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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hello

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Speaker 1: friends and Whipsmarty's. Today we are joined by a woman

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Speaker 1: who I have the most enormous brain and activism crush on.

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Speaker 1: She is brilliant, inspiring, and someone who, oh God, gives

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Speaker 1: me so much hope. You know, this has been a

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Speaker 1: really up and down year for a lot of people,

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Speaker 1: and there is so much suffering in the world, and

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Speaker 1: I know so many of us feel like we're helpless

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Speaker 1: to change these big systems that are certainly not helping

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Speaker 1: many humans. And then along comes Alexis mcgil johnson, the

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Speaker 1: President and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and

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Speaker 1: Planned Parenthood Federation of America, who just inject hope and

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Speaker 1: ethics and incredible research and makes everything makes sense. She

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Speaker 1: is the kind of woman who reminds me that we

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Speaker 1: are all powerful and capable and that in community we

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Speaker 1: can make anything happen. Alexis has degrees in politics from

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Speaker 1: Princeton and political science from Yale. She has taught political

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Speaker 1: science at Yale and Wesleyan. She served as an incredible

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Speaker 1: culture maker working to activate the hip hop community through

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Speaker 1: the hip Hop Summit Action Network to get out the vote,

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Speaker 1: she was the executive director of Citizen Change, has launched

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Speaker 1: incredible voter action campaigns, and in two thousand and nine

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Speaker 1: she founded something called the Perception Institute, a research group

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Speaker 1: that studies bias, reduction and discrimination. And in twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 1: she was announced as Planned Parent HUD's acting president and

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Speaker 1: became the permanent President and CEO of the Planned Parenthod

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Speaker 1: Action Fund in twenty twenty. At Planned Parents and they

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Speaker 1: deliver vital reproductive health care, sex education and information to

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Speaker 1: millions of people in our country and worldwide. They have

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Speaker 1: a network of forty nine affiliates that provides vital healthcare

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Speaker 1: to more than two million people every year at nearly

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Speaker 1: six hundred health centers across the country. They provide care

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Speaker 1: to women, to men, and to non binary folks, including

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Speaker 1: abortion services, referrals, birth control, emergency contraceptives, primary care, HIV services,

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Speaker 1: transgender hormone therapy, men's health services, patient education, pregnancy testing services,

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Speaker 1: STD testing y'all make sure you're getting tested regularly, please

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Speaker 1: and thank you. Treatments and vaccines and women's services. And

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Speaker 1: since the Supreme Court overturned Rovweight eighteen months ago, twenty

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Speaker 1: one states largely across the South and Midwest have banned

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Speaker 1: or restricted access to abortion. This has resulted in over

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Speaker 1: one in three women without access to care in their

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Speaker 1: states and has created a public health crisis. And Planned

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Speaker 1: Parenthood is fighting back. We are so lucky to have

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Speaker 1: all access. As a leader, she is gearing up for

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Speaker 1: the fight over mifipristone in twenty twenty four and offering

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Speaker 1: inspiration as to how we can build row back better

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Speaker 1: and ensure that women and pregnant people have access to

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Speaker 1: the care that they need. Today, we're going to talk

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Speaker 1: about stories that really illustrate the peril of these bands.

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Speaker 1: We're going to talk about the importance of bringing attention

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Speaker 1: to these policies and the ways that we can all

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Speaker 1: fight back.

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Speaker 2: Enjoy.

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Speaker 1: I'm so excited to have you here. I think it's

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Speaker 1: been such a whirlwind year politically and certainly for women

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Speaker 1: and pregnant people, and a rough couple of years certainly

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Speaker 1: for all of us. And I have one million questions

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Speaker 1: for you. But before we get into what's happening currently

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Speaker 1: and what's coming in twenty twenty four for this election cycle,

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Speaker 1: and you know, the bills state by state, we need

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Speaker 1: to pay attention to. I want to sort of rewind

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Speaker 1: and begin in the personal, though the political is personal

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Speaker 1: obviously to all of us.

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Speaker 3: But I'm so.

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Speaker 1: Curious about you and your life before you know, you

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Speaker 1: becoming the Alexis mcgil Johnson that we all know that,

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Speaker 1: you know, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, the

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Speaker 1: accolades and the teaching and all of it. I would

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Speaker 1: love to know a little bit about who you were

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Speaker 1: as a kid, you know, what your interests were, where

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Speaker 1: you grew up. If you see from this point in

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Speaker 1: your life inklings of the woman you are today and

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Speaker 1: yourself at say eight or nine.

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Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, go way back when you know you know,

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Speaker 4: in some ways, I guess you always feel like yourself

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Speaker 4: right in some ways you can't separate that out. But

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Speaker 4: I feel I feel fully realized in myself in a

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Speaker 4: way that I think stepping into this role has allowed

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Speaker 4: me to not just through like all of the career

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Speaker 4: choices that you know, I've made been voluntold into, but

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Speaker 4: just remembering like I've always been a curious person. I've

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Speaker 4: always been someone, you know, kind of my parents were,

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Speaker 4: you know, kind of activists growing up, so I've always

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Speaker 4: had like a passion for social justice, And I've always

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Speaker 4: had kind of a curiosity for how things work, how

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Speaker 4: systems work, how big, complicated things come together. And you know,

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Speaker 4: I do think that that in some ways, that that curiosity,

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Speaker 4: that desire for good, that desire for making things better,

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Speaker 4: not just kind of coming into movement work with a passion,

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Speaker 4: but also with like a science lens of trying to

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Speaker 4: understand kind of what makes it all tick. I think

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Speaker 4: is something that I fel like, I still feel like

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Speaker 4: I bring that to every conversation that I have with

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Speaker 4: my teams.

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Speaker 3: That's very cool.

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Speaker 1: And when you say that your parents were activists, what

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Speaker 1: what was it like in your house as a child,

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Speaker 1: What sort of causes and projects were they working on?

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Speaker 1: What were you observing as a kid.

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Speaker 4: So I grew up in New Jersey, in a suburb

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Speaker 4: of New York, predominantly white town, but the you know,

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Speaker 4: it was inside of the county, you know, was the

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Speaker 4: most people of color within the county. So I had

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Speaker 4: very solid kind of you know, church and community roots,

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Speaker 4: but also spent a good time engaged with you know,

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Speaker 4: all all kinds of folks who, you know, I think,

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Speaker 4: for the most part, were somewhat conservative in their politics

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Speaker 4: and you know, and also living through kind of a

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Speaker 4: new era of time. So my parents, my father's a doctor,

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Speaker 4: my mom was a executive at AT and T. Bell Laboratories,

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Speaker 4: where she started off as her as a secretary and

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Speaker 4: made her way all the way up to being a

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Speaker 4: vice president of labor negotiations. And you know, like obviously

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Speaker 4: those are not activist jobs. They're very corporate central jobs,

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Speaker 4: but it was the way in which they both practiced

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Speaker 4: their activism inside of those spaces and also did so

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Speaker 4: you know at home. Right. So my mom, you know,

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Speaker 4: would would anyone who you know, needed needed to support,

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Speaker 4: needed to quote get on foot, you know, which is

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Speaker 4: what should say. When our kind of cousins and folks

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Speaker 4: come up from the South, she would kind of work

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Speaker 4: with them, help them get placed inside of a company

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Speaker 4: or other you know kind of networking company to help

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Speaker 4: build community and build kind of critical mass inside. And

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Speaker 4: then she'd come home on the weekends and she'd organize

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Speaker 4: all of the you know, kind of community neighbors because

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Speaker 4: she was obviously working very directly with engineers and new

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Speaker 4: computers and new things to say like our kids need

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Speaker 4: to know what's going on, like this is the future,

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Speaker 4: you know, the computer is going to be the future,

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Speaker 4: and you know, and before I know it, she'd gotten

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Speaker 4: the company to donate computers for us all to start

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Speaker 4: learning coding. You know, like again, this is like in

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Speaker 4: the in the late seventies. This is long before you know,

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Speaker 4: the crazy world of chat GPT right now, but you know,

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Speaker 4: instilled in us kind of an idea of knowing that

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Speaker 4: we were not always having access to the things that

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Speaker 4: were the latest and greatest and kind of pretending the future,

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Speaker 4: but also making sure that we could make connections and

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Speaker 4: find the pathway to get there. And so, you know,

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Speaker 4: so it was like kind of the organizing by night,

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Speaker 4: corporate by day, and I think I learned a lot

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Speaker 4: of how to navigate between environments because of her.

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Speaker 1: That's really incredible. It really makes me think a lot

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Speaker 1: about how some of the people I'm the most inspired

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Speaker 1: by when we get fired up about a cause or

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Speaker 1: an issue, and you know, you see a lot of

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Speaker 1: fiery energy in people saying, like burn it all down,

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Speaker 1: let's build something new. And I've actually learned some of

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Speaker 1: the most valuable lessons in my life in these spaces

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Speaker 1: that we all are privileged to occupy, where we try

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Speaker 1: to make change from people who really can root in

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Speaker 1: the pragmatism of idealism, who can say yeah, sounds like

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Speaker 1: a cute idea, but also sounds a bit like anarchy.

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Speaker 1: This is how you actually shift systems. This is how

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Speaker 1: you create change within a society. This is how you

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Speaker 1: move a needle and make healthier spaces, build healthier communities.

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Speaker 1: You know, quote, burning something down is destruction. Imagine if

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Speaker 1: you can shift culture and build something new inside of

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Speaker 1: what is working, albeit perhaps working and failing at the

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Speaker 1: same time. And that kind of reality check has been

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Speaker 1: so important for my evolution as a person. And to hear,

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Speaker 1: you know, as an admirer of yours, to hear that

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Speaker 1: you grew up in a house looking up to a

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Speaker 1: mom who shifted systems big ones. Now I go, okay,

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Speaker 1: I see either. Now I say something that I that

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Speaker 1: I known about you, but I didn't know in that

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Speaker 1: sort of detail.

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Speaker 3: That's very cool.

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Speaker 4: Oh no, you know, like the kids say, she get it,

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Speaker 4: I'm her mama totally. That's how I feel every single day.

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Speaker 4: And what's really funny, so via is that I have,

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Speaker 4: you know, over the years, found kind of collections of

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Speaker 4: my mom's My mom kind of went straight to work

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Speaker 4: after high school because you know, she was, you know,

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Speaker 4: a young black woman in the in the even in

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Speaker 4: the North. You know, a path to college was not

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Speaker 4: in her in her immediate future. So she went back

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Speaker 4: to night school. Uh at some point during her career

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Speaker 4: trajectory through AT and T, and I found papers that

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Speaker 4: she had written that are like so incredibly radical, like

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Speaker 4: so like actually embodying the you know, we need to

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Speaker 4: burn it to the ground, we need to light them up,

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Speaker 4: you know. And you know, and I think about her

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Speaker 4: kind of in her you know, in her day job,

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Speaker 4: you know, when she's like in her you know, prissy

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Speaker 4: blouse and you know, she's like doing the typist and

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Speaker 4: my mom's still actually when you when you when you

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Speaker 4: ask her to write something down, she still writes in steno,

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Speaker 4: so like you know, the very classic Madmen, you know

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Speaker 4: version of her. And then I see these like beautifully

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Speaker 4: type written you know, kind of you know, the elegies around,

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Speaker 4: you know, around what the movement and what the revolution

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Speaker 4: is going to look like, and how we're going to

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Speaker 4: fight and how we're going to get there. And I

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Speaker 4: think about her navigating between those spaces and that passion,

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Speaker 4: and so even in that time she was she had

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Speaker 4: an ideology of burning it down, but she was trying

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Speaker 4: to like kind of think about how do I start

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Speaker 4: to make radically incremental disruptions in the place that I

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Speaker 4: am right now?

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Speaker 1: Yes, and that that's been the lesson. You're you're articulating

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Speaker 1: it even better than I can. That you have to

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Speaker 1: have an ideology that is bigger than what seems possible.

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Speaker 1: You have to be able to say the system isn't

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Speaker 1: working and we should light it up. People deserve And

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Speaker 1: then when people say to you, oh, well, that's ridiculous idealism,

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Speaker 1: or you're you're fantasizing about utopia, It's like, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: want to build a utopia, but I do understand that

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Speaker 1: the only way to get there is is you have

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Speaker 1: to have an outsized, radical goal and then figure out

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Speaker 1: in time, the time we live in, how to shift

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Speaker 1: all of these increments. And if you shift enough, perhaps

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Speaker 1: the whole system changes.

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Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, absolutely, yeah, And it does. It starts with vision,

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Speaker 4: It starts with you know, for me as a you know,

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Speaker 4: as a young college student, you know, it was really

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Speaker 4: about kind of what is the theory of change? Right?

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Speaker 4: How do we you know? And I think I think

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Speaker 4: about the lot in terms of movements, right, that movements

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Speaker 4: are equations that you know, you have to think about,

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Speaker 4: you know what, what the input is. You know, how

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Speaker 4: you're going to create the intervention, what's going to come

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Speaker 4: out on the other side, and how do you test

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Speaker 4: and refine and build more rigor in the work? Because

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Speaker 4: it is it is it's heart, right, It's it's all heart,

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Speaker 4: but it is also science. Right. It's just a strategy

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Speaker 4: of thinking about where you need people to be in

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Speaker 4: any given moment to shift their behavior, where how does

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Speaker 4: power operate in any given moment to hold people accountable?

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Speaker 4: And those things have inputs behind them that I think

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Speaker 4: are really important for us to understand. So like starting

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Speaker 4: with that vision, that theory and then seeing kind of

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Speaker 4: in maybe more scientific ways, how we disrupt that to

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Speaker 4: me is like I think a great natural kind of continuity.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's really inspiring.

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Speaker 1: And now a word from our sponsors that I really

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Speaker 1: enjoy and I think you will too. And when you

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Speaker 1: talk about you know, exploring those avenues in college, you

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Speaker 1: studied politics at Princeton, you know, you got an m a.

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Speaker 1: In political science. You've you've taken such a deep dive

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Speaker 1: into these structures that govern our lives. How how do

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Speaker 1: you feel like those studies led you to this place

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Speaker 1: that you are led you to running one of the

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Speaker 1: largest and most important organizations you know that serves women

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Speaker 1: and men in our country.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. So I went to school to study politics. I

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Speaker 4: majored in politics as an undergrad and I went to

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Speaker 4: graduate school to understand political science, which I see as

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Speaker 4: a study of power. Right, and obviously, disrupting anything requires understanding,

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Speaker 4: not just understanding how power operates. And the most basic

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Speaker 4: definition of power is getting someone to do something they

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Speaker 4: otherwise wouldn't do. Right, So, whether or not you you

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Speaker 4: you hold that you enforce that you as a use

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Speaker 4: a carrit or a stick, whether or not you use

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Speaker 4: you know, culture to change the way they see something

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Speaker 4: or uh, you know, the way you you kind of

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Speaker 4: help them understand where they're you know, see their best

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Speaker 4: interest in a candidate. All of that are mechanisms of

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Speaker 4: kind of using power to kind of drive different outcomes

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Speaker 4: and behavior. And you know, during my first year, second semester,

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Speaker 4: I started Tiyang for my one of my professors, Kathy Cohen,

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Speaker 4: who had written an incredible book called Boundaries of Blackness.

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Speaker 4: And it was about how the white gay community responded

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Speaker 4: to the AIDS crisis differently than the black community. So

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Speaker 4: really looking at kind of the organizing structure that happened

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Speaker 4: in order to get access to type viribles and and

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Speaker 4: so forth, and kind of where our center of kind

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Speaker 4: of politics, you know, sat with with these various communities

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Speaker 4: and and so it was like a big broad survey

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Speaker 4: corps on black politics, but we touched so much on movement,

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Speaker 4: building on resistance, on what it took to what it

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Speaker 4: takes rather to shape identity around you know, uh, mobilization

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Speaker 4: around representation and what that looks like for various communities. Like,

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Speaker 4: all of these things kind of started to hang together

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Speaker 4: for me as I think very foundational for the kind

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Speaker 4: of work that I wanted to pursue. Again overlaying that

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Speaker 4: because I was half half of a math major and

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Speaker 4: a political science major at President, so I ended up

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Speaker 4: kind of coming in with the same kind of idea

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Speaker 4: that there was an equation here that we can solve.

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Speaker 4: You know, it's messier because it involves people and humans,

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Speaker 4: but it is still kind of an equation that we

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Speaker 4: need to engage to think about how what that what

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Speaker 4: that works looks like, and so you know, getting that

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Speaker 4: teaching bug early on, right, I mean I went to

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Speaker 4: graduate school because I wanted to write and research, but

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Speaker 4: getting access to to being able to teach early on

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Speaker 4: and to engage with you know, young people, but people

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Speaker 4: were quite frankly my age around how they saw the

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Speaker 4: future and how they were shaping and thinking about their

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Speaker 4: lives and where they were going politically. Ut it was

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Speaker 4: just like really fascinating, And I finished all of my

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Speaker 4: PHG requirements puting my call. So I actually have an

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Speaker 4: mfil done, an MBA. I am ABD. But it was

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Speaker 4: it was really about writing, It was really about teaching

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Speaker 4: and engaging. I spent so much time kind of in

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Speaker 4: the classroom and realizing that I wasn't necessarily I spent

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Speaker 4: so much time in academia that I didn't really understand

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Speaker 4: what was happening on the ground. That I had all

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Speaker 4: these theories in my head about how politics operate, all

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Speaker 4: these theories around what you know, how to how to engage,

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Speaker 4: and the reality was, you know what it actually looks

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Speaker 4: like on the ground. There's like you can have all

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Speaker 4: of your you know, A plus B squared, you know whatever,

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Speaker 4: but there's this big black box that is people and

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Speaker 4: movement that that comes through on the other side and

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Speaker 4: the output, and that can change any given set of circumstances.

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Speaker 4: So I really wanted to think about what it would

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Speaker 4: mean for me to get out and get on the ground.

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Speaker 4: And that's and so I left academia in two thousand

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Speaker 4: and four in order to kind of think through some

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Speaker 4: of those those pieces three two thousand four.

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Speaker 1: Do you feel like it's it's almost a way to

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Speaker 1: when you talk about the theories that you're studying and

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Speaker 1: you know, these equations, getting out and working on the

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Speaker 1: ground becomes a way to sort of pressure test those

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Speaker 1: things and to see what works in community, what will

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Speaker 1: actually shift you know, public opinion or create public awareness.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly right. It is about it is about testing

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Speaker 4: your assumptions, right. It is about saying, like, you know,

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Speaker 4: I think if we do this or we have this

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Speaker 4: kind of conversation, people will respond to it. You know,

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Speaker 4: this is what the polling says. This is how you

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Speaker 4: you know, create a message to move people along the continuum.

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Speaker 4: But let's test it, you know, let's not just test

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Speaker 4: it in a you know, in a in a focus

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Speaker 4: group inside of a you know, uh, you know, clinic

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Speaker 4: or lab, let's actually test it in a beauty salon.

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Speaker 4: Let's actually go and talk and see how people are engaging.

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Speaker 4: And that led me into doing a lot of organizing,

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Speaker 4: leveraging some of folks that i'd met through the kind

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Speaker 4: of coming up through hip hop as well, and and

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Speaker 4: understanding the music business that they gave out the ways

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Speaker 4: in which you know, we were having conversations that were

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Speaker 4: inherently political. They looked different than they did in my

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Speaker 4: mom's time, and she was, you know, coming up under

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Speaker 4: post civil civil rights and black power. But you know,

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Speaker 4: culture in it in itself is also political, and we

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Speaker 4: were having conversations around disparity and you know, calls to

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Speaker 4: freedom and fights against you know, uh, state violence and

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Speaker 4: so forth. But what we're doing to channel that into

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Speaker 4: actual political engagement. What were you doing to show up

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Speaker 4: on any given election day to see how we could

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Speaker 4: change things?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how are you mobilizing community and voters and people

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Speaker 1: to take agency over these policies that you know affect everyone, Yes, exactly.

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Speaker 1: So before we move into that and into organizing, my

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Speaker 1: love of learning and the part of me that has

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Speaker 1: such a crush on what your mom did and wants

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Speaker 1: to go back to school all of the time. I'm like,

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Speaker 1: hold the phone. We have an incredible teacher on the podcast.

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Speaker 1: You know you recommended one of your professor's books, Kathy's book.

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Speaker 1: Are there a handful of books you would say for

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Speaker 1: folks listening right now who are like, I want to

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Speaker 1: know more about this. I want to know what you

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Speaker 1: were reading. You know, what are the three to five

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Speaker 1: books I've got to read to understand systems of power

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Speaker 1: or organizing? Like, will you give us a little syllabus?

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Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, yes, I love it. Like goodness, there's

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Speaker 4: so many that are like flooding my brain right now.

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Speaker 4: So I can tell you, like back at the time,

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Speaker 4: the things that I were reading the Origins of the

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Speaker 4: Civil Rights move by Alden Marris, right, which I think

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Speaker 4: kind of dispels the notion that you know, people just

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Speaker 4: got upset and they you know, went out to the

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Speaker 4: street and started protesting because they just got fed up

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Speaker 4: on the bus, you know, and you know, and decided

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Speaker 4: to organize themselves. It really looks at how movements happened

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Speaker 4: through local organizing communities, right. It looks like how those

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Speaker 4: networks get pulled together in conversation to drive and catalyze

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Speaker 4: bigger change. It's not just like, you know, all of

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Speaker 4: us individuals showing up. And I think sometimes that's what

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Speaker 4: it looks like when I think about the Women's March

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Speaker 4: twenty seventeen, when I think about the folks who were

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Speaker 4: marching for Black Lives Matter, you know, it sometimes looks

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Speaker 4: like spontaneous, like you know, I just called you and said, so,

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Speaker 4: let's just get out of bus and go to DC. Know,

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Speaker 4: and no, actually that's not how it happened. It happened

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Speaker 4: through networks. It happened through community building. It happened through

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Speaker 4: creating those conditions for wanting to be organized and then

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Speaker 4: actually helping people organize, you know. And I always have

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Speaker 4: to tell people like someone had to figure it has

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Speaker 4: to figure out where to park the buses. Right movements

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Speaker 4: need infrastructure, and that becomes a really important theme that

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Speaker 4: I've carried through from reading Alden's book in the same vein,

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Speaker 4: because there's also an incredible documentary on Rustin right, baired

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Speaker 4: Rustin now on Netflix. I think is mandatory watching. You know,

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Speaker 4: the John Demilio wrote a book about the life and

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Speaker 4: times of Baired Rustin that I think is you know,

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Speaker 4: beautiful and just kind of helps us understand the real

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Speaker 4: strategic thinking again behind the movement building. And you think

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Speaker 4: about something like the March on Washington was organized in

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Speaker 4: seven weeks, right, think about that, Yeah, you know, a

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Speaker 4: group of twenty thirty year olds, right, creating that you know,

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Speaker 4: amazing kind of you know, life changing experience for so

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Speaker 4: many of us, right, and engaging with the highest levels

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Speaker 4: of power going to the Oval Office the next day.

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Speaker 4: You know, even though Buyer did not go, it does

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Speaker 4: show you kind of so many different pieces. So like,

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Speaker 4: I stay grounded in the civil rights mom because I'm

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Speaker 4: an immediate beneficiary and the post civil rights generation as

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Speaker 4: someone who's born in nineteen seventy two. Goodness, there are

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Speaker 4: so many other ones that are popping to my head,

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Speaker 4: but I can't. I have to actually send you a syllabus.

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Speaker 1: Great afterwards, done well, and we'll put it all on

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Speaker 1: our on the social stories for the podcast.

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Speaker 3: It'll be great, for sure. So that shift you speak of,

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Speaker 3: you know.

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Speaker 1: Nineteen seventy two, the early seventies civil rights row, US

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Speaker 1: winning row in nineteen seventy three.

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Speaker 4: Here we are.

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Speaker 1: Not even on the precipice. We're on the other side

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Speaker 1: of true disaster for reproductive health. And you know you

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Speaker 1: took over as president of Planned Parenthood in twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 1: but you were on the board and the board chair

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Speaker 1: for many years before that. How did you get started there?

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Speaker 1: And how stark did the shift feel once Trump was

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Speaker 1: elected in terms of what the organization was bracing for.

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Speaker 4: Oh my goodness. So I came out of academia, as

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Speaker 4: I said, to organize through culture, and you know, found

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Speaker 4: myself kind of making another bed another theory of change

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Speaker 4: around what it would take to organize the hip hop generation.

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Speaker 4: And you know, back in the day, we used to

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Speaker 4: buy records at Tower Records like you'd stand in line, right.

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Speaker 4: But you know how marketing work exactly a virgin, right,

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Speaker 4: and you it required people to know that an album

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Speaker 4: was dropping, you know, get all the hype around it,

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Speaker 4: all of the marketing, and all of that happened again

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Speaker 4: through a bunch of local organizing networks. Right. You found

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Speaker 4: out about it because your club promoter was playing. You

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Speaker 4: found out it because your friends were talking about it.

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Speaker 4: It was in you know, Team magazine, like all of

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Speaker 4: the ways in which you would connect the dots there,

435
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 4: and you know, the thing I learned kind of in

436
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:36,520
Speaker 4: that process is that albums drop every Tuesday for Billboard

437
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,239
Speaker 4: take right, because that's what you know, the rates come,

438
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:42,400
Speaker 4: ranks come out on Wednesday, and it would like give

439
00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 4: you the full week to get to the top of

440
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:49,040
Speaker 4: the charts. And being able to identify the fact that, like, okay,

441
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:51,439
Speaker 4: on any given Tuesday, how about election day, we can

442
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:54,040
Speaker 4: build that model in So I had been doing this

443
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 4: work of organizing in that way for you know, the

444
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:02,760
Speaker 4: better part of a few years when I, you know,

445
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:07,359
Speaker 4: subsequently decided to start a research institute around how our

446
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:11,160
Speaker 4: brains processed race and gender. And so I had had

447
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 4: a lot of kind of kind of weird not necessarily continuous,

448
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:19,000
Speaker 4: but all like you know, coherent jobs that I'd been

449
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:21,680
Speaker 4: building and just like kind of thinking in a you know,

450
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 4: maybe perhaps like social entrepreneurial way. And I found myself

451
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:30,080
Speaker 4: walking down the street in Soho, New York, shopping, you know,

452
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:33,440
Speaker 4: looked up and saw this young black girl's base on

453
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 4: a on a billboard, and you know, just was drawn

454
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 4: to her. And as I got close to it, I

455
00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:43,960
Speaker 4: just wanted to see, like who she was representing the

456
00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 4: words underneath or said the most dangerous place where an

457
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,119
Speaker 4: African American are in the womb, and it was like,

458
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 4: you know, one of the you know, the first time

459
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:56,440
Speaker 4: I'd ever seen an anti abortion ad in New York City,

460
00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 4: and I was just I was like jarring. It was disorienting.

461
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,200
Speaker 4: And I found myself at a dinner with Cecil Richards

462
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:07,159
Speaker 4: not too long afterwards, and I just was like, oh

463
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:08,960
Speaker 4: my god, you know, what's going on in New York.

464
00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:12,359
Speaker 4: They're like coming for aboard here and like someone who

465
00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:15,640
Speaker 4: is you know, should should have been way more sophisticated

466
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:18,800
Speaker 4: around kind of politically what was happening. I realized at

467
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:20,440
Speaker 4: the time that I didn't actually have a lot of

468
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 4: gender in my portfolio of work, in my thinking, you know,

469
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:28,159
Speaker 4: I had, you know, worked a lot on issues related

470
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:32,200
Speaker 4: to black politics and issues related to criminal justice, but

471
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:35,879
Speaker 4: I was not actually centering the very experiences that I

472
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:38,920
Speaker 4: that had been you know, brought me into the work

473
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 4: that my mom, you know, it also kind of inculcated

474
00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 4: in me. And so I told her, you know, Cecil,

475
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,840
Speaker 4: you need to do something about this. And she was like, look, sister,

476
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,360
Speaker 4: you need to do something about this. And she recruited

477
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:56,000
Speaker 4: me to the board and it was a you know,

478
00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:58,760
Speaker 4: just such an honor to be able to step in

479
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:02,320
Speaker 4: at a high level on a national board to get

480
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 4: you know, kind of a big picture view of what

481
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,960
Speaker 4: was happening across the you know, across the country with

482
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 4: all of these various you know, like the beginnings of

483
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 4: what we are seeing now right with you just starting

484
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:20,920
Speaker 4: to see the trap laws, the targeted regulations against abortion

485
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:23,800
Speaker 4: providers start to crop up to test you know, the

486
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 4: boundaries of Row and Casey. You just started to see,

487
00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 4: you know, some of the you know, increasing kind of

488
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 4: attacks on plant parenthood itself. You know, there always been attacks,

489
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:38,080
Speaker 4: but they started to get more focused and more deliberate.

490
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 4: We just you know, we you know, so I joined

491
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 4: the board, and I was there in twenty ten, you know,

492
00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:49,280
Speaker 4: when the Tea Party Congress not only remade you know, Congress,

493
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:52,800
Speaker 4: but also remade redistricting across the South and so many

494
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 4: of these states that now have abortion vands. So I

495
00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:58,880
Speaker 4: think what was what was interesting for me kind of

496
00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:01,480
Speaker 4: at the you know, over the last decade or so

497
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 4: has been to like watching the various ways in which

498
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 4: the opposition has felt comfortable in consolidating its power right

499
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:19,800
Speaker 4: and building structures to enforce that power so it can't

500
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 4: be challenged easily, and then standing fully in that power

501
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:27,480
Speaker 4: to enact things even when they are out of step

502
00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 4: with what where the people are right. And you think about,

503
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:32,320
Speaker 4: you know, going back to like that study of power,

504
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:36,000
Speaker 4: it's like it's it's it's power towards what end right.

505
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:38,320
Speaker 4: You can amass as many bodies, you can amass as

506
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:42,000
Speaker 4: many you know, celebrities to talk about something. You can

507
00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 4: get all the networks like kind of aligned on something,

508
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,160
Speaker 4: but you have to be willing to take that and

509
00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 4: channel that into a policy aim for whatever you're fighting for.

510
00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 4: And I think having that backdrop and watching how not seamlessly,

511
00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:03,120
Speaker 4: i mean, you know, but very strategically, how they weaponized

512
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:08,640
Speaker 4: each opportunity to cement their gains that I think is

513
00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:13,280
Speaker 4: actually something that's just as a student, really fascinating, as

514
00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:17,400
Speaker 4: a person, as a citizen, horrifying.

515
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:25,560
Speaker 1: And now for our sponsors, it feels barbaric.

516
00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:27,960
Speaker 3: It feels like.

517
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 1: The image that comes to mind as you're speaking, is

518
00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:38,240
Speaker 1: that sort of not to say that it's in any way,

519
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 1: you know, a child's story, but like the almost cartoon

520
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 1: image that we used to see as kids of like

521
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:53,840
Speaker 1: a caveman clubbing another person. It feels like that, it

522
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: feels like people are just getting clubbed, like it's just

523
00:31:56,640 --> 00:32:02,960
Speaker 1: these violent hits to humanity that, to your point, serve

524
00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:07,520
Speaker 1: what end, you know, wreaking havoc and harm on families

525
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 1: and you know, forcing people to remain in dangerous situations

526
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:16,960
Speaker 1: and essentially enforcing a poverty class because it's the folks

527
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 1: who have the least who get the who get harmed

528
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:23,560
Speaker 1: the most by these inactions of brute force power.

529
00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:25,840
Speaker 4: And I.

530
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:29,400
Speaker 1: It isn't lost on me that there are people who

531
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,680
Speaker 1: said to us, you know, when when Trump was promising

532
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:35,800
Speaker 1: to do this, that we were being hysterical and ridiculous

533
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:38,400
Speaker 1: and it would never happen. And here we are, and

534
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 1: you know, we look at you know, just in the

535
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:45,960
Speaker 1: last month, cases for women like Kate Cox in Texas

536
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:50,560
Speaker 1: and Brittany Watts in Ohio. You know, these women who

537
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:57,840
Speaker 1: are who are being penalized and brutalized over the loss

538
00:32:58,080 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 1: of pregnancies.

539
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 4: And it is.

540
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 3: It is breathtaking to see this sort of cruelty.

541
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 1: And so many people in your position and in the

542
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:14,640
Speaker 1: communities we you know, are blessed enough to share these

543
00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:17,480
Speaker 1: ven diagrams of who show up for this work said

544
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:22,320
Speaker 1: we warned you this would happen. What do you wish

545
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:27,520
Speaker 1: that everyone who perhaps doesn't have, you know, the time

546
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: to dive as deep into this issue. What do you

547
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 1: wish everyone knew or understood about Roe v. Wade being

548
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 1: overturned and what the larger picture of this is, you know,

549
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:44,480
Speaker 1: as it pertains to cases like these.

550
00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 4: Oh, that's a great question, Sophia. I think I think

551
00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:55,400
Speaker 4: just first on the two cases, right, because I think

552
00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 4: they're really emblematic of what else we said would happen.

553
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 4: I think that the fight over abortion has been one

554
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:15,080
Speaker 4: that has been driven by stigma and shame, and you know,

555
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:19,399
Speaker 4: in a narrow, the most narrow scope, fighting over exceptions

556
00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:28,600
Speaker 4: and you know, harm to the parents' health. And in

557
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:33,800
Speaker 4: this way it really helps us understand that, you know,

558
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 4: for Kate Cox exam for example, that abortion bands actually

559
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:40,880
Speaker 4: make pregnancy more dangerous. It helps us understand that abortion

560
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:45,879
Speaker 4: is part of healthcare. And you know, I remember when

561
00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:49,320
Speaker 4: the first stepsis stories were coming out during SBA in Texas,

562
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:54,239
Speaker 4: like March was March of twenty twenty two. I guess

563
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:57,360
Speaker 4: was like the first time I heard of a story

564
00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:03,000
Speaker 4: like that twenty one, And it's like this is madness, Like,

565
00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:07,440
Speaker 4: this is crazy. No one could possibly you know, be

566
00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:11,719
Speaker 4: treated like this. And you know, and and I would

567
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:14,880
Speaker 4: tell people about people going home and waiting for sepsis

568
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:16,680
Speaker 4: to sit in and they would just say, I can't

569
00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:18,839
Speaker 4: believe that. That's crazy. That's not going to happen yet.

570
00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:21,480
Speaker 4: And here we are fast forward like that is exactly

571
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:24,920
Speaker 4: the reality that is playing out again in Taxis. And

572
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 4: then to hear you know, Britney's spots of story, you know,

573
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 4: as a reminder that it is not about abortion being banned.

574
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 4: Is it's about the fact that abortion is criminalized. Right

575
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:42,480
Speaker 4: you become you know, a criminal for participating in getting

576
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 4: access to healthcare, so whether that is your provider, because

577
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:48,759
Speaker 4: that was the threat for Kate right that Ken Paxton said,

578
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 4: we are going to you know, subject you to potentially

579
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:56,320
Speaker 4: ninety nine you know, years in prison, one hundred thousand

580
00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:59,040
Speaker 4: dollars fines, lost the licensure at that criminalization and then

581
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:03,600
Speaker 4: you also have you know, criminalization, uh the woman who

582
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:07,080
Speaker 4: was pregnant, right like that is you know what again

583
00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:10,360
Speaker 4: out of totally out of step with where public opinion

584
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 4: is on these issues, where regardless of what where people

585
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:17,799
Speaker 4: think about abortion. But what it says about Roe, right,

586
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:22,880
Speaker 4: is that Row was never enough. Roe was not you know,

587
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,440
Speaker 4: not grounded in equality. And I think that, you know,

588
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:29,440
Speaker 4: we talk about freedom and we talk about equality, and

589
00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:31,600
Speaker 4: we talk about these as like I have the right

590
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:34,120
Speaker 4: to my own body of the autonomy as a you know,

591
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:38,439
Speaker 4: as a citizen being governed under this constitution. But Roe

592
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:43,640
Speaker 4: was really about privacy. It was about, you know, when

593
00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:46,920
Speaker 4: the state interests came in during gestation. And then you

594
00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:50,080
Speaker 4: add Casey about burden, and we can see the trap

595
00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:54,040
Speaker 4: lust tested that the burden you know, all along the privacy,

596
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:58,160
Speaker 4: you know, rights that we believed to be held under

597
00:36:58,160 --> 00:37:01,320
Speaker 4: the Constitution. You know, you can see how this conservative

598
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:05,920
Speaker 4: supermajority has started to get them, most famously with Clarence

599
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:09,560
Speaker 4: Thomas saying, we don't even ever write to like to

600
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:12,480
Speaker 4: get access to birth control without asking our partners. Like

601
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:18,279
Speaker 4: all of the ways in which the overturning of Roe

602
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:24,239
Speaker 4: and Casey have really challenged fundamental ways in which we

603
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:30,120
Speaker 4: have understood our citizenship. And you know, that notion that

604
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:33,120
Speaker 4: I wish people had understood at the beginning is that

605
00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:36,000
Speaker 4: in order for us to get back into the Constitution,

606
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:38,880
Speaker 4: or when we get back into the Constitution. It has

607
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,160
Speaker 4: got to be grounded in a base level understanding that

608
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:45,920
Speaker 4: you cannot be free unless you can control your own body,

609
00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:49,480
Speaker 4: unless you can control your own reproduction. You cannot be

610
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:53,360
Speaker 4: fundamentally free. You cannot have any sense of self determination

611
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:56,080
Speaker 4: unless you were able to make those decisions. And we

612
00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:59,160
Speaker 4: have been slowly chipping away at those rights for so long,

613
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:03,239
Speaker 4: and slowly kind of chipping away at the ability even

614
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:06,719
Speaker 4: though the right existed, to what access looked like, and

615
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:09,080
Speaker 4: creating more hurdles and burdens. And I think that's what

616
00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:12,280
Speaker 4: we say play out in the most incredible ways.

617
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:16,880
Speaker 1: So I want to ask a couple of questions about this, because, again,

618
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:22,880
Speaker 1: when we talk about these systems of power and the

619
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:27,799
Speaker 1: way that our rights have been narrowed and chipped away at,

620
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:31,279
Speaker 1: as you said, I think it's hard for a lot

621
00:38:31,360 --> 00:38:37,640
Speaker 1: of people to understand the level of moral depravity that

622
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 1: it requires on the part of a lot of these

623
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:45,000
Speaker 1: people in power, on the part of the right to

624
00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:46,520
Speaker 1: do this to other humans.

625
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:48,600
Speaker 3: To your point, people say, no one's going to do that.

626
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:51,960
Speaker 1: No one's going to make a woman go septic before

627
00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:54,960
Speaker 1: they let her have a DNC, And that's exactly what

628
00:38:55,040 --> 00:38:58,160
Speaker 1: they're doing. And so there's a couple of things that

629
00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:05,280
Speaker 1: I've learned along the way that have been really illuminating

630
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:08,920
Speaker 1: for me, including the fact that you row past in

631
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:11,680
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, and it wasn't actually until the far

632
00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:16,920
Speaker 1: right lost their last appeal to stop integration in nineteen

633
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:20,880
Speaker 1: seventy nine that they decided to make abortion their issue.

634
00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:21,560
Speaker 4: For six years.

635
00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:26,960
Speaker 1: They didn't care because everybody understands that healthcare requires access

636
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,200
Speaker 1: to abortion. And by the way, for our friends at home,

637
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:32,919
Speaker 1: the reality is when you live in a state where

638
00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:37,120
Speaker 1: abortion access is possible, where reproductive care is possible, where

639
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:40,520
Speaker 1: birth control is easily accessed, when you have access to

640
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:44,880
Speaker 1: contraception in your health care, abortion rates go down. Like

641
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,319
Speaker 1: the fact is that when we have democratic leaders who

642
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:50,560
Speaker 1: give women in pregnant people autonomy over their own bodies,

643
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:53,359
Speaker 1: they often don't get to the point where they need

644
00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:56,520
Speaker 1: an abortion in the first place. So more access actually

645
00:39:56,640 --> 00:39:59,920
Speaker 1: means less need for it. That's just a fact, that's

646
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:05,200
Speaker 1: just the math. But some of this insidiousness, the racism

647
00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:11,000
Speaker 1: tied to the sexism that was that I'm talking about

648
00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:15,279
Speaker 1: in that six year window in the seventies, the sort

649
00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:22,200
Speaker 1: of brute force control of women and pregnant people where

650
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,800
Speaker 1: they say you don't deserve your autonomy. We're in the

651
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:29,719
Speaker 1: opinion that we all read prior to row falling, there

652
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:33,520
Speaker 1: was a literal quote, we need to ensure a domestic

653
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:38,680
Speaker 1: supply of infants like we're talking about you know, cattle

654
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:43,440
Speaker 1: farms here. How do you, as our expert and you

655
00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:47,000
Speaker 1: know beacon here in terms of what we do next,

656
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:53,880
Speaker 1: how do you explain to people how insidious this kind

657
00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:59,160
Speaker 1: of exercising of control over fifty one plus percent of

658
00:40:59,239 --> 00:41:01,200
Speaker 1: the population really.

659
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:06,360
Speaker 3: Is, and how the roots go back into these attempts

660
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:08,160
Speaker 3: at stopping social progress.

661
00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:16,120
Speaker 4: It is. Look, authoritarianism is very seductive. Power and control

662
00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:21,080
Speaker 4: is very seductive, and you know you were descending into

663
00:41:21,360 --> 00:41:26,680
Speaker 4: authoritarian realms when attempts to control half of the population

664
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,440
Speaker 4: are first on the agenda. We see this consistently globally, right,

665
00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:34,000
Speaker 4: I mean, just you know, a matter of months ago

666
00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:39,319
Speaker 4: we heard the leader of China speaking about the need

667
00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:43,920
Speaker 4: right for a greater supply of their domestic bodies in

668
00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:48,239
Speaker 4: order to support an aging population. Right. So the use

669
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:53,120
Speaker 4: of policy to control our bodies is not is obviously

670
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 4: not new to the United States, and obviously goes back

671
00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:59,759
Speaker 4: four hundred years to the enslavement of bodies in order

672
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:03,759
Speaker 4: to enable progress for some in the United States. So like,

673
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:07,239
Speaker 4: none of this is disconnected from white supremacy, none of

674
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:11,560
Speaker 4: this is disconnected from patriarchy and misogyny. None of us

675
00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:16,480
Speaker 4: is disconnected from our current descent into authoritarianism, impulses, and

676
00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:19,800
Speaker 4: ideologies inside of this country. And I think we have

677
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:22,160
Speaker 4: to actually, you know, we've we've always held the US

678
00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:25,840
Speaker 4: as as an exception, you know, to you know, the

679
00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:32,480
Speaker 4: the great experiment in democracy. But we never really look

680
00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:35,880
Speaker 4: back and say democracy is actually never been idealized and

681
00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:39,279
Speaker 4: you know, realized in our you know, you know, for

682
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:43,480
Speaker 4: for us, in our in our generations, and you know,

683
00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:46,719
Speaker 4: the fight is to make democracy reel. And at the

684
00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:49,920
Speaker 4: same time, when you were seeing these efforts to control

685
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:54,200
Speaker 4: our bodies, which are always coupled with attacks on our

686
00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:56,920
Speaker 4: ability to express our voice through democracy, right, we saw

687
00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:59,719
Speaker 4: that in the Ohio ballad initiative. Wasn't just that you

688
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,680
Speaker 4: could go to the polls and express a you know,

689
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:05,439
Speaker 4: up and down vote on a ballot initiative. They put

690
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:08,920
Speaker 4: other democratic hurdles in place in order to change with

691
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:13,319
Speaker 4: the threshold of that vote would would mean, so we're

692
00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:15,279
Speaker 4: always seeing this, you know, Like I was like to

693
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:18,000
Speaker 4: point out that that we talk about SBA in Texas

694
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:22,200
Speaker 4: As being the so outrageous you know, abortion ban, and

695
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:26,160
Speaker 4: yes it was in its novel way of being enforced,

696
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:28,920
Speaker 4: but we have to remember that SB one was the

697
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:33,600
Speaker 4: effort to curtail voting rights in Texas. So they go

698
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:37,840
Speaker 4: together in these ways, right, And you know, you're so

699
00:43:38,040 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 4: right to point back to the seventies there, you know,

700
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:44,680
Speaker 4: Philischafley and Colo. But they were trying to find out

701
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:48,359
Speaker 4: what would motivate evangelicals to come out because they were

702
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:52,319
Speaker 4: losing national elections in really profound ways, and they were

703
00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:55,560
Speaker 4: trying to find out why people were not voting, and

704
00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:59,040
Speaker 4: they were not voting because you know, they were interested

705
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:02,520
Speaker 4: in you know, segregation, right, they wanted to fight to

706
00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:09,879
Speaker 4: keep the many of their communities and their universities segregated,

707
00:44:10,440 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 4: and you know, knowing they could not run on that,

708
00:44:14,440 --> 00:44:17,359
Speaker 4: choosing abortion and making it a hyper partisan issue when

709
00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:20,400
Speaker 4: in fact it had actually been a bipartisan issue all along.

710
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:22,799
Speaker 4: And I think we forget that. I know, people ask

711
00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:24,880
Speaker 4: me all the time, like where are the Republicans on

712
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:27,360
Speaker 4: this issue? And I can't believe, you know, this is

713
00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 4: just a democratic issue, Like we are a nonpartisan organization,

714
00:44:31,600 --> 00:44:34,200
Speaker 4: and yet the people who consistently show up for us,

715
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:36,880
Speaker 4: the people who consistently show up because they believe in

716
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:41,960
Speaker 4: freedom and bodily autonomy, are people who are you know,

717
00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:45,800
Speaker 4: who believe and you know, in our right to self determination.

718
00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:48,280
Speaker 4: That looks a lot more like people in the Democratic

719
00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:51,279
Speaker 4: Party than it does elsewhere. And I think that is

720
00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:55,000
Speaker 4: thinking about that and layering on all of what we've seen,

721
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:59,560
Speaker 4: particularly with the last administration, is opening up a very

722
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:08,279
Speaker 4: unapologetic you know, uh, white supremacist attitudes, unapologetic you know, uh,

723
00:45:08,640 --> 00:45:13,000
Speaker 4: gender sexist norms, the kinds of fights that they are

724
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:16,960
Speaker 4: building not just on on abortion, but also on birth

725
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:20,120
Speaker 4: control and IVF, also on how we understand our history,

726
00:45:20,280 --> 00:45:23,520
Speaker 4: also on trans writes. You know, like this it's not

727
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:25,920
Speaker 4: an accident, right it is. It is all part and

728
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:31,520
Speaker 4: parcel of this intersection of hate, this intersection of misogyny

729
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:36,879
Speaker 4: and patriarchy and white supremacy, and how it all kind

730
00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 4: of becomes fuel to push forward in authoritarian regime.

731
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:43,839
Speaker 1: We'll be back in just a minute. After a few

732
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:52,320
Speaker 1: words from our favorite sponsors. I spoke about this a

733
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:55,880
Speaker 1: gathering of folks at the National Institute of Reproductive.

734
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:57,200
Speaker 3: Health event in.

735
00:45:59,560 --> 00:45:59,840
Speaker 4: March.

736
00:46:00,520 --> 00:46:04,000
Speaker 1: No, maybe it was April of twenty twenty three. And

737
00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:08,600
Speaker 1: for me, as a cisgendered woman, it is so incredibly

738
00:46:08,640 --> 00:46:11,120
Speaker 1: important that we do not lose sight of the fact

739
00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:16,360
Speaker 1: that the reason the right is attacking our trans friends

740
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:21,560
Speaker 1: so intensely right now is because abortion access and autonomy

741
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:25,480
Speaker 1: has never been more popular among Republican women exactly, and

742
00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:30,839
Speaker 1: so they need a new scapegoat to attack and normalize

743
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:35,680
Speaker 1: the repression of bodily autonomy. And the way in which

744
00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:40,240
Speaker 1: they are attempting to message that equity for trans people

745
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:46,440
Speaker 1: somehow attacks cis women's womanhood. I'm just like, wow, y'all, really,

746
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:51,640
Speaker 1: you are so willing to do the grossest things to

747
00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:56,200
Speaker 1: harm the already most at risk people, to just breed

748
00:46:56,880 --> 00:47:02,040
Speaker 1: fuel for your hate machines, and I think it is

749
00:47:02,440 --> 00:47:07,320
Speaker 1: It is very interesting to see, you know, we spoke

750
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:11,120
Speaker 1: about her a moment ago, but to see a case

751
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:17,560
Speaker 1: like Kate Cox's happening in Texas because she is I

752
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:21,520
Speaker 1: think representative of things that can shake more right leaning

753
00:47:21,640 --> 00:47:26,680
Speaker 1: folks into the awareness that this is absolutely insane and

754
00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:29,640
Speaker 1: this absolutely is a war on women. You know, she

755
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:32,440
Speaker 1: is already a mother of two. She's like sixty percent

756
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:34,799
Speaker 1: of the women in America who seek abortion care, they

757
00:47:34,840 --> 00:47:40,200
Speaker 1: are already mothers. And she wanted this third baby. Her

758
00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:43,279
Speaker 1: and her husband were so excited. And this baby is

759
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:46,480
Speaker 1: not going to live. The fetus has a genetic condition

760
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:51,080
Speaker 1: that is fatal. Unequivocally, her life is at risk. She

761
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:54,520
Speaker 1: might not only her doctors have told her she might

762
00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:57,320
Speaker 1: not only die, but if she lives, she could actually

763
00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:02,440
Speaker 1: never get pregnant again. She's forced to carry this dying

764
00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:07,680
Speaker 1: baby to term. And Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas,

765
00:48:07,719 --> 00:48:09,640
Speaker 1: I'm just going through some details for our friends at home,

766
00:48:09,680 --> 00:48:12,080
Speaker 1: if they haven't read the articles, had the nerve to

767
00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:16,800
Speaker 1: intervene and say her doctors and her are not allowed

768
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,040
Speaker 1: to make a decision to save her own life.

769
00:48:19,719 --> 00:48:22,000
Speaker 3: That he just will not allow this abortion to happen.

770
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 3: And it is not lost on me.

771
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:27,640
Speaker 1: And by the way, I want to do everything I

772
00:48:27,760 --> 00:48:30,480
Speaker 1: can to support this woman and her family. And it

773
00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:34,840
Speaker 1: is not lost on me that her story has become

774
00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:40,080
Speaker 1: national news, whereas Brittany Watt's story isn't getting a ton

775
00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:43,880
Speaker 1: of attention. And she is a black woman who miscarried

776
00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:49,960
Speaker 1: in Ohio. She miscarried at home and has been charged

777
00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:53,840
Speaker 1: with you know, I don't know what the technical term is,

778
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:58,680
Speaker 1: like defiling a corpse or something insane because she attempted

779
00:48:58,719 --> 00:49:01,640
Speaker 1: to flush the toilet after she had a miscarriage, like

780
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:06,320
Speaker 1: it is. So I just look around and I'm seeing

781
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:10,560
Speaker 1: the way these poor women are just being battered by

782
00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:16,600
Speaker 1: the legal system, and some get more attention than others.

783
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:21,400
Speaker 1: And maybe we need, you know, Kate Cox's story to

784
00:49:21,560 --> 00:49:25,920
Speaker 1: go national to wake up white Republican women. And I

785
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:28,360
Speaker 1: want those women to be just as upset.

786
00:49:28,160 --> 00:49:32,080
Speaker 4: For Britney Watts, without question.

787
00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:34,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I and I just.

788
00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:39,120
Speaker 1: I wonder what from your vantage point, you know, sitting

789
00:49:39,719 --> 00:49:43,240
Speaker 1: sitting at the at the presidential top of the Planned

790
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:48,560
Speaker 1: Parenthood Action Fund, how do you recommend that we folks

791
00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:51,520
Speaker 1: like me who don't you know, hold the office you do?

792
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:56,000
Speaker 1: How do you recommend that we best use our platforms

793
00:49:56,120 --> 00:50:00,840
Speaker 1: and power that we best advocate for women like this?

794
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:05,160
Speaker 1: You know, I know we're all wondering, why are they

795
00:50:05,239 --> 00:50:08,720
Speaker 1: denying Kate Cox an abortion? Why why would they punish

796
00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:11,800
Speaker 1: Brittany Watts. She had a miscarriage, this poor woman, she

797
00:50:11,920 --> 00:50:17,560
Speaker 1: was twenty one weeks pregnant. Why is there a why

798
00:50:17,640 --> 00:50:20,840
Speaker 1: that makes sense? And is the answer to that question

799
00:50:21,960 --> 00:50:24,040
Speaker 1: something we can all use to advocate on.

800
00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:29,160
Speaker 4: I think I think one thing I would say is

801
00:50:29,239 --> 00:50:31,680
Speaker 4: you're doing it right now, right You're doing one of

802
00:50:31,719 --> 00:50:36,960
Speaker 4: the most important things, which is helping people understand the

803
00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:40,799
Speaker 4: continuum of what is happening with abortion bands. Right by

804
00:50:41,239 --> 00:50:44,120
Speaker 4: sharing Kate Cox's story, we are talking about again, as

805
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:48,279
Speaker 4: I said, like abortion bands make pregnancy more dangerous. It's

806
00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:51,880
Speaker 4: a clear case right with Kate Cox. And you know,

807
00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:54,360
Speaker 4: the very notion that she had to go before a

808
00:50:54,480 --> 00:50:58,920
Speaker 4: judge to justify health care that she needed, right, she

809
00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:03,200
Speaker 4: had to justify not dying, to share her name, to

810
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:05,279
Speaker 4: share her story, all of these things which should be

811
00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:07,880
Speaker 4: private medical decisions that she's making with her families, with

812
00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:11,320
Speaker 4: their provider, whatever. And the fact that she had to

813
00:51:11,440 --> 00:51:14,080
Speaker 4: travel outside of state in order to get the care.

814
00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:16,320
Speaker 4: And I have stories like that every single day that

815
00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:19,640
Speaker 4: come into you know, come into our folks who come

816
00:51:19,680 --> 00:51:22,080
Speaker 4: into our health centers, who are getting on planes and

817
00:51:22,200 --> 00:51:25,239
Speaker 4: navigating TSA while they're miscarrying or because they need to

818
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:28,440
Speaker 4: get access to care. It's it's it's horrific. But the

819
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:32,360
Speaker 4: other piece is bringing bringing to light what is happening

820
00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:37,120
Speaker 4: to Brittany Watts. Because the criminalization right when you when

821
00:51:37,160 --> 00:51:41,440
Speaker 4: you lose a constitutionally protected right, the criminalization of pregnancy

822
00:51:41,480 --> 00:51:44,839
Speaker 4: outcomes particularly among black and other women of color who

823
00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:48,320
Speaker 4: are often over policed and they are more vulnerable. And

824
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:52,040
Speaker 4: we have to see all of us as a as

825
00:51:52,320 --> 00:51:56,080
Speaker 4: how we are being impacted and disproportionately impacted by these bands.

826
00:51:56,719 --> 00:52:00,600
Speaker 4: And right before the Dobbs decision, had been doing a

827
00:52:00,640 --> 00:52:04,319
Speaker 4: lot of work at the National Office around just understanding

828
00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:08,640
Speaker 4: what the you know, whether or not people believe that

829
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:11,200
Speaker 4: Row would be overturned. We knew we could see the

830
00:52:11,239 --> 00:52:14,000
Speaker 4: writing on the wall, right, and if you didn't believe it,

831
00:52:14,239 --> 00:52:18,040
Speaker 4: you know, in twenty one you certainly heard it, you know,

832
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:20,600
Speaker 4: in the oral arguments, And so to not believe that

833
00:52:20,760 --> 00:52:23,400
Speaker 4: going into twenty two that Dobbs' screeno term was kind

834
00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:26,640
Speaker 4: of it was actually a seventy percent gap in people

835
00:52:26,680 --> 00:52:30,000
Speaker 4: who believed and didn't believe. Yeah, only thirty percent of

836
00:52:30,040 --> 00:52:34,960
Speaker 4: people actually believed that Roe would be overturned. I believe

837
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:40,160
Speaker 4: that that believability gap rested on an empathy gap, right,

838
00:52:40,760 --> 00:52:45,640
Speaker 4: because the people did not believe what was happening what

839
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:49,120
Speaker 4: happened to them, right, that they would be affected, they

840
00:52:49,160 --> 00:52:51,360
Speaker 4: would have the access, they would have the resources, they

841
00:52:51,400 --> 00:52:53,399
Speaker 4: would have the ability to think about it. They were

842
00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:56,719
Speaker 4: not centering the people who were always most harmed by

843
00:52:57,000 --> 00:53:01,279
Speaker 4: abortion bents an understanding that when they are harmed, that

844
00:53:01,600 --> 00:53:04,120
Speaker 4: you also will be harmed in that process, right, And

845
00:53:04,200 --> 00:53:06,239
Speaker 4: I think that that is something that I think is

846
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:09,799
Speaker 4: really important. I think the second thing to understand here

847
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:12,799
Speaker 4: is that there is no state we're banning abortion where

848
00:53:12,800 --> 00:53:16,640
Speaker 4: criminalizing abortion is popular. Right. Public opinion is very much

849
00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:19,680
Speaker 4: on the side of reproductive freedom, and we have to

850
00:53:19,920 --> 00:53:23,960
Speaker 4: remember that and keep saying that because the reason why

851
00:53:24,400 --> 00:53:27,760
Speaker 4: we have these bands is because the opposition has locked

852
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:30,920
Speaker 4: in a structural advantage, a political advantage in these states

853
00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:37,359
Speaker 4: by jerrymandering, through pushing through judges, through my earliest point, right,

854
00:53:37,480 --> 00:53:42,680
Speaker 4: standing in power towards this diabolical and perverse end. Ken

855
00:53:42,719 --> 00:53:45,640
Speaker 4: Paxton didn't have nerve, he had perversion. And we have

856
00:53:45,719 --> 00:53:49,080
Speaker 4: to be really clear about the fact that standing in

857
00:53:49,200 --> 00:53:54,160
Speaker 4: your power to deny someone freedom is not golf, it's

858
00:53:54,239 --> 00:53:59,600
Speaker 4: not courage, right, That is a diabolical perversion to control

859
00:54:00,160 --> 00:54:01,279
Speaker 4: someone's come.

860
00:54:02,280 --> 00:54:06,239
Speaker 1: So that yeah, so when people because I do think

861
00:54:06,280 --> 00:54:08,080
Speaker 1: a lot of people will hear those words that you

862
00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:11,719
Speaker 1: just spoke and say, but why what's the point If

863
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:14,680
Speaker 1: it's not popular with the people, if they have to

864
00:54:14,920 --> 00:54:19,520
Speaker 1: essentially break the laws of democracy and and act in

865
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:22,880
Speaker 1: opposition to the United States Constitution to do this stuff,

866
00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:24,600
Speaker 1: why are they doing it?

867
00:54:25,520 --> 00:54:28,080
Speaker 3: What's what's the real answer there?

868
00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:33,400
Speaker 4: What's the endgame? You know? I again, I think it

869
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:36,200
Speaker 4: is this we I tell my team all the time,

870
00:54:36,239 --> 00:54:38,680
Speaker 4: we're on the front lines of fighting fascism, right, this

871
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:41,760
Speaker 4: is this is about this is about power and control.

872
00:54:42,160 --> 00:54:45,440
Speaker 4: The cruelty is actually the point. And I don't think

873
00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:47,479
Speaker 4: it serves us to try to get in the minds

874
00:54:47,480 --> 00:54:50,960
Speaker 4: of what the endgame is. It really is about locking

875
00:54:51,120 --> 00:54:57,279
Speaker 4: in power and control for the next generation. Right. You know,

876
00:54:57,560 --> 00:55:01,919
Speaker 4: they're for for a whole host of reason, and there's

877
00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:03,680
Speaker 4: a lot of strange bedfellows that are part of the

878
00:55:03,719 --> 00:55:09,400
Speaker 4: conversation of reproductive oppression. But I think what's most important

879
00:55:09,640 --> 00:55:14,319
Speaker 4: for us to understand is the majority is on our side. Right,

880
00:55:14,560 --> 00:55:17,239
Speaker 4: So question is what do we do with that? You know,

881
00:55:17,400 --> 00:55:19,560
Speaker 4: what do we do with that? Going into twenty twenty

882
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:24,680
Speaker 4: four knowing that we have you know, six ballot initiatives

883
00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:29,840
Speaker 4: that are incredibly important that reproductive rights champions up and

884
00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:33,560
Speaker 4: down the ballot are going to be engaging at least six. Right,

885
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:37,200
Speaker 4: we know that we have seen consistently every time that

886
00:55:37,280 --> 00:55:40,040
Speaker 4: abortion is on the ballot, that freedom wins. And to

887
00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:42,919
Speaker 4: your point, we don't get a Kansas, you don't get

888
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:46,440
Speaker 4: in Ohio, you don't get a Montana or a Kentucky

889
00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:51,040
Speaker 4: if you don't have Republican women showing up and saying, hey,

890
00:55:51,239 --> 00:55:54,480
Speaker 4: not my body, No, this is not going to happen.

891
00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:56,840
Speaker 1: So can you tell folks at home when you reference

892
00:55:56,920 --> 00:56:01,680
Speaker 1: those states what some of those wins are and and

893
00:56:01,880 --> 00:56:04,480
Speaker 1: what some of these ballad initiatives, the six you're speaking

894
00:56:04,520 --> 00:56:07,000
Speaker 1: of are coming in twenty twenty four.

895
00:56:07,520 --> 00:56:12,280
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure. The look the winds were the twenty

896
00:56:12,360 --> 00:56:15,359
Speaker 4: two mid terms, right, I mean right after right after

897
00:56:15,480 --> 00:56:18,520
Speaker 4: Dobbs was over. Keep saying Dobbs the return that is,

898
00:56:18,680 --> 00:56:22,120
Speaker 4: that's where we're going to go in fifteen years, Right

899
00:56:22,160 --> 00:56:25,719
Speaker 4: after Row was overturned. You know, the first ballot initiative

900
00:56:25,840 --> 00:56:30,440
Speaker 4: was was Kansas right to kind of protect and how

901
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:35,920
Speaker 4: to by the abortion rights in the Constitution. And after Kansas,

902
00:56:36,080 --> 00:56:39,480
Speaker 4: we saw a number of other ballot initiatives and another

903
00:56:39,560 --> 00:56:44,560
Speaker 4: five states where people came you know, out from across

904
00:56:44,719 --> 00:56:48,320
Speaker 4: the you know, across their states to stand up for

905
00:56:48,440 --> 00:56:51,960
Speaker 4: reproductive freedom. That also helps stave off the you know

906
00:56:52,160 --> 00:56:54,680
Speaker 4: what many expected would be a red wave of the

907
00:56:54,760 --> 00:56:57,279
Speaker 4: of the midterms. Right, So I think that it's really

908
00:56:57,320 --> 00:57:01,400
Speaker 4: important for us to understand that again we are the majority,

909
00:57:01,480 --> 00:57:04,640
Speaker 4: and when we show up our power, right, we stand

910
00:57:04,680 --> 00:57:06,759
Speaker 4: in our power, and we stand in our values and

911
00:57:06,840 --> 00:57:10,440
Speaker 4: our like that actually does get a return on investment

912
00:57:10,560 --> 00:57:16,640
Speaker 4: that is actualizing and creating protections for abortion access in

913
00:57:16,840 --> 00:57:22,720
Speaker 4: state constitutions. We have lost the federal protection to our

914
00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:27,240
Speaker 4: right to abortion when Roe was overturned, but state by state,

915
00:57:27,520 --> 00:57:32,680
Speaker 4: we are able to codify or enforce protections under various

916
00:57:32,680 --> 00:57:34,960
Speaker 4: state constitutions, all of which are unique and different have

917
00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:39,320
Speaker 4: to be approached in different ways. So that's twenty two

918
00:57:39,760 --> 00:57:44,240
Speaker 4: this year and another critically important BALLID initiative in Ohio

919
00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:49,400
Speaker 4: that also helped us protect abortion access in Ohio, which

920
00:57:49,440 --> 00:57:53,080
Speaker 4: is so important when you think about the vast majority

921
00:57:53,120 --> 00:57:57,720
Speaker 4: of those twenty one states that have restrictions where people

922
00:57:57,960 --> 00:58:01,400
Speaker 4: are traveling, you know, if I leave you know, New

923
00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:03,360
Speaker 4: York and I hit you know, Virginia is the last

924
00:58:03,400 --> 00:58:05,080
Speaker 4: state in the South. I have to go all the

925
00:58:05,160 --> 00:58:06,680
Speaker 4: way down and make a left and get to New

926
00:58:06,760 --> 00:58:09,000
Speaker 4: Mexico before I can get access to abortion again.

927
00:58:09,400 --> 00:58:09,920
Speaker 3: So Ohio.

928
00:58:10,200 --> 00:58:14,320
Speaker 4: People are traveling upwards of nine hundred miles to Ohio

929
00:58:14,720 --> 00:58:18,000
Speaker 4: and to Illinois and to places Michigan, places you know

930
00:58:18,120 --> 00:58:23,000
Speaker 4: in the Midwest that also protect us Florida. Next year,

931
00:58:23,960 --> 00:58:26,480
Speaker 4: I think there's six ballot initiatives. There's two that I

932
00:58:26,560 --> 00:58:28,840
Speaker 4: think are among the most important. And I don't want

933
00:58:28,840 --> 00:58:30,880
Speaker 4: to play favorites with balloon issues because I think they're

934
00:58:30,880 --> 00:58:33,480
Speaker 4: all They're all critically important because they all improve access

935
00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:35,960
Speaker 4: for folks and areas. But I just want to pick

936
00:58:36,000 --> 00:58:39,480
Speaker 4: on two for a second, which is Florida. And the

937
00:58:39,800 --> 00:58:43,360
Speaker 4: organization that is organizing this ballot initiative is Florida Floridians

938
00:58:43,400 --> 00:58:47,440
Speaker 4: Protecting Freedom. They are on track to put abortion on

939
00:58:47,480 --> 00:58:53,720
Speaker 4: the ballot right now. And Florida is such a critical

940
00:58:53,840 --> 00:58:57,680
Speaker 4: access state in the South. Right all of those people

941
00:58:57,760 --> 00:59:00,440
Speaker 4: in the South to go to Florida. All people in

942
00:59:00,440 --> 00:59:03,040
Speaker 4: the global South who are coming in from you know,

943
00:59:03,920 --> 00:59:07,440
Speaker 4: other parts of the Southern hemisphere who land in the

944
00:59:07,560 --> 00:59:10,280
Speaker 4: United States need to be able to get access to

945
00:59:10,360 --> 00:59:14,920
Speaker 4: care as well. So Florida sees the largest population of

946
00:59:15,240 --> 00:59:18,000
Speaker 4: people who are getting abortion to the South. And if

947
00:59:18,080 --> 00:59:23,440
Speaker 4: Florida no longer has the ability to provide those abortions,

948
00:59:24,600 --> 00:59:27,760
Speaker 4: those eighty thousand folks are going to you know, have

949
00:59:27,880 --> 00:59:31,520
Speaker 4: to travel even further and they will overwhelm the infrastructure

950
00:59:32,040 --> 00:59:36,560
Speaker 4: that you know has already been compromised by jobs. Right,

951
00:59:37,640 --> 00:59:40,600
Speaker 4: So it's important any anybody who's doing anything right now.

952
00:59:40,680 --> 00:59:44,320
Speaker 4: Supporting Florida is like my number one, My number one

953
00:59:44,400 --> 00:59:47,880
Speaker 4: ask New York is also has a valid initiative And

954
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:50,520
Speaker 4: here I actually think it's really important for us to understand, Yes,

955
00:59:50,600 --> 00:59:54,880
Speaker 4: New York's access state. We obviously friendly lawmakers and get

956
00:59:54,920 --> 00:59:58,560
Speaker 4: too comfortable resources and everything. We can't get too comfortable.

957
00:59:58,840 --> 01:00:02,520
Speaker 4: But the opportunity here right in states where you do

958
01:00:02,880 --> 01:00:05,760
Speaker 4: have power, right, states like California, where you do have

959
01:00:05,920 --> 01:00:10,320
Speaker 4: the ability to push and expand access becomes really important.

960
01:00:10,720 --> 01:00:13,480
Speaker 4: But in New York there's a balid initiative to really

961
01:00:13,600 --> 01:00:18,480
Speaker 4: test the language around what is equality right? What does

962
01:00:18,520 --> 01:00:23,120
Speaker 4: it actually mean for our to be included in a

963
01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:28,040
Speaker 4: state constitution as with the rights including the rights as

964
01:00:28,040 --> 01:00:34,760
Speaker 4: a pregnant person to terminate your pregnancy is a really

965
01:00:34,880 --> 01:00:37,680
Speaker 4: powerful kind of way for us to come back and

966
01:00:37,840 --> 01:00:40,840
Speaker 4: solve for some of the challenges that again Roe never did.

967
01:00:41,960 --> 01:00:43,920
Speaker 4: And so I do think it's important for us to

968
01:00:43,920 --> 01:00:46,680
Speaker 4: pay attention to opportunities where we can expand and push

969
01:00:47,080 --> 01:00:50,640
Speaker 4: and test laws and states where are favorable, and also

970
01:00:50,760 --> 01:00:53,280
Speaker 4: making sure that we're holding on to every less bastion

971
01:00:53,480 --> 01:00:55,800
Speaker 4: because we know that's where the people are. Yeah, that's

972
01:00:55,800 --> 01:00:56,640
Speaker 4: where I would engage.

973
01:00:57,040 --> 01:00:59,120
Speaker 3: We'll be back in just a minute, but here's a

974
01:00:59,160 --> 01:00:59,960
Speaker 3: word from our sponsor.

975
01:01:04,040 --> 01:01:06,080
Speaker 1: I want to just take a second tell our listeners

976
01:01:06,080 --> 01:01:08,320
Speaker 1: at home that we will put together a list of

977
01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:12,480
Speaker 1: these ballot initiatives that Alexis is referring to, and we'll

978
01:01:12,520 --> 01:01:16,560
Speaker 1: make sure to share them in the stories for this episode,

979
01:01:16,560 --> 01:01:18,600
Speaker 1: because we want to make sure you guys are able to,

980
01:01:18,960 --> 01:01:21,240
Speaker 1: you know, make notes of these things, know what's happening

981
01:01:21,320 --> 01:01:24,000
Speaker 1: in your state, know what's happening in surrounding states where

982
01:01:24,040 --> 01:01:26,680
Speaker 1: you can lend your voice, where you can reach out

983
01:01:26,720 --> 01:01:30,200
Speaker 1: to family, and you know, really track this stuff through

984
01:01:30,280 --> 01:01:32,720
Speaker 1: the year. One of the other things that I know

985
01:01:32,920 --> 01:01:36,000
Speaker 1: is coming down the pipeline fast and hot, is the

986
01:01:36,080 --> 01:01:38,320
Speaker 1: Supreme Court is going to be hearing a case on

987
01:01:38,880 --> 01:01:43,200
Speaker 1: Miffy Priston, which is medication abortion and that's used in

988
01:01:43,280 --> 01:01:46,120
Speaker 1: more than fifty percent of abortions in the US. It

989
01:01:47,960 --> 01:01:51,720
Speaker 1: has been proven to be safer than viagra. It is

990
01:01:51,840 --> 01:01:57,840
Speaker 1: a safe, trustworthy medication that can assist people, particularly you know,

991
01:01:58,040 --> 01:02:01,200
Speaker 1: when they find out that they're pregnant very early in

992
01:02:01,640 --> 01:02:05,320
Speaker 1: not being so should they need to not be or

993
01:02:05,440 --> 01:02:06,080
Speaker 1: want to not be?

994
01:02:07,200 --> 01:02:07,240
Speaker 3: What?

995
01:02:09,200 --> 01:02:12,600
Speaker 1: What can you tell us about what you know about

996
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:16,720
Speaker 1: the case so far? And you know, I know so

997
01:02:16,840 --> 01:02:19,920
Speaker 1: many of us feel rather powerless in the face of

998
01:02:20,000 --> 01:02:23,200
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court, particularly because it was hijacked by the

999
01:02:23,280 --> 01:02:28,560
Speaker 1: former president for political gain in such an abhorrent way,

1000
01:02:29,200 --> 01:02:32,080
Speaker 1: aided obviously by Mitch McConnell's you know, railroading and then

1001
01:02:32,240 --> 01:02:37,120
Speaker 1: ramming people through the double standard during the Obama administration.

1002
01:02:37,200 --> 01:02:40,280
Speaker 1: In the Trump administration was wild to watch happen in public.

1003
01:02:41,680 --> 01:02:44,480
Speaker 1: What do you think is going to happen? And is

1004
01:02:44,600 --> 01:02:48,600
Speaker 1: there anything we as a citizenry can do? Are there

1005
01:02:48,800 --> 01:02:52,120
Speaker 1: petitions to sign? Are there marches to hit? You know,

1006
01:02:52,440 --> 01:02:56,160
Speaker 1: what do we do to stand up for our rights

1007
01:02:56,480 --> 01:02:59,240
Speaker 1: in the face of this impending court case?

1008
01:03:00,680 --> 01:03:03,200
Speaker 4: Well, it's wild right that we are back at the

1009
01:03:03,240 --> 01:03:09,600
Speaker 4: Supreme Court next year again going into another critical election

1010
01:03:11,080 --> 01:03:14,120
Speaker 4: where the court is going to decide the fate of

1011
01:03:14,160 --> 01:03:16,240
Speaker 4: Mifri pristone, and I should do like one little really

1012
01:03:16,320 --> 01:03:19,080
Speaker 4: quick PSA. I want people to understand them Miffi pristone

1013
01:03:19,160 --> 01:03:21,360
Speaker 4: remains on the market, that people are able to get

1014
01:03:21,400 --> 01:03:23,560
Speaker 4: access to mif for perstone right now, and the people

1015
01:03:23,880 --> 01:03:26,200
Speaker 4: who made need Miffi pristone right now, and I want

1016
01:03:26,280 --> 01:03:29,120
Speaker 4: them to understand that it is actually still accessible where

1017
01:03:29,120 --> 01:03:33,600
Speaker 4: abortion is legal. But yeah, it's just emblematic of what

1018
01:03:33,680 --> 01:03:36,840
Speaker 4: we're talking about. Courts and politicians are deciding what medicines

1019
01:03:36,880 --> 01:03:39,360
Speaker 4: are available, you know, to the public and how they

1020
01:03:39,400 --> 01:03:44,840
Speaker 4: can be administered is bonkers. I think in terms of

1021
01:03:44,920 --> 01:03:48,680
Speaker 4: what we can do, it is about telling the stories right.

1022
01:03:48,800 --> 01:03:54,240
Speaker 4: It is about helping the court understand the many Kate

1023
01:03:54,320 --> 01:03:57,240
Speaker 4: Cox's stories, the many Brittany Watts stories, the many of

1024
01:03:57,320 --> 01:04:00,720
Speaker 4: the untold pregnant people who have been in pacted by

1025
01:04:01,480 --> 01:04:06,400
Speaker 4: abortion bands and criminalization over this last year. It's helping

1026
01:04:06,480 --> 01:04:10,960
Speaker 4: them understand the havoc and the chaos and the control

1027
01:04:11,800 --> 01:04:15,160
Speaker 4: that they have ranked on half the population. I think

1028
01:04:15,240 --> 01:04:18,600
Speaker 4: that is I think really important. And obviously we know

1029
01:04:19,200 --> 01:04:22,280
Speaker 4: justices do pay attention to the things that they are

1030
01:04:22,360 --> 01:04:26,560
Speaker 4: hearing and reading and understanding. And so I think having

1031
01:04:26,600 --> 01:04:30,080
Speaker 4: the people's voice out there is the strongest, you know,

1032
01:04:30,280 --> 01:04:34,680
Speaker 4: is the strongest play per se for the court. Right.

1033
01:04:35,800 --> 01:04:39,560
Speaker 4: But we also know that our work next year is

1034
01:04:39,720 --> 01:04:42,720
Speaker 4: about ensuring that we have a governing majority of people

1035
01:04:42,720 --> 01:04:45,320
Speaker 4: who will fight for reproductive freedom. Right that looks like

1036
01:04:45,720 --> 01:04:48,760
Speaker 4: returning the Biden Harris administration back into office who have

1037
01:04:48,840 --> 01:04:54,240
Speaker 4: been consistent powerful champions of reproductive freedom over this last term.

1038
01:04:54,840 --> 01:04:57,640
Speaker 4: It means ensuring that we get a Senate that will

1039
01:04:57,800 --> 01:05:01,440
Speaker 4: fight and also down the filibuster so that we can

1040
01:05:01,520 --> 01:05:05,280
Speaker 4: pass federal legislation to codify right to restore road. We

1041
01:05:05,400 --> 01:05:08,600
Speaker 4: need to actually build rowback better, right like, because like

1042
01:05:08,680 --> 01:05:10,200
Speaker 4: I said, rowe with the floor, we need to build

1043
01:05:10,240 --> 01:05:13,800
Speaker 4: that back better. And that means ensuring that we have

1044
01:05:13,880 --> 01:05:16,880
Speaker 4: a Senate and a Senate majority that is willing to

1045
01:05:18,360 --> 01:05:21,240
Speaker 4: reform the filibuster in order to get that legislation passed.

1046
01:05:21,840 --> 01:05:24,120
Speaker 4: And you know, and it also means, you know, for

1047
01:05:24,240 --> 01:05:27,240
Speaker 4: someone New York in California becomes really important because we

1048
01:05:27,320 --> 01:05:32,400
Speaker 4: have an opportunity to get back to a House of

1049
01:05:32,480 --> 01:05:37,160
Speaker 4: Representatives that has a reproductive freedom majority, and we have

1050
01:05:37,320 --> 01:05:40,760
Speaker 4: been winning so many of these races. We know that

1051
01:05:40,840 --> 01:05:44,440
Speaker 4: the population is with us, right, like the people are

1052
01:05:44,520 --> 01:05:47,320
Speaker 4: with us one hundred percent, bar nun. And that's why

1053
01:05:47,360 --> 01:05:50,120
Speaker 4: they're scared. That's why they're trying to change democracy, because

1054
01:05:50,160 --> 01:05:52,600
Speaker 4: they know that we actually really care about our freedom.

1055
01:05:52,720 --> 01:05:54,760
Speaker 4: They think we're going to like be thinking about inflation

1056
01:05:55,200 --> 01:05:59,040
Speaker 4: something else that we somehow forgot that they stripped us

1057
01:05:59,080 --> 01:06:02,640
Speaker 4: from our rights. But we're experiencing it in so many

1058
01:06:02,680 --> 01:06:07,720
Speaker 4: different ways. These stories that we're hearing are are not distant, right, Like,

1059
01:06:08,080 --> 01:06:10,720
Speaker 4: you know, I know a Caate Cox, right. I don't

1060
01:06:10,760 --> 01:06:12,480
Speaker 4: know her, but I know a Caate Cox, right. I

1061
01:06:12,600 --> 01:06:15,920
Speaker 4: know I know the people who are being harmed by

1062
01:06:16,160 --> 01:06:19,600
Speaker 4: these bands, and and and I think people are really

1063
01:06:19,760 --> 01:06:22,560
Speaker 4: you know, continue to be fired up and engaged to

1064
01:06:23,240 --> 01:06:25,560
Speaker 4: support reproductive freedom. So it is going to be a

1065
01:06:25,640 --> 01:06:29,160
Speaker 4: long march into into twenty four. It's it's already here.

1066
01:06:30,800 --> 01:06:33,720
Speaker 4: But I think in order to honor, you know, when

1067
01:06:33,720 --> 01:06:37,960
Speaker 4: I think about honoring and standing not just on the

1068
01:06:38,080 --> 01:06:40,880
Speaker 4: shoulders of folks like my mom that I that I

1069
01:06:41,000 --> 01:06:44,400
Speaker 4: referenced earlier, or the freedom fighters who who have who

1070
01:06:44,480 --> 01:06:47,919
Speaker 4: have kind of blazed the paths for us, but also

1071
01:06:48,160 --> 01:06:51,360
Speaker 4: standing in our power in the same way the opposition does,

1072
01:06:51,560 --> 01:06:54,720
Speaker 4: and not letting anybody forget that we are the majority.

1073
01:06:55,400 --> 01:06:57,120
Speaker 4: They may be afraid of that, but that is not

1074
01:06:58,520 --> 01:07:01,000
Speaker 4: that is that is not the Our endgame is to

1075
01:07:01,040 --> 01:07:04,960
Speaker 4: make sure that we're able to hold on to our

1076
01:07:05,000 --> 01:07:07,880
Speaker 4: fight for reproductive freedom because it's so critical right now.

1077
01:07:08,120 --> 01:07:13,600
Speaker 1: Yes, I think, if anything, the fight for reproductive autonomy

1078
01:07:13,680 --> 01:07:19,640
Speaker 1: has really taught me that to your point earlier, our

1079
01:07:19,720 --> 01:07:23,800
Speaker 1: democratic ideals are incredible. We have not lived up to

1080
01:07:23,920 --> 01:07:28,400
Speaker 1: them yet. But the north star of what equity was

1081
01:07:28,520 --> 01:07:30,880
Speaker 1: meant to be is meant to be in the United

1082
01:07:30,880 --> 01:07:33,960
Speaker 1: States should always be the goal that we push toward.

1083
01:07:34,840 --> 01:07:38,600
Speaker 1: And the fight for reproductive autonomy makes it so clear

1084
01:07:38,680 --> 01:07:42,080
Speaker 1: to me that democracy is not just an ideal but

1085
01:07:42,200 --> 01:07:44,320
Speaker 1: actually has to be looked at as a verb. We

1086
01:07:44,600 --> 01:07:47,440
Speaker 1: have to we have to enact it, we have to

1087
01:07:48,040 --> 01:07:50,720
Speaker 1: participate in it, and we have to pressure test it

1088
01:07:50,840 --> 01:07:55,440
Speaker 1: all the time, because when we get comfortable, when we think, oh,

1089
01:07:55,480 --> 01:07:58,320
Speaker 1: we've passed this law, that's done now, it's not.

1090
01:07:58,680 --> 01:08:01,920
Speaker 3: We have to hold the line, and we've been pushed

1091
01:08:02,080 --> 01:08:03,440
Speaker 3: back and back.

1092
01:08:04,760 --> 01:08:09,320
Speaker 1: Off of this line of to your point, imperfect equity, certainly,

1093
01:08:09,480 --> 01:08:12,960
Speaker 1: But if We're going to build back better with Row.

1094
01:08:13,440 --> 01:08:16,120
Speaker 1: We have to reclaim this territory and then we have

1095
01:08:16,240 --> 01:08:18,720
Speaker 1: to continue to hold it and push it and it

1096
01:08:19,280 --> 01:08:22,360
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how relieved in a way it

1097
01:08:22,439 --> 01:08:26,720
Speaker 1: makes me feel to hear you talk about recreating a

1098
01:08:26,920 --> 01:08:30,920
Speaker 1: better Row as a possibility, because that was going to

1099
01:08:30,960 --> 01:08:32,639
Speaker 1: be my next question for you was do you think

1100
01:08:32,680 --> 01:08:35,720
Speaker 1: we can ever get get Row back? And then some

1101
01:08:36,360 --> 01:08:38,400
Speaker 1: and clearly you do and I'm like, oh, thank.

1102
01:08:38,320 --> 01:08:42,880
Speaker 4: God, yeah, no, I mean, you know, we have to

1103
01:08:42,920 --> 01:08:45,360
Speaker 4: build a plan from twenty four to twenty forty. Right,

1104
01:08:45,439 --> 01:08:47,479
Speaker 4: I'm obviously laser focused on what we need to do

1105
01:08:47,640 --> 01:08:51,320
Speaker 4: in the immediate but we have the opportunity and again

1106
01:08:51,720 --> 01:08:56,320
Speaker 4: knowing where the electorate is right making sure they understand

1107
01:08:56,360 --> 01:08:59,880
Speaker 4: that they do have the leavers at you know, at

1108
01:09:00,040 --> 01:09:03,720
Speaker 4: their fingertip, literally at their fingertips to elect you know,

1109
01:09:03,800 --> 01:09:07,040
Speaker 4: reproductive Freedom Champions is so important. But we do have

1110
01:09:07,240 --> 01:09:09,280
Speaker 4: to think about what it will take for us to

1111
01:09:09,320 --> 01:09:11,439
Speaker 4: get back into the Constitution. We have to lay the

1112
01:09:11,479 --> 01:09:14,320
Speaker 4: ground for the next question that will hit the next

1113
01:09:14,479 --> 01:09:16,760
Speaker 4: Supreme Court, and that may not be in a time

1114
01:09:17,040 --> 01:09:19,560
Speaker 4: that we are still here. Right, maybe when eleven and

1115
01:09:19,640 --> 01:09:23,479
Speaker 4: fourteen year old daughters see that come to fruition. But

1116
01:09:23,600 --> 01:09:26,760
Speaker 4: instilling that fight in now and that expectation that we

1117
01:09:26,880 --> 01:09:29,120
Speaker 4: are not you know that you know, when you take

1118
01:09:29,160 --> 01:09:31,200
Speaker 4: away our freedoms, we are going to continue to fight

1119
01:09:31,360 --> 01:09:34,160
Speaker 4: until we get them back. That this is not a

1120
01:09:34,200 --> 01:09:37,040
Speaker 4: future state. I think it's really important. I also think

1121
01:09:37,040 --> 01:09:40,720
Speaker 4: it's really important Sofia, that we're living in really dark

1122
01:09:40,760 --> 01:09:45,840
Speaker 4: times right now, and hopelessness is really a luxury. You know,

1123
01:09:45,880 --> 01:09:50,679
Speaker 4: there's so many people who are experiencing incredible harms based

1124
01:09:50,760 --> 01:09:55,120
Speaker 4: on these you know, abortion being criminalized in their states,

1125
01:09:55,680 --> 01:09:58,000
Speaker 4: and we have to actually build I talked about the

1126
01:09:58,360 --> 01:10:01,160
Speaker 4: movement infrastructure that was so important. I also think hope

1127
01:10:01,200 --> 01:10:05,560
Speaker 4: needs an infrastructure, right. Hope needs people who will consistently

1128
01:10:05,640 --> 01:10:10,040
Speaker 4: choose Hope. Who will you know, help support the providers

1129
01:10:10,080 --> 01:10:13,120
Speaker 4: on the front line, the people who are patient navigation,

1130
01:10:13,400 --> 01:10:16,439
Speaker 4: you know, helping them navigate from one city to the next,

1131
01:10:16,840 --> 01:10:20,479
Speaker 4: helping abortion funds, you know who. We're providing resources critically

1132
01:10:20,640 --> 01:10:24,200
Speaker 4: for people and as they as they go on their journey,

1133
01:10:24,720 --> 01:10:27,280
Speaker 4: people who are going to litigate these fights right. Thank

1134
01:10:27,360 --> 01:10:29,240
Speaker 4: god that Kate Cox was able to call the Center

1135
01:10:29,280 --> 01:10:31,080
Speaker 4: for Reproductive Rights and a lawyer took her case and

1136
01:10:31,160 --> 01:10:33,560
Speaker 4: helped her, you know, get through that, you know, and

1137
01:10:33,800 --> 01:10:37,560
Speaker 4: supporting folks like Brittany Watts as well, who you know,

1138
01:10:37,680 --> 01:10:41,000
Speaker 4: are now facing a criminalization, right, a totally different kind

1139
01:10:41,080 --> 01:10:45,599
Speaker 4: of you know, litigation challenge. And so I do think

1140
01:10:45,680 --> 01:10:51,000
Speaker 4: that whatever we can do as individuals and as communities

1141
01:10:51,040 --> 01:10:54,200
Speaker 4: and as networks of folks to come together to be

1142
01:10:54,360 --> 01:10:58,880
Speaker 4: that infrastructure of hope for the patients right now, that

1143
01:10:59,040 --> 01:11:03,840
Speaker 4: will also help us change and transform our culture in

1144
01:11:03,960 --> 01:11:08,200
Speaker 4: a way that maybe sometimes for many, will precede the

1145
01:11:08,280 --> 01:11:10,640
Speaker 4: policy change that we need to see. Right, it's not

1146
01:11:10,800 --> 01:11:13,040
Speaker 4: just about electing people. It is about electing people. I

1147
01:11:13,080 --> 01:11:15,880
Speaker 4: shouldn't say that it is about electing people, but sometimes

1148
01:11:16,360 --> 01:11:19,840
Speaker 4: it's also about changing the culture and helping people understand

1149
01:11:19,960 --> 01:11:24,080
Speaker 4: that culture change oftentimes precedes policy and political change, and

1150
01:11:24,160 --> 01:11:26,640
Speaker 4: that we have to make sure we as stewards of

1151
01:11:26,720 --> 01:11:31,240
Speaker 4: the culture, stay deeply invested here, telling our stories, supporting

1152
01:11:31,320 --> 01:11:35,240
Speaker 4: the people, and making the case at every turn why

1153
01:11:35,320 --> 01:11:38,519
Speaker 4: these policies are harmful and that will create the conditions

1154
01:11:38,560 --> 01:11:39,800
Speaker 4: for change in the future as well.

1155
01:11:40,240 --> 01:11:41,520
Speaker 3: Yes, because.

1156
01:11:42,800 --> 01:11:47,120
Speaker 1: We can't just focus on policy, We have to focus

1157
01:11:47,200 --> 01:11:48,880
Speaker 1: on the personal. We have to have the hope we

1158
01:11:49,000 --> 01:11:51,800
Speaker 1: have to build the community. That's what keeps us going.

1159
01:11:52,760 --> 01:11:55,560
Speaker 1: When you think about that, you know, I imagine that

1160
01:11:55,680 --> 01:11:57,599
Speaker 1: most of the folks at home listening are like, where

1161
01:11:57,640 --> 01:11:58,320
Speaker 1: do I sign up?

1162
01:11:58,360 --> 01:11:59,040
Speaker 4: And what do I do?

1163
01:12:00,080 --> 01:12:05,880
Speaker 1: Uh So, my two questions for you are, what can

1164
01:12:05,960 --> 01:12:09,760
Speaker 1: people in need of an abortion do today? Where can

1165
01:12:09,840 --> 01:12:12,960
Speaker 1: people turn? What's the first thing you know they should

1166
01:12:13,240 --> 01:12:17,240
Speaker 1: look up online? And how can people at home who

1167
01:12:17,320 --> 01:12:20,160
Speaker 1: want to get involved in this fight join rank and

1168
01:12:21,040 --> 01:12:25,160
Speaker 1: show up to create that culture of hope that you're referencing.

1169
01:12:27,080 --> 01:12:29,639
Speaker 4: So CNN an abortion you can go to abortionfinder dot org.

1170
01:12:31,160 --> 01:12:34,920
Speaker 4: That is a website that is run by Power to Decide,

1171
01:12:35,160 --> 01:12:38,519
Speaker 4: has you know, appointments from Plant parenthos from independent providers

1172
01:12:38,560 --> 01:12:41,920
Speaker 4: who will help people understand what the rules are in

1173
01:12:42,040 --> 01:12:45,479
Speaker 4: their state because we also know they've changed, you know, quickly,

1174
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:50,240
Speaker 4: and get access to to the care. If you want

1175
01:12:50,280 --> 01:12:53,600
Speaker 4: to fight politically, come to Plant Parenthood Action Fund. You

1176
01:12:53,720 --> 01:12:57,719
Speaker 4: can just sign up on our website to take action

1177
01:12:58,080 --> 01:13:00,920
Speaker 4: and we will we will put you to work. Planned

1178
01:13:00,920 --> 01:13:05,640
Speaker 4: Parenthodaction dot org. And you know, look, there are no

1179
01:13:05,800 --> 01:13:11,040
Speaker 4: shortage of organizations and people who are committed to to

1180
01:13:11,120 --> 01:13:13,519
Speaker 4: getting us all to reproductive freedom. And I think It's

1181
01:13:13,600 --> 01:13:18,080
Speaker 4: really important that we look at every avenue to engage

1182
01:13:18,200 --> 01:13:22,040
Speaker 4: and stay connected and to really have these conversations, you know,

1183
01:13:22,320 --> 01:13:25,760
Speaker 4: like have these conversations over the holidays, have these conversations

1184
01:13:25,840 --> 01:13:28,600
Speaker 4: and the crosty lines, have these conversations where you know,

1185
01:13:28,760 --> 01:13:32,680
Speaker 4: on the beach, wherever you are. Because the more we

1186
01:13:32,800 --> 01:13:37,679
Speaker 4: are able to remind people, you know, that these harms

1187
01:13:37,720 --> 01:13:41,680
Speaker 4: are real and that we also have the power to

1188
01:13:41,840 --> 01:13:44,040
Speaker 4: solve them, I think, the more we'll be able to

1189
01:13:44,120 --> 01:13:46,720
Speaker 4: accelerate the change that we need to see. I love that.

1190
01:13:46,920 --> 01:13:48,720
Speaker 3: Thank you, and for you.

1191
01:13:50,280 --> 01:13:53,479
Speaker 1: As an individual, you know, you you talk about your family,

1192
01:13:53,640 --> 01:13:57,800
Speaker 1: your kids, and you also you wrap your arms not

1193
01:13:58,000 --> 01:14:01,320
Speaker 1: just around them, but around the nation, around everyone in

1194
01:14:01,439 --> 01:14:04,400
Speaker 1: need of this sort of supports. It's a big balancing

1195
01:14:04,479 --> 01:14:08,280
Speaker 1: act that you do so beautifully, where the sort of

1196
01:14:08,400 --> 01:14:12,439
Speaker 1: personal and political perhaps meet and you figure out, you know,

1197
01:14:12,520 --> 01:14:19,479
Speaker 1: in the moments, what fuels you individually, what feels like

1198
01:14:19,680 --> 01:14:22,200
Speaker 1: your work in progress right now?

1199
01:14:23,600 --> 01:14:32,559
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, honestly it has been I came into

1200
01:14:32,640 --> 01:14:37,479
Speaker 4: this role through a leadership transition. I've been leading you know,

1201
01:14:37,560 --> 01:14:45,120
Speaker 4: a healthcare organization, through COVID, through you know, the twenty

1202
01:14:45,240 --> 01:14:51,360
Speaker 4: twenty election and insurrection the you know race reckoning and

1203
01:14:51,600 --> 01:14:58,720
Speaker 4: SBA and Dobbs turning the corner into twenty four or

1204
01:14:58,760 --> 01:15:01,840
Speaker 4: into twenty three even and the first time we've really

1205
01:15:01,960 --> 01:15:05,480
Speaker 4: had as an organization to like kind of rethink, restructure,

1206
01:15:05,600 --> 01:15:10,880
Speaker 4: and really rebuild and reimagine what the fight ahead looks like. Right,

1207
01:15:11,120 --> 01:15:14,720
Speaker 4: we are not you know, we we have spent so

1208
01:15:14,960 --> 01:15:18,439
Speaker 4: many years as as you know, I've talked about kind

1209
01:15:18,479 --> 01:15:22,720
Speaker 4: of on defense, right you know, putting our fingers in

1210
01:15:22,760 --> 01:15:25,439
Speaker 4: the holes and fighting just to ensure access for it,

1211
01:15:25,560 --> 01:15:28,800
Speaker 4: you know, as many patients as possible. And now we

1212
01:15:28,920 --> 01:15:31,360
Speaker 4: do have to reimagine the right now. We do have

1213
01:15:31,560 --> 01:15:36,200
Speaker 4: to resource that strategic thinking. And that's actually my happy place,

1214
01:15:36,400 --> 01:15:38,519
Speaker 4: you know, personally and professionally. It like kind of takes

1215
01:15:38,560 --> 01:15:42,000
Speaker 4: me full circle to the theories you know that I

1216
01:15:42,080 --> 01:15:44,479
Speaker 4: started off with about like how I could get young

1217
01:15:44,720 --> 01:15:46,800
Speaker 4: hip hop heads out to the to the out of

1218
01:15:46,840 --> 01:15:49,960
Speaker 4: the barbershops and the clubs into the polls, and that

1219
01:15:51,000 --> 01:15:53,760
Speaker 4: you know, thinking about how we say democracy, how we

1220
01:15:53,880 --> 01:15:59,040
Speaker 4: expand access, how we continue to you know, not break

1221
01:15:59,120 --> 01:16:02,479
Speaker 4: serve on all of these ballad initiatives in these fights.

1222
01:16:02,560 --> 01:16:05,120
Speaker 4: That that is going to continue to restore me. So

1223
01:16:05,240 --> 01:16:07,320
Speaker 4: that's how I'm going to spend the end of the

1224
01:16:07,400 --> 01:16:10,080
Speaker 4: beginning of my year kind of really in deep reflection

1225
01:16:10,240 --> 01:16:12,920
Speaker 4: and reimagination so we can come out swinging in.

1226
01:16:12,920 --> 01:16:16,280
Speaker 3: Twenty four beautiful. Thank you so much.

1227
01:16:16,400 --> 01:16:20,599
Speaker 1: You anytime I get to, you know, spend time around

1228
01:16:20,640 --> 01:16:23,519
Speaker 1: your thinking, whether it's in conversation or reading something you've written,

1229
01:16:23,600 --> 01:16:26,840
Speaker 1: I feel bolstered to keep going, and I'm sure our

1230
01:16:26,880 --> 01:16:29,040
Speaker 1: friends at home feel that today too, So I really

1231
01:16:29,120 --> 01:16:30,320
Speaker 1: appreciate you taking the time.

1232
01:16:31,120 --> 01:16:33,120
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me. Thank you