WEBVTT - Project 2029: How We Protect Reproductive Rights Against MAGA 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.760 Hi, We're on vacation, but we have an amazing special 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:07.240 episode for you. In the last year, we set out 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:09.680 to ask some questions to the smartest people in their 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:12.880 fields about what Democrats should do when they regain power. 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:16.480 We hope you'll enjoy this special episode of Project twenty 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:21.279 twenty nine, a Reimagining. Hello and welcome to Part three 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.200 of our new docu series, Project twenty twenty nine of Reimagining. 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:28.640 I'm Molly john Fast, a columnist, podcaster, are and person 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:32.360 you occasionally see on Gable News. In this series, we're 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.840 trying to start a conversation about where the Democratic Party 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:38.919 goes when it regains power. The hope is that there 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.760 will be an agenda that puts people first and creates 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.000 incentives for many of the voters Democrats have lost to 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.320 come back to the party. In this episode, we're going 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:51.280 to discuss reproductive rights and how when Democrats regain power, 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:55.080 we can work to make sure those rights are codified. 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:57.880 We've assembled some of the smartest people we know to 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:03.160 explain to us how we can begin to protect, to codify, 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.640 and help change our legislation so we never have to 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.080 fight for these rights again. But first, it's easy to 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.800 forget just all the ways these rights are being attacked. 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.680 So let's walk through where we are at this very 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.720 moment in America today. First, we'll hear from Mary Ziegler 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.319 about the overturning of Roe v. Wade. 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.399 Probably the most significant thing that's happened in recent years 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.000 is that the Supreme Court overturned Rob Wade, which opened 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.200 the door to a bunch of other legal changes that 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.039 are really unprecedented. Right, So, we've seen criminal abortion laws 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.480 that are much more stringent than anything that was on 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:44.400 the books in the nineteenth century. We've seen those laws 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:51.160 interpreted in ways that preclude physicians from intervening in miscarriages 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:55.200 and stillbirths, not just in situations where people are seeking abortions. 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:59.240 And we've seen that those laws can have unintended consequences 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:01.279 for people at the end end of life too, people 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.280 who whose advanced directives don't address pregnancy, or who don't 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:08.600 have an advanced directives at all. So I think one 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.160 of the things we've seen is that what seems to 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.040 be changes just about abortion, which are significant enough in 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.720 their own right, are spilling over into lots of areas 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.240 involving people's lives, whether that's birth control or IVF on 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:24.440 the one hand, or certainly people with wanted pregnancies having 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:26.200 pregnancy complications on the other. 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:30.680 Now we'll hear from Nancy north Up about Texas's impact 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:32.120 on abortion laws. 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.119 So you both have the flat out criminal laws that 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.920 make abortion of crime, aiding a betting abortion of crime. 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:41.000 You know, Texas has been the innovator on this, for 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:44.880 lack of a better word, that allows these bounty hunting 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:50.040 lawsuits where or dary individuals can sue someone because they 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.280 have provided an abortion aided and bed providing an abortion. 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:58.400 They've just passed a law about going after the manufacturers 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:02.000 and the shippers of medication abortion, which has been a 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:06.440 lifeline in post row America. So it's everything from the 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:12.000 state prosecuting to giving individuals the power to become sort 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:15.800 of their own vigilante attorneys general to go after people 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:20.160 who again might be a friend helping someone go out 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.840 of state. I mean, we have represented individuals in the 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:27.760 state of Texas where an abusive boyfriend has sued the 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.600 friends and family of a woman in one case who 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:33.160 left the state of Texas to have an abortion another 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.200 state that's perfectly legal to do, but he brought this 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.600 lawsuit against them. We represent another woman. She found out 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.400 when she was driving around that a million dollar lawsuit 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:46.400 had been followed against her for allegedly helping a friend 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.240 secure medication abortion in the state of Texas. 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.720 And all of this madness started with SB eight. Mary 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:57.160 Ziegler will explain what SB eight was designed to do. 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.680 So SBA was passed in twenty twenty one, and at 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.280 the time, it was mostly designed to circumvent row. So 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.880 the idea was that instead of the government enforcing criminal 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.280 abortion laws, that enforcement would be outsourced to private citizens 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:12.960 who could sue anyone who performed an abortion for at 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.720 least ten thousand dollars, regardless of whether that person had 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.320 any connection to the abortion. So this was designed to 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.960 scare abortion providers to stop offering services. It was designed 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.400 to kind of incentivize a group of bounty hunters to 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.760 go after them, and it legally meant that some of 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:30.200 the constitutional roadblocks that could be in place if the 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:33.160 government was enforcing these laws would go away. And of 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.039 course SBA stopped mattering as much when Roe came down 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.240 because Texas could enforce lots of other criminal bands, but 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.960 it still mattered in lots of other ways, because we've 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:47.159 seen that sometimes politicians hesitate to enforce the most stringent 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.479 bands because they know that doing so will be politically unpopular. 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:56.039 Here's Nancy northup on how medication abortion could be banned. 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.720 Medication abortion, which is a two pill regime that has 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:04.039 been on the market, approved by the FDA for twenty 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:07.719 five years as safe and effective determinative pregnancy in the 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.360 early period of pregnancy. This has been the case is 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:15.480 ten thousand women are getting abortion pills in states where 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:17.760 there's a ban. So of course it's in the sight 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:22.120 line of those who want to ban abortion entirely, and 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.680 they're different ways that they're going about this. Texas just 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:29.880 passed a law that goes into effect December fourth, h 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.360 House Bill seven, which says that vigilantes can come and 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:38.680 sue manufacturers people who are mailing medication abortion to try 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:42.720 to stop it. Second, you know, the Trump administration has 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.320 asked the FDA to take another look at the approval 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:49.760 of medication abortion. Now, this is something that should be 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.960 a determination on the science, on the facts, as it 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:56.000 has been for twenty five years, but they are seeking 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.239 to get a reversal from the Agency of the approval 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.560 of medication abode because then it would not only cut 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.480 off medication abortion states where it's band, but it would 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.800 cut off medication abortion. It stays where it's legal across 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:10.000 the United States. 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:14.240 And this, of course means every woman, whether seeking an 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:20.039 abortion or not, can feel the implications of these overreaching laws. 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:25.320 Kelly Badden explains how this puts women at risk. 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:29.799 What this means is that every woman's pregnancy is suspect 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.240 and every woman's reproductive health is at risk. We are 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:37.000 seeing that with people who are pregnant and want to 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:41.200 continue their pregnancies but face a healthcare issue or healthcare crisis, 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:43.440 who can't get the care that they need. We've seen 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.839 that in Texas and Florida and Georgia. We've unfortunately seen 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:51.080 the tragic deaths of several women, some of whom were 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.320 not seeking abortion care. They were seeking help with their 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:57.680 pregnancies that they wanted. And I think that is the 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:02.560 unfortunate reality of abortion bands, is that doctors and hospital 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:07.640 systems feel scared to provide necessary care because the state 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.239 law could essentially criminalize them for doing so. It puts 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:13.480 every woman in every person's health at risk. 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.760 This is Jessica Vlendi, who writes the definitive sub stack 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:23.320 on women's health abortion every day. She has tirelessly chronicled 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:25.880 these attacks on women's health. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:30.240 Women are dying, women are going septic, The maternal mortality 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:33.120 rate is going up, the infant mortality rate is going up, 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.120 the sepsis rate is going up. Right, like all of 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.600 these things that we could sort of expect. Then there 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.400 are the ripple effects of bands where you have obgins 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.240 leaving anti abortion states. As a result of that, maternity 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.960 wards are shuttering. As a result of maternity wards shuttering, 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:54.760 there are these huge maternal health deserts across the country, right, 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:58.360 and so there's sort of like the medical piece that's happening. 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.200 What is pos I will say, and this is the 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:02.920 thing that they're trying to attack the most. It should 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.880 go without saying, But it doesn't that there isn't a 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:10.600 fetal heartbeat when these bands are our limiting abortion, right, 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:14.600 when Republicans pass a heartbeat law, it's generally at around 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.600 six weeks of pregnancy. There is no heartbeat then, because 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.440 there is no heart formed yet. And so this it 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:25.960 really is just again a fake science thing to try 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:28.880 to ban abortion as early as possible. Most people are 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.560 not going to know that they're pregnant at six weeks. 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.959 And I think it's part of this broader effort by 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:40.680 Republicans to seem medically credible, to seem scientifically credible, because 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.200 they can't just say, oh, we just don't want you 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.000 having a but right, or this is religious or this 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:51.160 is ideological, because they know how incredibly incredibly unpopular it is. 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:53.920 That's the same reason they're doing We're just concerned about 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.840 women's health, We're just concerned about coercion, we're just concerned 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:01.800 about clean water. They can't say they actually want because 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.520 no one agrees with them, and I mean no one, 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:10.320 not even in red states, even in the reddest states 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.160 and the states that are considered the most anti abortion, 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:18.480 people still don't want these laws, right like they still 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.280 want to repeal abortion bands. Republicans still want to repeal 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:27.000 abortion bands. There's no overseating how unpopular these laws are. 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.000 I think they may be the most unpopular laws on 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.120 the books in America. And again, this is part of 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:35.920 why I do the newsletter too, because there is this 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:40.920 real issue with a lot of lefty mail pundits and 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:45.120 you know, experts who want to say that we need 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:47.439 to compromise on abortion, and that's how we're going to 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:49.520 win red states, and that's where we're gonna, you know, 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.440 meet in the middle somehow. And it's so far removed 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:57.400 from the reality of this issue that I'm just I'm 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:01.400 desperate to be like constantly reiterated this so that people 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:05.760 understand how popular this issue is for Democrats. I think 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.640 one of the best examples of that is the rise 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:13.480 of what conservatives call equal protection bills, which basically claim 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.880 they're a fetal personhood push, basically claim that fetus' embryos, 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.680 fertilized eggs have equal protection rights under the fourteenth Amendment 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:25.200 of the Constitution. And we've seen over a dozen states 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:29.920 introduced bills that would state that and would make having 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.640 an abortion would punish the abortion patient as a murderer, 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:35.520 and in a lot of these states that could mean 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:39.439 the death penalty. A couple of years ago, Republicans would say, 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:41.600 you know, the legislators said, oh, these are just a 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.120 couple of outliers, These are a couple of extremists. No 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:47.280 one is taking these bills seriously. Guess what we're seeing 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.880 more of the bills introduced. We're seeing the bills get 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.720 more co sponsors. Just a couple of weeks ago, South 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.920 Carolina had multiple hearings on one of these bills. This 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.760 is a real thing, and it really concerns me that 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.079 the mainstream media in particular, because they know that these 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:07.800 bills are not going to pass right now, they sort 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:09.760 of tend to ignore them, right or they treat them 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.040 as if, well, you know, again, these are extreme, this 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.120 is radical, This is not going to go anywhere. That's 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:18.400 not true. We see it increasing. I think it was 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:22.000 a few months ago after Kentucky introduced one of these bills, 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.360 the Courier Journal in Kentucky, like the largest most circulated 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.520 newspaper in Kentucky, ran an op ed by one of 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.760 these guys who pushes equal protection bills. They call themselves 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:36.199 abortion abolitionists. They ran an op ed by him where 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.320 he's defending this, and it's like, how is it possible 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:43.000 that we've gotten to the point where a state's you know, 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:47.640 paper of record is seriously talking about whether or not 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:49.920 to give them in the death penalty for abortion. The 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:53.000 other thing, in addition to the equal protection is the 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.840 attacks on travel right we've seen multiple states, and attacks 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.480 on speech. We've seen multiple states like Idaho and Tennessee 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:03.160 pass what they call anti trafficking anti abortion trafficking laws 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:07.040 that they claim are to help miners who might being abused. 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:09.319 It says you can't take a minor out of state 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.240 without a parental permission for an abortion, which on its 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.240 face sounds like okay, like that sounds reasonable. The laws 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.200 are written, and they, I should say, they are in 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:19.440 court in some sections of this have been blocked. But 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:22.880 the way that they're written, it basically says helping a 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.760 teenager get an abortion in any way, not just helping 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.000 them leave the state, driving them to the post office 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.000 to pick up abortion pills, texting them the URL to 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:35.160 a clinic could be a felony, right, And then you 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.320 have I forget how many counties it is, but it's 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.680 like over a dozen counties in Texas that have passed 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:45.120 anti trafficking ordinances not just directed at miners, but of 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:49.080 women of all ages, so that it's illegal to help 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:54.240 someone leave the state in these counties. And so you're 0:12:54.280 --> 0:13:00.840 talking about literally restricting adult women's right to travel. We're 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:04.240 not hearing about it, right, Like if there were dozens 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:08.079 of counties doing this, dementsing men can't leave the state, 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.720 or you can be sued if you help a woman 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:13.320 leave the state. You would hear about it every day. 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:18.000 And while many anti choice activists believe that you can 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:23.120 ban abortion and still protect pregnant women from the downstream 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:27.559 effects of banning abortion, we know that in reality that 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:31.960 doesn't work. Nancy Northope points out the difficulty in having 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.319 exceptions when it comes to abortion bands. 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.640 What people aren't seeing because although it gets coverage to 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.560 some extent in the press, it doesn't get covered a lot. 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:48.560 Is how impossible it is to craft exceptions to abortion 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:53.480 bands for health risks. It is impossible. You cannot list 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:57.880 the conditions, and part of it's impossible because the way 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:02.400 healthcare is normally practice, you make a decision for yourself 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:04.280 about benefits and risks. 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:11.760 Mary Ziegler discusses the unintended consequences of criminalizing abortions. 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:13.600 I mean, I think that one of the things we've 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.200 seen since Rose overturned is that movements to criminalize abortion 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.360 are having a lot of unintended consequences. So we've seen 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:24.560 that doctors and hospitals and lawmakers don't know what abortion means, right. 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:28.040 So if you have someone coming in suffering from pre eclemsia, 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.560 or someone who's had a miscarriage, and there may still 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.840 be fetal cardiac activity, but a pregnancy is fundamentally ended. 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.880 We've seen doctors saying, sorry, you know, your wife may die, 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.480 but we can't intervene yet because if we intervene, that'll 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:42.680 be an abortion, and that will be committing a felony 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:44.840 and we'll go to jail for a decade or more. 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:47.160 And so we've seen a lot of people who are 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.800 not a worshion seekers right, people who are just have 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:54.160 wanted pregnancies, who are having medical emergencies be turned away. 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:58.360 We've seen hospitals, sometimes the Associated Press reporting that some 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.080 emergency rooms don't want to treat pregnant patients at all 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:04.920 because they're afraid of the legal complications. We've seen patients 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:09.880 and end of life scenarios who are diagnosed with essentially 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:13.320 brain death have their families be unable to decide whether 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.880 they should remain on life support during a pregnancy because 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.880 doctors and lawmakers interpret the law to say that that 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:24.720 would be an abortion. And we've seen IVF families, some 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.000 of whom view their own embryos as their children, be 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:31.040 told that as an unintended consequence of some of these changes, 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:33.680 they no longer have access to IVF. 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.480 It's not just that the right refuses to carve out 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:41.640 protections for pregnant women. It's more than that they have 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:46.960 declared war on birth control. And this war on birth 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:51.600 control has spilled out into one of the greatest technological 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.239 achievements for having more children IVF. 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:57.800 IVF wasn't a culture were issue until recently, if you 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.840 think about it, and it's become one. I think because 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:03.800 of the overruling of Row. That was pretty obvious in 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.200 February twenty twenty four when the Alabama Supreme Court held 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:09.800 that the state's wrongful death law, which allows you to 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:14.400 bring certain lawsuits, applied to IVF embryos, and that had 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:18.760 the effect of basically entirely stopping IVF in the state 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:23.480 until lawmakers passed a statute essentially not denying that IVF 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:26.760 embryos were people, but allowing IVF to go forward. But 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:29.200 that wasn't the end of it. We've seen people in 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.440 the anti abortion movement continuing to push to limit IVF 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:37.480 and promoting what they call a more effective alternative to IVF. 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.440 They call restorative reproductive medicine. So we've started to see 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:46.320 states in the South promoting this idea as an alternative 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.440 to IVF. And what restorative reproductive medicine is, just for context, 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:51.840 is essentially a lot of the treatments that you would 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:54.960 get for infertility that stopped short of IVF. They focus 0:16:55.040 --> 0:17:00.800 almost entirely on female infertility, and they often end up 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.840 being ineffective for people who would need IVF, for people 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:08.080 dealing with male factor infertility, and they can be used 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.359 by people whose clock is running out as far as 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:15.119 the efficacy of IVF is concerned. So we're seeing an 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:19.919 ongoing effort to restrict IVF and also to fund and 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:22.720 promote an alternative that may not work as well for 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:24.880 people experiencing infertility. 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:27.639 And what you see over and over again is these 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:32.400 laws sweep up people who aren't even having abortions. This 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:36.240 case is a prime example. Jessica Valenti explains how the 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:39.680 right wants to control women's pregnancies and how they're failing 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:40.000 at it. 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:44.160 Should a miscarriage and like most people, do you put 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.159 your miscarriage remains in the trash? What else are you 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:49.280 supposed to do with them? And so she was arrested 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:51.000 for that. There was a woman in Texas who spent 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.439 five months in jail after she miscarried in a public 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.680 bathroom because they didn't like that she flushed it. I 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:02.000 have taken, like internally to calling them like ick laws, 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:04.760 because all of these it's like the ick factor. All 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.760 of these mostly male cops and prosecutors have no idea 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.200 what pregnancy laws really looks like. They get icked out 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:17.240 when they see blood, right, and they're desperate to punish people, 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.880 and so it really is this like loophole. It's this 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:24.399 way around the prohibition on arresting abortion patients. They figure 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:28.520 out different seemingly unrelated charges to bring against women. 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:33.040 And crisis pregnancy centers are the right answer to much 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:36.760 of this, and we all know those do nothing but 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:38.600 fail women's health needs. 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:43.440 That like crisis pregnancy centers really are central to Republicans 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.680 plan for all of this. That you know, CPCs are 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:50.880 their enforcement arm. They are trying to sort of give 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:56.480 CPCs this super immunity from state regulation, so that trying 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.040 to regulate them at all, trying to say hey, you 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:03.000 can't lide away, you can't put out this nonsense is 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.320 considered a First Amendment violation and so they're really it's 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.879 not just that they're using these groups to funnel, you know, 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:13.359 millions of taxpayer dollars into into religious organizations, but they 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:20.080 are emboldening and empowering these organizations, which they say are 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.760 good to replace all the planned parenthood clinics that their 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:27.680 policies are shuddering, right, So they are saying, yeah, they're 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.439 they're the they're the opposite, and they don't they're not 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.160 real healthcare clinics. Like that's how little they think about 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:35.639 our health. They're saying, we're going to give million dollars, 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:38.879 like millions and millions of dollars to these groups that 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.280 don't have doctors on staff for the most part. Sometimes 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:44.440 they have like a medical director that'll come in once 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.240 or twice a month, and usually they're like a retired urologist. 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:50.600 It's just absurd. They're not real. But they're trying to 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.720 paint this picture of CPCs as a reasonable replacement for 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.440 planned parenthood clinics. And one of the primary reasons they're 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.560 doing that is to enact in informal ban on birth 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.399 control right. They don't want to come out and say 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:07.080 birth control is illegal. They don't want to. They don't 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.680 want that heat. They don't want that backlash. But if 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:13.560 they can get rid of every single credible reproductive health 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.800 clinic in a state and replace it with a crisis 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:20.960 pregnancy center that one can't prescribe birth control because there's 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.760 no doctors there, and two won't and the only way 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:25.600 that they'll talk about it is to say that it'll 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.960 give you cancer or it'll kill you. There, you have 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.560 like a ban on birth control without ever having to 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:34.760 write it in the books. 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:39.880 And what is very striking is that the abortion rate 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:45.159 has actually not gone down despite all the obstacles and 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:49.240 work the right wing has put into trying to make 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:50.760 it harder to get an abortion. 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.399 So what is positive is that the abortion rate hasn't 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:58.359 gone down. Right, These laws have been shockingly ineffective at 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.040 reducing the abortion rate. The only thing that they have 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:05.159 done is increased suffering, increased death. Right Like, they're not 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.280 reducing the abortion rate, and that's in large part because 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:11.719 of abortion medication and telehealth. Right now, I think it's 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:14.159 about one and four. The last study showed one in 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:18.040 four abortions in America are provided via telehealth. And so 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:21.160 you have all of these women in red states getting 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.720 abortion pills shipped to them from doctors and shield states. 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:27.879 Anti abortion people are really really pissed about that, and 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:31.000 so the vast majority of attacks that we're seeing right now, 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:34.240 the attacks that we're seeing this year especially are on 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:37.639 abortion pills. That is what they are most desperate to 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.800 do away with with telehealth specifically, and some. 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:46.200 Blue states have already enacted shield laws. Let's hear from 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:49.000 Kelly Badden about what these shield laws do. 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:54.760 Abortion shield laws are policies that states enact that aim 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:59.760 to in some way protect abortion providers in that state 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.760 from being able to provide care to those who live 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.760 in other states. So essentially protecting an abortion provider in 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:10.960 your state from any charges from a state that bands 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:13.000 abortion and might want to go after you. About twenty 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:16.119 two states have some kind of shield law on the 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:19.359 books in some way, but eight states have a really 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:22.359 important component, which is this extension of the shield law 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:26.000 protections to telehealth provision. So that's what really allows a 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:31.320 provider in a protective state to treat a patient in 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.720 another state via telehealth and get them the medication that 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:37.360 they need to have the abortion care that they need. 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:43.080 So incredibly important, huge innovation lots for states to continue 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:46.840 enacting them and also continue strengthening them, because the legal 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:50.440 developments on these change almost every week, week to week, 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:53.399 month to month, and so it's really important for states 0:22:53.440 --> 0:22:55.600 to know that none of these laws are one and done. 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:58.159 You can't just pass one shield law or pass the 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:01.160 right to abortion and call it a day. You have 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:03.880 to keep abreast of what the attacks are and keep 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:07.439 finding ways in your state to respond to them and 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:08.880 to protect abortion in provision. 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:13.520 But the goal here is to protect women's reproductive rights 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:18.120 so that there isn't a cycle of losing and gaining right. 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:21.639 Mary Ziegler points out that voters don't want things like 0:23:21.720 --> 0:23:22.840 fetal personhood. 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:25.240 The kind of endgame for the anti abortion movement is 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:28.560 fetal personhood, the idea that you know from the moment 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.200 of fertilization their constitutional rights, and they think that would 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:34.000