Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Willkate f Daily with
Speaker 1: Me your Girl Danielle Moody recording from the Brooklyn Bunker,
Speaker 1: the folks, I am very excited about this week of
Speaker 1: shows lined up with powerhouse women talking about some of
Speaker 1: the issues that are affecting us this month for the
Speaker 1: finale as we get through Women's History Month. It's not
Speaker 1: lost on me at all, and it shouldn't be lost
Speaker 1: on any of you that during the month of Women's
Speaker 1: History a time for us to celebrate the matriarchs of
Speaker 1: this country, right of people who have given so much
Speaker 1: and done so much to advance women's rights and voice
Speaker 1: in this country. That during this time there is a
Speaker 1: full honest by Republicans. And I've said this before that
Speaker 1: Republicans are using the states of Florida and Texas to
Speaker 1: test some of their most egregious and draconian laws against
Speaker 1: women and people with uteruses. You know. So today on
Speaker 1: today's show, I welcome back our friend Danielle Campomore, who
Speaker 1: is a reporter with tooday dot com. And Danielle has
Speaker 1: been doing woke f through so many years because she
Speaker 1: is one of the few abortion rights activists that I
Speaker 1: know that does everything within her power one to share
Speaker 1: her own story of abortion, but also to lift up
Speaker 1: the stories of so many women and to make it
Speaker 1: clear for us and know on certain terms what women,
Speaker 1: particularly poor women and women of color, are going to
Speaker 1: be up against in this country that even as we
Speaker 1: are watching these terrible laws come into effect in Texas
Speaker 1: with the vigilante law essentially providing anyone, your neighbor, your
Speaker 1: uber driver, the fucking person at the checkout counter, with
Speaker 1: the ability to sue you right for ten thousand dollars
Speaker 1: if in fact they think that you are going out
Speaker 1: to go and get an abortion. Imagine being sued by
Speaker 1: multiple people at one time. Sounds a little bit like bankruptcy.
Speaker 1: It also sounds like frivolousness as it pertains to our
Speaker 1: criminal justice system. Right. Nonetheless, these laws that are going
Speaker 1: into effect highlight one very important and clear thing is
Speaker 1: that without the ability to control our own bodies, right,
Speaker 1: that means that we then don't control our work, right,
Speaker 1: our ability to work. That means then and this is
Speaker 1: what I have said before, and plenty of people love
Speaker 1: to say, oh, Danielle, you know that sounds conspiratorial, But like,
Speaker 1: let's be clear, if women are forced out of the
Speaker 1: workplace because now they're having being forced into force birth,
Speaker 1: forced pregnancy, meaning that they then can't hold down jobs.
Speaker 1: And we already saw what happened with the pandemic in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty and remote learning and how millions of women
Speaker 1: were forced out of the workplace because we don't actually
Speaker 1: care about children outside of the uterus in this country,
Speaker 1: We could give a fuck. And so what happens then
Speaker 1: all of these women are forced out of the workforce?
Speaker 1: What providing a clear pathway once again to white cis
Speaker 1: head of Rome men to be able to continue their domination, right, Like,
Speaker 1: what is the goal here? Is it the fear which
Speaker 1: I've heard before of the demographic shift? So white men
Speaker 1: in power believe that if they can force white women
Speaker 1: into forced birth, then what their demographics will continue to rise? Like?
Speaker 1: What is the fucking endgame here? And this is the
Speaker 1: thing that I constantly ask and you know, and I
Speaker 1: will ask Danielle. I think that cruelty is just the point.
Speaker 1: What is the endgame? I think it's power, right, the
Speaker 1: ability to wield power over a population of people, which
Speaker 1: it makes up more than half of this fucking country.
Speaker 1: But if you can control a women's reproductive cycles, right,
Speaker 1: then you can control pretty much any aspect of her life, right,
Speaker 1: which then leaves men incomplete and total power. And the
Speaker 1: thing that frustrates me, and I've said this before, is
Speaker 1: that we have allowed Republicans to run away with the
Speaker 1: label of the Party of Family Values when they don't
Speaker 1: care about your family. Because if they did, then you
Speaker 1: would have paid family leave, that our paid family leave
Speaker 1: wouldn't be abysmal in comparison to other industrialized nations. Do
Speaker 1: you know that there are countries that give women an
Speaker 1: entire year off paid You mean that they don't have
Speaker 1: to cobble together their vacation time and disability time and
Speaker 1: then whatever it is the benevolence of their employer to
Speaker 1: give them six weeks or eight weeks. I have a
Speaker 1: younger cousin who currently works at a daycare for babies
Speaker 1: as young as young folks as a month old, and
Speaker 1: she has talked to me about how heartbreaking it is
Speaker 1: for these new mothers, these new parents to drop off
Speaker 1: their four week old child in daycare right to a
Speaker 1: stranger so that they could go in and go to
Speaker 1: work to afford daycare, because they know, particularly as women
Speaker 1: that if they leave the workforce right for a year
Speaker 1: in order to be able to tend to this new
Speaker 1: life that Republicans say is so fucking important, then they're
Speaker 1: going to lose footing in their jobs. Then they're going
Speaker 1: to have to explain the gap on their resume. And
Speaker 1: while of course you would say, oh, wonderful, how amazing,
Speaker 1: you're out there like doing one of the most important jobs,
Speaker 1: which is creating a whole human right and making sure
Speaker 1: that they are healthy and well and learning and productive
Speaker 1: and all of these things that you would be rewarded
Speaker 1: for that, but we don't do that in this country.
Speaker 1: We hold it against you, right. It's why we had
Speaker 1: to put laws in place so that women who were
Speaker 1: pregnant wouldn't be fired from the workplace, so that employers
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to provide maternity leave or paternity leave. We've
Speaker 1: always had to lobby and fight for these things. And
Speaker 1: so you would think that in a country that doesn't
Speaker 1: provide any care for children, that abortion would be like
Speaker 1: a no brainer, but no, we want to control every
Speaker 1: single aspect. And so in this conversation with Danielle, you know,
Speaker 1: we will talk about what women in places like Texas
Speaker 1: are facing. How the bordering states that still do provide
Speaker 1: abortion are being overrun with women and people coming in
Speaker 1: from Texas seeking care that they can no longer get that.
Speaker 1: You know, we are seeing laws in places like Florida
Speaker 1: that don't even have carve outs anymore for abortion in
Speaker 1: the event that the pregnancy is threatening the life of
Speaker 1: the mother, or that this pregnancy is a product of incest,
Speaker 1: human trafficking, or rape. Like, what hind of world are
Speaker 1: we living in right now? What kind of country? How
Speaker 1: can we say that we are an industrialized, democratic nation
Speaker 1: when women in this country, particularly if you are black
Speaker 1: and brown, right, are free ish If you don't have
Speaker 1: the ability to decide when, how and if you start
Speaker 1: a family, how are you free? You know? And I
Speaker 1: had somebody recently on TikTok want to pop off and say, well,
Speaker 1: if women weren't using abortion as birth control, people should
Speaker 1: keep their legs closed. And I'm like, are you fucking stupid?
Speaker 1: Because first of all, abortion is at an all time low,
Speaker 1: right and has been at an all time low right
Speaker 1: just for by virtue of abortion being available doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it's being used like fucking tik taks, right, it is
Speaker 1: for a lot of people a really difficult decision to make,
Speaker 1: so they're not giving it and doing it willy nilly,
Speaker 1: as if the procedure itself isn't like difficult. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that you need to have a sob story, right,
Speaker 1: because that is the point too with telling abortion stories, right,
Speaker 1: with being very upfront and honest, that there are people
Speaker 1: that are like, yeah, no, I don't regret it. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have the job that I have, I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: the life that I had. I was not ready right,
Speaker 1: and like, let that just be what it is. We
Speaker 1: shouldn't have to say things like, oh, abortion needs to
Speaker 1: be you know, healthy, safe and rare. Right, it needs
Speaker 1: to be whenever you need it, however you need it.
Speaker 1: But the thing is is that we don't trust we
Speaker 1: don't trust women in this country. We don't trust them
Speaker 1: to make decisions. And this goes back to our roots
Speaker 1: and misogyny and patriarchy, which are still ever present. If
Speaker 1: you think about this, if America had ever passed the
Speaker 1: Equal Rights Act, I remember the RARA from thirty fucking
Speaker 1: years ago. Oh we don't need that was what Republicans
Speaker 1: love to say, and some Democrats, Oh, women are already equal. Well, really,
Speaker 1: are you sure? Because had we done that, then no
Speaker 1: decision that was going to be made right by Mitch
Speaker 1: McConnell and a handful of white evangelical Christians would have
Speaker 1: any effect on us because it would be codified law.
Speaker 1: But that's not the case. Women are unsafe in this country.
Speaker 1: And what always kills me is that we love to
Speaker 1: go abroad wag our fingers at the China's of the world,
Speaker 1: at the Saudis and the Irans and the Iraqs, and
Speaker 1: we love to talk about how they are so behind
Speaker 1: the times, not letting women drive and not letting women
Speaker 1: go to school, And I'm like, you don't let women
Speaker 1: decide their own fucking healthcare? Right, We don't pay women
Speaker 1: the same as men, But yet we have a day
Speaker 1: on the calendar every single every single year, in the
Speaker 1: month of March to talk about equal pay, but actually
Speaker 1: not fucking do anything about it. So what we offer
Speaker 1: in this country is a facade of their being women's rights,
Speaker 1: but there really isn't. Just think about this. The First
Speaker 1: Lady of the United States does a lot of work, right, entertaining, organizing,
Speaker 1: running different events, community engagement, blah blah, blah, doesn't get paid,
Speaker 1: doesn't get paid for four or eight years, because that
Speaker 1: is just what soft skills. We don't care about what
Speaker 1: you are doing inside of the homes of course, right
Speaker 1: the first Lady of the United States doesn't get a
Speaker 1: check cut by the American people because you're just there
Speaker 1: as an ornament. That's what we think about women in
Speaker 1: this country. And so you know, I always get outdone
Speaker 1: by the fact that we still chant and march for
Speaker 1: the same things. Each generation of women marches in chance,
Speaker 1: the same thing that their mothers, their grandmothers, their aunts
Speaker 1: all did. And so here we are at a point
Speaker 1: where we are setting up our young girls right in
Speaker 1: a country that does not see them as equal, that
Speaker 1: does not see them as powerful, that sees them as
Speaker 1: a threat to themselves, so much so that we need
Speaker 1: to throw you in jail for the decisions that you
Speaker 1: make about your own life, in your own body. This
Speaker 1: country is incredibly wild and scary and dark. And I
Speaker 1: don't even know what people are going to teach their
Speaker 1: young girls, right, like, oh, you can be anything that
Speaker 1: you want to be, can you? Right? Can you really?
Speaker 1: Is that a true statement? Because there are glass ceilings
Speaker 1: and glass cliffs all around. For the first time in
Speaker 1: fifty years, girls that are going to be born in
Speaker 1: this country will not have bodily autonomy. We thought that
Speaker 1: that was behind us. It is now our present day
Speaker 1: reality where we are going to see women in this
Speaker 1: country what rushing the border to Mexico so that they
Speaker 1: can get abortions there. America is in shambles. And coming
Speaker 1: up next is my conversation with our friend reporter for
Speaker 1: Today dot Com. If you're not following Danielle Campamore, you
Speaker 1: absolutely should follow her on Twitter, follow her writing at
Speaker 1: the Today Show. She is covering some of the most
Speaker 1: important topics and issues of our time. That conversation comes
Speaker 1: to you now, folks. You know that I am always
Speaker 1: so happy when our friend Danielle Campomore, who is a
Speaker 1: reporter with the Today Show, comes to woke a f
Speaker 1: and gives us, you know, the mind blowing landscape on
Speaker 1: where we are in this country as it pertains to
Speaker 1: reproductive rights, as it pertains to abortion. Because what we
Speaker 1: are seeing, Danielle, and you know we will get into
Speaker 1: is an assault on abortion, on reproductive care, on people
Speaker 1: with uteruses in a way that in all honesty, I
Speaker 1: don't know when was the last time you have seen
Speaker 1: such an aggressive push in so many states at one
Speaker 1: time on rolling back abortion care. Well one, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for having me. I always love to come
Speaker 1: and talk to you about this topic specifically. I mean, really,
Speaker 1: this has been a decades long push, and I think
Speaker 1: it's been more covert and less obvious and unapologetic. You know,
Speaker 1: we saw Republicans and years prior ease off of some
Speaker 1: of the you know, in cases of rape or incest.
Speaker 1: You know, that was kind of something they conceded. They
Speaker 1: really went towards trying to limit the rules and laws
Speaker 1: of abortion care centers, and they would try and limit
Speaker 1: the ability of abortion providers. They slowly and surely did
Speaker 1: whittle down some of the gestational age requirements, you know,
Speaker 1: and would work really hard to establish waiting time. So
Speaker 1: the assault is nothing new, But what has really given
Speaker 1: at Breath in Life is the makeup of the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court now this case in Mississippi, which is poised to
Speaker 1: completely gut and annihilate ROW and will allow subsequent states
Speaker 1: outside of Mississippi to ban abortion past fifteen weeks and
Speaker 1: perhaps earlier. And we're seeing that happen in Texas, everyone's
Speaker 1: really focused on Scotus right now, But in Texas for
Speaker 1: more than six months, it has been illegal to access
Speaker 1: abortion care after six weeks. There is an embryo at
Speaker 1: six weeks, so there's not a heartbeat at six weeks,
Speaker 1: and so it really has forced people to leave the state. Now,
Speaker 1: medication abortion is the most popular way in which people
Speaker 1: are accessing abortion care. They're getting pills online, they're getting
Speaker 1: pills from friends, and so it's nothing new, but it's
Speaker 1: definitely less apologetic by those who want to gut access
Speaker 1: to abortion care. They are abandoning any sort of sidestep
Speaker 1: in the case of rape or incest. There is a
Speaker 1: law coming out of a conservative state where it wouldn't
Speaker 1: allow even in the case of a woman's life being
Speaker 1: on the line, and it would designate abortion cares homicide.
Speaker 1: So they're going back to a time where they didn't
Speaker 1: feel the need to concede. And it's because of the
Speaker 1: makeup of the Supreme Court. I mean, you know, Danielle,
Speaker 1: like just to think about the fact that the life
Speaker 1: of a person giving birth was seen as a concession
Speaker 1: right making carve outs for incest, rape, and I believe
Speaker 1: that in Florida the new legislation that was passed was
Speaker 1: it didn't even matter if you were trafficked, right, And
Speaker 1: so I'm thinking I want to other than scream, I
Speaker 1: want to understand. And how is it that we are
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two that we are going not even
Speaker 1: going backwards, I mean, we're going to a place that
Speaker 1: I don't know if we've ever been. What do you
Speaker 1: think that we are missing as Democrats in our messaging,
Speaker 1: in our conversation around abortion? I mean, look, you know,
Speaker 1: just a couple of weeks ago, we had the Biden
Speaker 1: administrations first stated the Union and guess what abortion wasn't mentioned,
Speaker 1: Not the word, not reproductive care, nothing right, And so
Speaker 1: what what do you feel that Democrats are getting wrong
Speaker 1: in this moment about how we move forward? Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: historically Republicans have never been afraid to stay the word abortion,
Speaker 1: and Democrats have always tried to sidestep it and use
Speaker 1: euphemisms instead of women's reproductive healthcare or reproductive healthcare or
Speaker 1: any of those you from that they use. And the
Speaker 1: Biden administration certainly picked up on that on the campaign
Speaker 1: trail he wasn't that afraid to say the word abortion.
Speaker 1: But since coming into office, he hasn't actually said the
Speaker 1: word out loud. They did meet recently with abortion care
Speaker 1: advocates in the White House. Virtually many of those advocates
Speaker 1: were part of We Testify. They're a group of abortion
Speaker 1: storytellers that work to really center people who have abortions,
Speaker 1: and one advocate did press this administration to say the
Speaker 1: word because you cannot fight for something if you can't
Speaker 1: say exactly what that thing is. Right after that meeting,
Speaker 1: the administration did release an announcement the first time in
Speaker 1: his time in office where it wrote the word out twice.
Speaker 1: Abortion appeared twice. So advocates are really pushing this administration
Speaker 1: to before anything else, you have to say the word
Speaker 1: out loud. You have to not be so apologetic and
Speaker 1: stigma enforcing when you're trying to fight for the very
Speaker 1: people who put you into office. And so that has
Speaker 1: change more than anything, because again this is nothing new
Speaker 1: from the Republican Party. We can all recall the time
Speaker 1: when Todd Aiken I believe his name was said that
Speaker 1: in terms of a legitimate rape a woman pregnant, I
Speaker 1: mean is this has been their messaging from jump It's
Speaker 1: the Democrats who need to be bold and unapologetic and
Speaker 1: stand beside and center the people that have abortions if
Speaker 1: they hope to combat these legislations, which many people don't
Speaker 1: believe they can do at this point given the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court makeup. I mean, you know when you say the
Speaker 1: two words bold and unapologetic are not what I associate
Speaker 1: with the current makeup of the Democratic Party. I'm just
Speaker 1: going to be honest, and I am not certain that
Speaker 1: people understand the urgency. And I say this all the
Speaker 1: friggin time, the urgency of the moment that we're in.
Speaker 1: You know, when we saw Texas a couple of months
Speaker 1: ago and you would come on the show, we saw
Speaker 1: Texas and we set, oh my god, they've gotten so
Speaker 1: savvy because it's really hard to take this case, to
Speaker 1: take the legislation to court, because you need it to
Speaker 1: have have been used, right, And so they have gotten
Speaker 1: savvier in the way that they write the laws that
Speaker 1: the that the threat of its existence is enough without
Speaker 1: actually having any vigilantes using the ten thousand dollars bounty, right,
Speaker 1: And so what navigations do we need to understand if
Speaker 1: if we're at a place as Democrats and can't even
Speaker 1: utter the word abortion, then how are we, to your point,
Speaker 1: how are we to create strategies to combat this if
Speaker 1: we don't talk about it right Well, I think abortion centering,
Speaker 1: abortion storytellers and people who've had abortions is paramount. And
Speaker 1: we saw that play out in the House where we
Speaker 1: had women of color, predominantly black women and other women
Speaker 1: of color congress. People share their abortion stories and say
Speaker 1: I've had abortions, and I'm a lawmaker, and this is
Speaker 1: why it matters. But what's really concerning And ask any
Speaker 1: abortion advocate and they'll tell you that they are the Canarian,
Speaker 1: the coal mind. How certain politicians attack access to abortion
Speaker 1: care is how they will go along to attack voting rights,
Speaker 1: Q rights, And we're seeing playout right now. There are
Speaker 1: similar laws that the one enacted in Texas that are
Speaker 1: now being enacted against trans students, against teachers that are
Speaker 1: going to teach LGBTQ history. There's laws that are targeting librarians,
Speaker 1: and parents can can call on elected officials and have
Speaker 1: a librarian removed and potentially find and jailed if they're
Speaker 1: offering certain books to their kids, you know, And so
Speaker 1: this is wow. I think that so many advocates have
Speaker 1: been saying for so long. If you can't care about this,
Speaker 1: if you can't fight for bodily sovereignty and autonomy and
Speaker 1: people's access to abortion care to decide when, when, if,
Speaker 1: and how they start their own families, you can't fight
Speaker 1: for voting rights, you can't fight for LGBTQ rights, you
Speaker 1: can't protect tran children, you can't protect access to information.
Speaker 1: All those things are going to go by the wayside
Speaker 1: as well. And that I think is what is the
Speaker 1: scariest part of all of this is that this will
Speaker 1: be a domino effect not justin people's ability to access
Speaker 1: abortion care, but for kids to be able to be
Speaker 1: themselves in school, to have access to information, for people
Speaker 1: to vote, and now we're really talking about democracy entirely
Speaker 1: and the makeup of this country. You know, one of
Speaker 1: the things that I want to ask you to and
Speaker 1: this came up, I don't I feel like it came
Speaker 1: up in like a Twitter conversation that I was having.
Speaker 1: But you know, someone had said that they did not
Speaker 1: believe that, No, that they believed that part of the
Speaker 1: push by conservatives for abortion was to force white women
Speaker 1: into pregnancy because of the demographic shift and the fact
Speaker 1: that this country is going to be majority quote unquote
Speaker 1: minority in the next two decades, right, And so it
Speaker 1: is there some or have you heard of some kind
Speaker 1: of you know, master plan that is couched in white
Speaker 1: supremacy as many things are, that is about forcing white
Speaker 1: women right to populate this country to preserve whiteness. Is
Speaker 1: that a crazy theory or have you have you heard
Speaker 1: it before? It's definitely something that I've heard before. And
Speaker 1: many abortion advocates, particularly black and brown people, but white
Speaker 1: LGBTQ young people will tell you the same. Really, if
Speaker 1: you just look at the data. That is also kind
Speaker 1: of born out of fact. The majority of people who
Speaker 1: are most impacted by anti abortion laws are black and
Speaker 1: brown people, young people. They will be forced to give birth,
Speaker 1: while white affluent women will still be capable of accessing
Speaker 1: that care. This is also born into kind of this
Speaker 1: gop republican idea that if you ban abortion, you eliminate
Speaker 1: it entirely, and we're seeing that of Texas that that
Speaker 1: is not the case at all. While reports show that yes,
Speaker 1: abortions in Texas have gone down, abortions and neighboring states
Speaker 1: have gone up, and it's people are just leaving. The
Speaker 1: people who can afford to leave again mostly white women.
Speaker 1: You know, people are also able to obtain medication abortion now,
Speaker 1: and so it's it's really a twofold of yes, they
Speaker 1: know that you know, black, brown, poor people will be
Speaker 1: most affected, will be pushed into motherhood, while those of
Speaker 1: affluent Wiens means and predominantly why will be able to
Speaker 1: access that care. But also they just think that this
Speaker 1: is that it works, that abortion bands work, and studies
Speaker 1: show that they don't work. They just cause additional harm.
Speaker 1: They just harm families and communities and and so um.
Speaker 1: And that's again that's what we're seeing happening now. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not lost on me that you know, this is
Speaker 1: Women's History month, right, this is this is a month
Speaker 1: to celebrate and put you know, women upfront, right and
Speaker 1: and and and really honor how far we have come, right,
Speaker 1: how far we've traversed from you know, literally being a
Speaker 1: prop of patriarchy into being our very own people. And
Speaker 1: there is this constant, unrelenting effort by conservatives to make
Speaker 1: it so that women have no autonomy, that people with
Speaker 1: uteruses have no autonomy over their lives. Right, what I
Speaker 1: mean when you you've been doing this work for so long, Danielle.
Speaker 1: When you think about like the ideology that these people
Speaker 1: are subscribing to, what what do you think is driving them?
Speaker 1: Is it that we do we not understand what the
Speaker 1: driving forces, so that then we don't understand how to
Speaker 1: stop it. No, I think we do understand, and I
Speaker 1: think we understand because they'll a lot of Goope politicians
Speaker 1: will happily tell you their views are based in a white,
Speaker 1: you know, Christian faith and ideology that has a very
Speaker 1: specific makeup of a family. That makeup is heteronormative in
Speaker 1: which a man leaves the house and the woman doesn't.
Speaker 1: And it's really faith based for many people, and the
Speaker 1: Goop politicians they run on that. And we're seeing that
Speaker 1: more and more as more of the Marjorie Taylor Greens
Speaker 1: of the party are now coming to the forefront winning
Speaker 1: primary elections. There's a man running for office in Michigan
Speaker 1: just the other day now viral video where he's speaking
Speaker 1: about taking back the country. He wants to take back
Speaker 1: the election in hand it to Donald Trump, and he
Speaker 1: also says that he tells his three daughters that if
Speaker 1: rape it is inevitable, you might as well just lay
Speaker 1: down and enjoy it. Those were no no, no, no, no, no, no, yes,
Speaker 1: I will send send you the video. His daughter actually
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty went viral where she tweeted out, please
Speaker 1: don't vote for my father, like, tell everyone, please don't
Speaker 1: vote for him. Well, he won the primary, he's poised
Speaker 1: to win that district in Michigan, and so, and he
Speaker 1: runs on a He'll tell you it's faith based. It's
Speaker 1: he doesn't believe in feminism. He it's it's not difficult
Speaker 1: to know what we're up against because it's proudly marketed,
Speaker 1: and that is a platform that many people in the
Speaker 1: Republican Party are running on now. And so it's really
Speaker 1: just whether or not those in opposition have the stomach
Speaker 1: to confront those ideologies in clear ways that people can understand,
Speaker 1: to call them out when they happen in clearer language,
Speaker 1: and again be bold and unapologetic in those efforts. Um,
Speaker 1: and of just treating them as fringe or treating them
Speaker 1: as us a tiny subset of a Republican Party that
Speaker 1: is now led by Donald Trump. UM, we can't overlook
Speaker 1: these issues anymore because we've seen what happens when we
Speaker 1: overlook anti abortion laws. We find ourselves in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two about to lose row. You know, Danielle, it is
Speaker 1: it is? Is it complacency that got us here? Is
Speaker 1: it the belief that you know, we the bravado of
Speaker 1: the assumption that because our mothers and grandmothers uh and
Speaker 1: then maybe a few men you know, activated in the
Speaker 1: in the mid nineteen seventies, that we just thought like
Speaker 1: the worst was behind us, Like what did is there
Speaker 1: something that we did wrong? Right? Like? Like did we
Speaker 1: did we miss something here? I think it it depends
Speaker 1: on who is we. I think at the local level,
Speaker 1: at the grassroots level, black and brown women specifically have
Speaker 1: been doing this work, fighting this fight. They've made abortion
Speaker 1: care accessible to people who wouldn't be accessible to even
Speaker 1: ten twenty years ago. And so I think no, like
Speaker 1: the abortion storyteller's advocates, fundraisers, people who work on at
Speaker 1: local clinics, the abortion providers who speak out to the
Speaker 1: you know, for fear of their lives and the lives
Speaker 1: of their families. Know, but those in positions of power,
Speaker 1: a lot of white people, those with means, who will
Speaker 1: only really speak on the state of abortion every four
Speaker 1: years during a high profile election. Yes, I think there
Speaker 1: was definitely something to take it for granted. I think
Speaker 1: there was this knowledge that I can just talk about
Speaker 1: this every four years and people will come out and
Speaker 1: vote for me, and then we can just let it
Speaker 1: go back to the way it was, this kind of
Speaker 1: silence and women reproductive health speak. And so I think, yes,
Speaker 1: our elected leaders, if you ask a lot of the
Speaker 1: people on the ground, they will tell you that they
Speaker 1: have overlooked and failed and took abortion rights for granted.
Speaker 1: But certainly not the advocates that I speak to. Certainly
Speaker 1: not those that are on the ground working every day.
Speaker 1: They could have told you we would have been here
Speaker 1: twenty years ago and did a lot of people just
Speaker 1: didn't listen. Where do you see us in eight months
Speaker 1: as we make the track to midterms? Where do you
Speaker 1: see this issue it positioned in how we hold on?
Speaker 1: And again, this is supposed this is supposedly what winning
Speaker 1: looks like, Danielle. We have, you know, outside of the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court, we have all the branches of government, and
Speaker 1: this is what winning looks like. It doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: winning to me. So what do you think for the
Speaker 1: abortion issue? For these tax how is it positioned over
Speaker 1: the next eight months? Well, I think the only way
Speaker 1: to kind of look at how it might be is
Speaker 1: to look at how it has been and the reporting
Speaker 1: coming out now. I think that we're going to see
Speaker 1: more people have to leave the state, and these grassroots
Speaker 1: organizations are going to need additional funding in order for
Speaker 1: them to better facilitate those people leaving their homes in
Speaker 1: order to obtain care. We'll see some states shore up
Speaker 1: abortion rights and really become abortion safe havens, while others
Speaker 1: will follow suit with Mississippi, Texas, Florida, and abortion won't
Speaker 1: be accessible for people in those states. I think we'll
Speaker 1: also see a change in the GOP political desire to
Speaker 1: curtail abortion rights by going after medication abortion. Now, that
Speaker 1: really has changed the game. You're already seeing the idea
Speaker 1: that illegal abortion is automatically unsafe no longer true. What
Speaker 1: makes it unsafe will be incarceration for predominantly black people.
Speaker 1: Medication abortion has changed the game and it's entirely safe,
Speaker 1: and we've seen in you know, studies that most people
Speaker 1: now are seeking those services. So I think once as
Speaker 1: as experts believe Row falls and the states with that
Speaker 1: domino effects and their citizens ability to access abortion care,
Speaker 1: there will be a huge shift and focus on medication abortion. Danielle,
Speaker 1: I am really worried, you know, I just I really
Speaker 1: don't know what this country is going to look like
Speaker 1: in the next year, in the next two years. You know,
Speaker 1: when when you're thinking and you've been doing this work
Speaker 1: and advocating and writing and speaking out for so long,
Speaker 1: is there a country or a place who at one
Speaker 1: time add all of these rights and access in the
Speaker 1: you know, in and then loses them gain them back, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, what what what do you see as the
Speaker 1: trajectory of where America is going and what we're going
Speaker 1: to look like for women and and and queer people,
Speaker 1: Like what what do what do you see? Well? I
Speaker 1: think that's what. Another thing that for so many people
Speaker 1: is disheartening is we're also seeing so many other countries,
Speaker 1: Latin American countries specifically, shore up abortion rights now. And
Speaker 1: I read a piece actually today where one apocas advocate
Speaker 1: from one of those countries told the American Reporter that
Speaker 1: you all left the streets and we never did and
Speaker 1: why Americans are seeing access to reproductive care and abortion
Speaker 1: care limiting while other um countries who didn't have it
Speaker 1: are actually obtaining it now and so, um, you know,
Speaker 1: my global history is not the best. I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: I'm a global historian by any means. I fail to
Speaker 1: recall or think of any country that had these rights,
Speaker 1: lost them and got them back. But I do think
Speaker 1: that for those that are worried, there is hope in
Speaker 1: what other countries are doing, what other advocates and activists
Speaker 1: and politicians in favor of abortion care, LGBTQ plus rights,
Speaker 1: voting rights have been able to do, and then what
Speaker 1: really while it can be very difficult to report on
Speaker 1: this right now, it also brings me so much hope
Speaker 1: because there are so many people who are watching a
Speaker 1: person's children so that she could go obtain a medication abortion.
Speaker 1: They're going and offering rides, letting people stay in their homes.
Speaker 1: They're giving as much money as they can at a
Speaker 1: time when there's an ongoing pandemic, like there's so many
Speaker 1: stories of people helping and of these organizations that have
Speaker 1: been doing the work expanding, And so I think looking
Speaker 1: at the grassroots level and then what other people are
Speaker 1: doing across the world can bring hope and what is
Speaker 1: a very difficult situation. And yea, I you know, as always,
Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for your work, for your writing,
Speaker 1: for your voice. You know, just this issue, as many
Speaker 1: of them are now about justice and equity are heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: It's heartbreaking to do this work. It's exhausting to do
Speaker 1: this work day and day out, particularly at a time
Speaker 1: when the light seems to be escaping us right and
Speaker 1: we're just marching into darkness. So I just I you know,
Speaker 1: I know that it's hard, and I just want to
Speaker 1: thank you if no one else thanked you today yet,
Speaker 1: and appreciate you to continue the fight and and please
Speaker 1: do continue to take care of yourself, your family as
Speaker 1: these times are going to get continually tougher. Thank you,
Speaker 1: dear friend, you as well. I'm so thankful for you
Speaker 1: and the work that you're doing for me to come
Speaker 1: back here and talk to one of my favorite people anytime, anytime.
Speaker 1: Thank you. That is it for me today, Dear friends,
Speaker 1: on woke f as always power to the people and
Speaker 1: to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke
Speaker 1: as fun