't seem as if when you are a
Speaker 1: service member that there is confidentiality in your in your healthcare.
Speaker 1: So if tell me what happens, then if you are
Speaker 1: stationed in a country that doesn't have abortion access, you
Speaker 1: would have to make arrangements to take leave, to buy
Speaker 1: a plane ticket, yeah, and fly somewhere to take that services.
Speaker 1: And that's probably not logical because the timing right, we
Speaker 1: don't time these things. And so if you're not scheduled,
Speaker 1: if you're in a deployment overseas, generally you're there for
Speaker 1: a year at a minimum or and if you're there
Speaker 1: a year at a minimum, at the six month mark,
Speaker 1: you might get some leave to go home to visit.
Speaker 1: If you're there more than a year, you might get
Speaker 1: thirty day league block. But what if that's not the
Speaker 1: block of time that you need to be to get
Speaker 1: those services. And that's why when you get ready to
Speaker 1: deploy or go abroad, they have the do you want
Speaker 1: to get birth control issued to you so that that's
Speaker 1: something that you don't have to worry about because once
Speaker 1: you get there. You know, if this happens to you,
Speaker 1: we have to send you back. And if we have
Speaker 1: to send you back, then there could be administrative adjudication
Speaker 1: and punishment assessed to you, even though this is a
Speaker 1: medical condition. So let me ask you, because I want
Speaker 1: people to really understand here. If you were to hurt
Speaker 1: any other part of your body, right like if there
Speaker 1: was harm done, you broke bones, you had appendicitis, these
Speaker 1: things would be taken care of on the base. They
Speaker 1: would be taken care of immediately, and then you would
Speaker 1: be sent somewhere for the whatever. Like when you're in
Speaker 1: Iraq and Afghanistan, if you get injured, you get triage
Speaker 1: you know there however they can and then stabilize you,
Speaker 1: and then you're going to go to somewhere that has
Speaker 1: you know, first rag medical care like Hams for Germany
Speaker 1: or something of that nature. So you are going to
Speaker 1: get airlifted or sent somewhere to be treated. Definitely not
Speaker 1: the same protocol for pregnancy or issues of that nature. Wow.
Speaker 1: And then for a woman to even report a rape
Speaker 1: becomes a very traumatic process and a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't want to even report that. Oh Joanna, this is
Speaker 1: really like it I my my, My heart like breaks
Speaker 1: just at hearing examples because I know that there are
Speaker 1: so many real women that are attached to the examples
Speaker 1: that you're providing. What is it that people non service
Speaker 1: members can do in order to be a source of
Speaker 1: help to advocate? What could the listeners do that are
Speaker 1: taking in this story right now and feeling just shocked
Speaker 1: and disgusted by what you're sharing. Yeah, I mean the
Speaker 1: important thing is for people to understand and realize that
Speaker 1: we have the power. And I think so many of
Speaker 1: us have been conditioned to believe that we don't have
Speaker 1: enough collective people power to fight back against these systems.
Speaker 1: But we do know. We've seen a lot of things
Speaker 1: happen at changes in the military based on outside voices.
Speaker 1: So for instance, the abuse physical abuse that used to
Speaker 1: be endured by folks at recruit chaining that was unchecked.
Speaker 1: There was this huge movement of Moms of America right
Speaker 1: who said, you ain't gonna beat up on my child
Speaker 1: at recruit training, like that's inappropriate, and so a lot
Speaker 1: of things change within that. The history of recruit training
Speaker 1: and breaking down a human being to make them a
Speaker 1: service of member, so you can't put hands on people
Speaker 1: you know there there's limitations, and so that's the power
Speaker 1: of a group of people back together and said this
Speaker 1: is unacceptable. And I think in present day society, like
Speaker 1: I said before, people look at the military as a
Speaker 1: separate animal and that they it's not their business to
Speaker 1: be involved. But it's very much their business to be involved.
Speaker 1: It's their tax dollars that support that entire operation. It's
Speaker 1: their children, it's their neighbors, it's their friends kids, you know,
Speaker 1: whomever you know. But everybody is connected somehow to those
Speaker 1: folks who are serving. And so it is up to
Speaker 1: us who have served, who are on the outside, and
Speaker 1: those of us who haven't served that are hearing these
Speaker 1: things to speak out about it. You write and representatives,
Speaker 1: You tell them you want these people to be protected.
Speaker 1: You tell them that it's unacceptable that their commander who
Speaker 1: oversees them also gets to adjudicate any issues or crimes
Speaker 1: that happen under the purview with their troops, because that
Speaker 1: comes with a lot of bias. They need to say
Speaker 1: that women need to be treated much better and that
Speaker 1: the services that are provided to them are first rate.
Speaker 1: We need universal healthcare in this country that's completely free
Speaker 1: medicare for all, and then that will translate to better
Speaker 1: services even in the military as well as in the
Speaker 1: VA services, because then we actually have to fund them
Speaker 1: at their full value that they needed to need to
Speaker 1: be funded. And we know that we can do that
Speaker 1: because the NDAA is so grossly over budgeted, that we
Speaker 1: could take lots of money that gets directed to the
Speaker 1: war machine and improve life and the sustainment of health
Speaker 1: for all of our service members and make it equal
Speaker 1: for everybody who raises their hands, swears that oath and
Speaker 1: dedicates their life and service to this country. So we
Speaker 1: all can play a part. We should all get involved.
Speaker 1: We should all be angry, especially every woman should be
Speaker 1: extremely angry. And I just also want to throw out
Speaker 1: that in the service, they have been cutting childcare availability
Speaker 1: for service members, So if you're forcing them to have babies,
Speaker 1: you don't even have the adequate system so that they
Speaker 1: have childcare put in place for them so that they
Speaker 1: can complete the mission of their job. And on top
Speaker 1: of that they may and pay for it at the
Speaker 1: market rate. And so there are a lot of things
Speaker 1: that can be improved if we take money away from
Speaker 1: the war machine and put it into services for our
Speaker 1: folks and take care of them. Joanna, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for your advocacy, for your voice, for your writing,
Speaker 1: and continuing to raise the issue around how women are
Speaker 1: treated in the military, the reproductive care that they need,
Speaker 1: the childcare that they need, the emotional health and wellbeing
Speaker 1: and services that they need. I really appreciate you and
Speaker 1: thank you so much for making the time for woke A.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. That is it
Speaker 1: for me today. Dear friends on woke a f as
Speaker 1: always power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.