Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Okay f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody reporting from the Brooklyn Bunker
Speaker 1: and frankly glad as hell that it is Friday. This
Speaker 1: has been yet again another draining, goddamn week in this country.
Speaker 1: That is the Titanic that I believe is sinking. I
Speaker 1: actually don't believe that there is anything that can be
Speaker 1: done to turn around the direction that this country is
Speaker 1: headed in. You know, I yesterday, as many of you know,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma has now banned abortion beginning at fertilization. This is
Speaker 1: now the nation's strictest abortion law, and the governor is
Speaker 1: going to sign it imediately. I want you to listen
Speaker 1: to this from the New York Times. This bill subjects
Speaker 1: abortion providers and anyone who aids or bets an abortion
Speaker 1: to civil suits from private individuals. It would take effect
Speaker 1: immediately if signed by Governor Kevin Stitt, a Republican who
Speaker 1: has pledged to make his state the most anti abortion
Speaker 1: state in the nation. There can be no higher or
Speaker 1: more critical than the defense of innocent unborn life, says
Speaker 1: State Representative Jim Olsen, a Republican in the Oklahoma House.
Speaker 1: I want to say this. I'm so fucking sick and
Speaker 1: tired of white men. I'm gonna say it. I am
Speaker 1: so fucking sick and tired of conservative white men and
Speaker 1: fucking moderate white men being the ones that get to
Speaker 1: dictate the bodily automy the fucking movements of everybody else
Speaker 1: in this goddamn country. I don't give a fuck about
Speaker 1: your religious proclivities. I don't care what kind of sex
Speaker 1: you want to have or not. You should not have
Speaker 1: the ability to determine someone else's life outcomes that don't
Speaker 1: fucking affect you. And what's amazing at this time that
Speaker 1: all of these anti abortion pieces of legislation are passing
Speaker 1: across the country is that we have a baby formula
Speaker 1: shortage that everyone has been talking about, that the news
Speaker 1: has been covering over and over again. But you know
Speaker 1: what they're not doing making the connection between the fact
Speaker 1: that Republicans actually don't give a fuck about babies. What
Speaker 1: they care about is control, because if they gave a
Speaker 1: shit about babies, and one hundred and ninety two members
Speaker 1: of the House republic Party would not have voted against
Speaker 1: providing emergency resources to mothers who are trying desperately to
Speaker 1: feed their goddamned children. This is about control. This is
Speaker 1: not about anybody's sanctity of life. Because if it was
Speaker 1: about the sanctity of life, then you would have health
Speaker 1: education in schools, right, that is comprehensive. You would fund
Speaker 1: health clinics across the country to make sure that people
Speaker 1: have access to the type of life saving screening and
Speaker 1: reproductive care that allows them to actually have healthy babies.
Speaker 1: You would support government agencies and systems that our tax
Speaker 1: dollars fucking pay into, that you send across the fucking
Speaker 1: world for war and death, but do nothing here to
Speaker 1: preserve anyone sanctity of life that arrives outside of a
Speaker 1: fucking uterus. I am so sick to death of Democrats
Speaker 1: and their whining, their wimpiness with regard to what they
Speaker 1: can't do because they don't have sixty votes. Figure out
Speaker 1: your maneuvers, figure out the law you've had fifty years.
Speaker 1: But now everybody wants to walk around in the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party as if they're completely and totally fucking dumbstruck, like
Speaker 1: they are caught off guard and just outdone. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I cannot believe Republicans did and are activating everything that
Speaker 1: they've been telling us that they were going to do
Speaker 1: and activate for the last fifty years. You will listen
Speaker 1: to my guests today, Andrea Miller, who is the executive
Speaker 1: director of the National Council for Reproductive Health that works
Speaker 1: at the state and local level to ensure that women
Speaker 1: and people with uteruses are able to receive the type
Speaker 1: of care that they need. She'll talk about the fact
Speaker 1: that thirteen hundred laws have been passed to a restrict
Speaker 1: abortion since Roe v. Wade was passed, many of them
Speaker 1: being signed on happily by Democrats. We have a president
Speaker 1: of the United States that wasn't even able until recently
Speaker 1: to even utter the word abortion, folks. Jeet Yellen recently
Speaker 1: was in a hearing before Congress. She was in a
Speaker 1: hearing that was about inflation, and she made the not
Speaker 1: two right difficult to understand connection between our economic stability
Speaker 1: in our country and the and the ability of women
Speaker 1: to have an abortion. She said that our the health
Speaker 1: and well being in our ability to compete on a
Speaker 1: global level will be significantly impeded if women are removed
Speaker 1: from the workforce. But you see, we know that Republicans
Speaker 1: want to remove women from the workforce, and how do
Speaker 1: we know that, Oh I don't know, because the Tucker
Speaker 1: Carlson's of the world have talked about how you know,
Speaker 1: feminism has gotten in the way of men being able
Speaker 1: to be men, Because apparently a man, a white man
Speaker 1: in particular, can only be a man if he is
Speaker 1: subjugating women. Apparently a man can only be a man
Speaker 1: so long as he has somebody in his life to
Speaker 1: impose his fucking will on. That doesn't sound like a
Speaker 1: man to me, that sounds like a fucking punk. And frankly,
Speaker 1: I am again exhausted by Democrats and their inability to
Speaker 1: just tell the fucking truth with passion and conviction. Stop
Speaker 1: shaking and wagging your finger at people that are shameless,
Speaker 1: start rolling out court cases, start using your goddamn subpoena power.
Speaker 1: Maybe switch out your fucking whimp ass Attorney general, head
Speaker 1: of the fucking Department of Justice, and get somebody in
Speaker 1: there that actually has some skin in the goddamn game
Speaker 1: and doesn't think that we have all the time in
Speaker 1: the world to deal with our crumbling, rapidly crumbling democracy.
Speaker 1: I don't get why people that are in power right
Speaker 1: now do not have the same level of anger and
Speaker 1: rage that I do because they have the power to
Speaker 1: actually do something about it. All I can do with
Speaker 1: the platform that I have, it's to be able to
Speaker 1: raise awareness to people who are not in the know.
Speaker 1: But I do not have the power to sign legislation
Speaker 1: to whip votes, to whisper into the ear of the
Speaker 1: president that I don't know what the fuck you are
Speaker 1: paying attention to, but you all want to keep running
Speaker 1: up the fucking money to Ukraine. Meanwhile, people are literally
Speaker 1: starving in this country. People are literally needing to get
Speaker 1: second jobs to be able to afford to put gas
Speaker 1: in their goddamn tanks, and are having to rely on
Speaker 1: food banks in their communities so that they can balance
Speaker 1: the rising costs of everything. But the Senate has no
Speaker 1: problem sending money for war that they pass without even
Speaker 1: having any type of debate on it. But if that
Speaker 1: same money we were to ask for that for support
Speaker 1: of the American people, all American families, then my god,
Speaker 1: we have to open up debate for two weeks, and
Speaker 1: even that not a fucking thing will happen. The ways
Speaker 1: in which we are expecting Americans to adapt to our
Speaker 1: shrinking democracy is astounding. It is astounding. It is astounding
Speaker 1: to me that gas is higher today than it was
Speaker 1: on Monday. It is astounding to me that in the
Speaker 1: quote unquote wealthiest nation, we can't produce baby formula. It
Speaker 1: is astounding to me that, oh, gas is so expensive.
Speaker 1: The price of oil is so expensive that every issue,
Speaker 1: every problem that happens for industries and companies must then
Speaker 1: be rolled over onto consumers. Meanwhile, the shareholders and CEOs
Speaker 1: of said oil companies are bringing home tens of fucking
Speaker 1: millions of dollars a fucking year. Oh now, it's the
Speaker 1: price of d is going to be skyrocketing, and our
Speaker 1: inability to be able to produce diesel, Oh, guess what
Speaker 1: runs on diesel, dear friends, airplanes, trains, So guess what
Speaker 1: is going to happen once again? That cost is going
Speaker 1: to roll down and fall on the heads of the consumers.
Speaker 1: And all the administration is going to do is wag
Speaker 1: their finger and say, you know, oil CEO should do better,
Speaker 1: but you don't actually create policies to demand that they
Speaker 1: do and then hold them accountable when they don't. I
Speaker 1: am sick to fucking death of this place. And you know,
Speaker 1: it is becoming so evident with each and every interview
Speaker 1: that I do with lawyers, with abortion providers, with activists,
Speaker 1: with academics, with authors, that there is no turning this
Speaker 1: ship around. So what does that mean for those of
Speaker 1: us who have means? Does that mean that now is
Speaker 1: the time to get the fuck out of this country
Speaker 1: because otherwise we're all just rearranging the chairs on the
Speaker 1: Titanic and just going down with the ship while Democrats
Speaker 1: scream as it's sinking that like here you go, Republicans
Speaker 1: will get you next election as they're fucking sinking, like
Speaker 1: what are we all waiting around here? Four exactly? Just
Speaker 1: a full on shootouts on the street, The fact that
Speaker 1: we'll have buffalo massacres every week every day, that our
Speaker 1: incarceol system is going to get ready to have a
Speaker 1: new track of women of color and poor women that
Speaker 1: they are going to run through the system so that
Speaker 1: the women inmates that number will skyrocket for no other
Speaker 1: reason than the fact that they were trying to have
Speaker 1: autonomy over their own bodies but have now become criminals
Speaker 1: who are aiding and abetting. The real fucking criminals in
Speaker 1: this country is the Republican Party, And the actual real
Speaker 1: fucking crime is Democrats inability to hold them accountable for
Speaker 1: a fucking thing, whether it is a goddamn insurrection, whether
Speaker 1: it is abortion laws, whether it is voting laws. I
Speaker 1: cannot continue to sit around and just point one finger
Speaker 1: squarely at Republicans who have told us from the beginning
Speaker 1: who they are and what they care about, and who
Speaker 1: they don't. I ask every day, I'm like, what is
Speaker 1: Jamie Harrison doing at the DNC, What is Nancy Pelosi
Speaker 1: doing as the head of the House, What is Chuck
Speaker 1: Schumer doing as the head of the Senate? What are
Speaker 1: these people doing? They're sitting around and they're giving interviews,
Speaker 1: and they are offering no solutions whatsoever, no strategies, just
Speaker 1: a bunch of what a bunch of votes on the
Speaker 1: floor that don't actually mean anything. Our lives are changing
Speaker 1: minute by minute by many and not for the fucking better,
Speaker 1: and they're just going around as if it's business as usual.
Speaker 1: I just I don't understand. And when I hear, if
Speaker 1: I hear one more person talk to me about how
Speaker 1: abortion and the loss of it is going to be
Speaker 1: the galvanizing force for white women, like it's not. They
Speaker 1: don't give a fuck. They will find a way to
Speaker 1: get an abortion. They will go across states because they
Speaker 1: have the economic resources to do so. They've never voted
Speaker 1: in line with the Democratic Party because they vote with
Speaker 1: their fucking husbands. So tell me who this is going
Speaker 1: to galvanize, because black and brown people have already been galvanized,
Speaker 1: because we're the ones who exist with the target on
Speaker 1: our backs every single goddamn day, because we know that.
Speaker 1: Ain't nobody come into fucking save us. So again, who
Speaker 1: is this galvanizing? We are on a sinking ship this country.
Speaker 1: Our democracy is fucking done. It is not about Oh
Speaker 1: maybe it's not. We haven't entered our dystopian future yet.
Speaker 1: I'm like, look around. I just put in an order.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you this, an order of things that
Speaker 1: I order every three months from Amazon. Basic things, paper towels,
Speaker 1: toilet paper, que tips, right, all of those basic fucking staples.
Speaker 1: The price tag was about eighty dollars more then it
Speaker 1: has cost the less several months eighty dollars more. Now
Speaker 1: I can afford that right now. But if you add
Speaker 1: another eighty dollars on top of that in another year
Speaker 1: or in another couple of months, how is that going
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Speaker 1: that won't just leave you crying under a weighted blanket.
Speaker 1: Get the Bituation Room on Apple, Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and
Speaker 1: streaming on YouTube and twitch. Folks, I, you know, all
Speaker 1: I can say is that this has been a fucking
Speaker 1: week and I need to do some real meditation, prayer, planting,
Speaker 1: connection with friends and the universe, and staging some shit
Speaker 1: out because every day I am feeling worse and that
Speaker 1: is not good for my mental health. It is not
Speaker 1: good for anybody's mental health, because I just don't I
Speaker 1: don't see how we fight this. I really don't, and
Speaker 1: particularly with a party that has absolutely no fight within it.
Speaker 1: I'm just like they are literally hanging the rest of
Speaker 1: us out to dry and just going to say sorry.
Speaker 1: Coming up next, my conversation with the executive director of
Speaker 1: the National Institute for Reproductive Health, Andrea Miller. Folks, I
Speaker 1: am very excited to welcome back. It's been a few years,
Speaker 1: but to welcome back to woke a f daily Andrea Miller,
Speaker 1: who is the executive director at NIRG, the National Institute
Speaker 1: for Reproductive Health, which is the leading organization focused on
Speaker 1: advancing protecting the needs of those that have uterus is
Speaker 1: at the state and local level. Andrea I can't imagine
Speaker 1: that you were sleeping. I can't imagine that anyone on
Speaker 1: your staff is sleeping. You have been the head of
Speaker 1: this organization since two thousand and eleven, and I want
Speaker 1: you to be able to tell us one your reaction
Speaker 1: to the leaked decision, and then two how you were
Speaker 1: looking at this landscape differently than you did eleven years
Speaker 1: ago when you took the home. Well, it's great to
Speaker 1: be back, and thank you for having me. It is
Speaker 1: a hard time to sleep these days, there's no question
Speaker 1: about that. I mean, look the Supreme Court draft opinion
Speaker 1: that was leaked. I will say, of course I kept
Speaker 1: saying I was, you know, using a lot of f
Speaker 1: words that were keeping me going, but they were really
Speaker 1: that I was furious and fired up because the reality
Speaker 1: is I'm furious because of course we knew this was coming.
Speaker 1: We have been saying that this is what is likely
Speaker 1: to happen. We saw the Supreme Court get packed by
Speaker 1: Trump with people part of their purpose in life has
Speaker 1: been to get to this place and do this terrible,
Speaker 1: dreadful thing that they are about to do in overturning
Speaker 1: roversus Wade so not surprising but infuriating because it is
Speaker 1: so contrary to the direction this country should be going in.
Speaker 1: It's so contrary to the needs and the values and
Speaker 1: the views of the majority in this country, and it
Speaker 1: will be so harmful and so devastating for so many people.
Speaker 1: Because we really are probably looking at, perhaps on day one,
Speaker 1: you know, at least thirteen states with trigger laws that
Speaker 1: say that they will ban abortion as soon as there
Speaker 1: is no roversus wade, and those are criminal abortion bands
Speaker 1: that punish people who provide care will probably be used
Speaker 1: to punish people who try to get care. So it's
Speaker 1: you know, and then you've got another dozen states or
Speaker 1: so that are ready to use their existing bands that
Speaker 1: are enjoined right now because of row or pre O
Speaker 1: bands to try to do the same, and so it's infuriating,
Speaker 1: but it's also really like, Okay, this is the time, folks.
Speaker 1: We know this is happening, and we've seen so much response,
Speaker 1: so much outpouring, and you know, we work, as you mentioned, Danielle,
Speaker 1: we work at the state and local level all across
Speaker 1: the country, and that means that we're in about half
Speaker 1: the states every year. And I can tell you that
Speaker 1: the number of requests from our partners, both current groups
Speaker 1: that we're working with on the ground in the states,
Speaker 1: and folks we've worked with in the past, and folks
Speaker 1: we've never worked with, who are like, what can my
Speaker 1: state do? What can my city do? What can I do?
Speaker 1: And so I'm really fired up by that because I
Speaker 1: think it means that we have real momentum going into
Speaker 1: the elections this fall, and real momentum in getting creative
Speaker 1: and really digging in and making sure that people who
Speaker 1: have unses can get pregnant and need abortion care are
Speaker 1: able to get it in whatever form we can get
Speaker 1: at it for them. You know, let me asked about
Speaker 1: the trajectory. Yeah, yeah, I wanted to tell me about
Speaker 1: the trajectory. Yeah. Gods. So that's the interesting thing about
Speaker 1: the trajectory is that certainly when I took the helm
Speaker 1: here in twenty eleven, we had just had the twenty
Speaker 1: ten Tea Party sweep, and so we were seeing the
Speaker 1: wave of the beginnings of the real wave of extreme
Speaker 1: restrictions on abortion care. But you know, it's important to
Speaker 1: remember that since Rowe there have been thirteen hundred laws
Speaker 1: against abortion passed at the state level. So there have
Speaker 1: been waves and waves and waves of these kinds of
Speaker 1: restrictive laws. But in the last you know, three to
Speaker 1: five years, in particularly the last three years, I think
Speaker 1: very much emboldened by Trump, the increase in the bands
Speaker 1: and the willingness to figure out all kinds of really
Speaker 1: heinous but innovative ways to try to work around the
Speaker 1: lawsuits that have been successful in preventing the bands. We've
Speaker 1: seen really that like intensity factor ratchet up significantly. And
Speaker 1: I do believe that that is because of Trump's time
Speaker 1: in the White House, because of the willingness to be
Speaker 1: so stigmatizing, so harsh and horrible about people who need
Speaker 1: to exercise their right to make decisions about their sexual
Speaker 1: and reproductive lives. And that tenure, that tenor really has
Speaker 1: infected what's happened in the States, And so I think
Speaker 1: we've seen an increased ugliness to it. But I've always believed,
Speaker 1: and I've always known, and our strategy has always been,
Speaker 1: we've got to do the work at the state and
Speaker 1: local level. Even if all you care about is Congress,
Speaker 1: in the Supreme Court and the Presidency, you've got to
Speaker 1: care about the states. That's where it all happened. You know.
Speaker 1: The thing that I never understand andreat I and I
Speaker 1: am kind of like dumbfounded by is We've had an
Speaker 1: opposition to abortion and repro rights for fifty years, like
Speaker 1: you have said, since Roe was passed in nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: there have been thirteen hundred policies, pieces of legislation that
Speaker 1: have been passed to chop away, not chip away, but
Speaker 1: to chop away at the rights that Rovi, Wade and
Speaker 1: Casey provided to people in this country. And so I
Speaker 1: am confused then about why there has been no coordinated
Speaker 1: strategy around how we were going to push back, Like
Speaker 1: why do why do democrats I guess right now to
Speaker 1: me seemed so surprised, like why like why do people
Speaker 1: seem like they were caught off guard for something that
Speaker 1: has been argued and worked away at for the last
Speaker 1: fifty years. Well, it's a great question, Daniel, and I
Speaker 1: think there are a few reasons. First, I think that
Speaker 1: it is very hard for people to believe that something
Speaker 1: so fundamental, something that is so shaped the lives and
Speaker 1: futures of anyone who can get pregnant, women, transgender, gender
Speaker 1: nonconforming folks, anyone who has a uterus, anyone has a
Speaker 1: womb and changed our society. And so the idea that
Speaker 1: we could be at a place where this could be eliminated.
Speaker 1: We've got four generations of people who have come of
Speaker 1: age with the knowledge that they have at least some modicum.
Speaker 1: I mean, certainly it differs by race and by geography.
Speaker 1: It differs. We know that the restrictive laws have taken
Speaker 1: their greatest toll on black, Indigenous, Latin X other people
Speaker 1: of color, and young people and people in rural communities,
Speaker 1: so certain and people who are struggling to make ends meet.
Speaker 1: So we know that there have been people who have
Speaker 1: been denied access already because of all of these restrictions.
Speaker 1: But the idea that it could be literally banned and
Speaker 1: just gone in nearly half the States is shocking. I mean,
Speaker 1: it is hard to fathom that we could be at
Speaker 1: this place because it is so retrograde, and it is
Speaker 1: so contrary to what people really believe and need and
Speaker 1: have ordered their lives around. So I think it's partly
Speaker 1: the like it's hard to believe it until you see
Speaker 1: it in stark, black and white, like we did with
Speaker 1: the words on the page from Justice Alito. So I
Speaker 1: think that's one reason. But I will also say that, honestly,
Speaker 1: I think that while our opposition was very clear and
Speaker 1: very dedicated to take over a particular party, they took
Speaker 1: over the GOP. They made this a centerpiece of their
Speaker 1: of their base, they made the driving force. Frankly, I mean,
Speaker 1: you and I could spend weeks talking about how that
Speaker 1: was the latest manifestation of the ways and which racism
Speaker 1: and anti blackness and white supremacy have infused the anti
Speaker 1: abortion movement. Because the reality is they were losing on
Speaker 1: civil rights. They needed to pull the Dixiecrats. They wanted
Speaker 1: to pull Democrats from the from the Democratic Party in
Speaker 1: the South. So they were losing. They were losing the
Speaker 1: segregation battle, so they turned to the abortion battle. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, but look, opposition to abortion goes back to
Speaker 1: the mid eighteen hundreds when white gynecologists wanted to experiment
Speaker 1: on black bodies. So it's you know, it is part
Speaker 1: and parcel of that. So I think the challenge is
Speaker 1: you have this dedication to this singular drive, and the
Speaker 1: Democrats were squishy on this, were nervous about it, kept
Speaker 1: saying it was a loser when we knew it wasn't
Speaker 1: a loser, and just you know, hemmed and hard and
Speaker 1: big tent in our way, you know, blundering along. And
Speaker 1: that's why, you know, unfortunately, there wasn't we didn't have equivalency.
Speaker 1: We didn't have enough power politically willingness for the political
Speaker 1: power of the Democratic Party to be brought to bear
Speaker 1: on this. It was more like, we want, we want
Speaker 1: to have all comers. Well, the truth is this is now,
Speaker 1: unfortunately a purely partisan issue. It didn't start this way,
Speaker 1: but they have made it that way. Our opposition is
Speaker 1: made clear, it's a partisan issue. They have made it
Speaker 1: clear that you cannot be a Republican and be supportive
Speaker 1: of reproductive freedom. And so you know, we're kind of
Speaker 1: playing catch up in that in that regard. And I
Speaker 1: think it's unfortunate because I think that unwillingness to even
Speaker 1: say the word abortion. I mean, we finally had the
Speaker 1: President say the word abortion, but not very many times,
Speaker 1: adds to the stigma and adds to the sense that like,
Speaker 1: this isn't something that should be should be recognized as
Speaker 1: the core element to our freedom and liberation that it is.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that you said at
Speaker 1: the beginning was that you think, and I've heard this before,
Speaker 1: that folks believe that this will abortion now and the
Speaker 1: loss of it in June when the decision is final,
Speaker 1: When we see a final decision, that will be a
Speaker 1: galvanizing force. My pushback to that for midterms is that
Speaker 1: black and brown and bipoc people have consistently showed up
Speaker 1: in the numbers, historic numbers that are necessary. So and
Speaker 1: if that has always happened and has always been the way,
Speaker 1: who do we think that this is actually going to
Speaker 1: be galvanizing? Is it going to be galvanizing the fifty
Speaker 1: three percent of white women that voted for Donald Trump
Speaker 1: that then turned out in record numbers again to vote
Speaker 1: for him in twenty twenty. I'm just I guess I'm
Speaker 1: trying to understand who we think that this is galvanizing
Speaker 1: because black and brown people have known what it has
Speaker 1: already been like to live in a state, in a
Speaker 1: place where row it has not been the law of
Speaker 1: the land for many years, let alone the last fifty. No,
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, Danielle, and I think Look, black and
Speaker 1: brown folks have been showing up, have been voting consistent,
Speaker 1: have been clear about the importance of these issues, and
Speaker 1: have been on the front lines of this even when
Speaker 1: so many in their communities haven't been able to access
Speaker 1: care and across the board, you know, I mean, all
Speaker 1: you have to do is look at the black maternal
Speaker 1: mortality rate and infant mortality rate, and you know, the
Speaker 1: lack of access to abortion care, the High Amendment and
Speaker 1: its denial of the ability of people who are eligible
Speaker 1: on Medicaid or or have get their health services from
Speaker 1: Indian Health Services. I mean, it is you know, the
Speaker 1: list goes on and on. So you're absolutely right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that the reality is My hope is that
Speaker 1: this will be part of that like reality check, that
Speaker 1: wake up call to say, you know what, you've got
Speaker 1: to start crossing party lines because those Republican white men
Speaker 1: are not your friends, and you need to stop supporting them.
Speaker 1: You need to stop, you know, propping them up and
Speaker 1: thinking that you can throw your lot in with them
Speaker 1: and that's going to be good for you, because it's
Speaker 1: not good for you and it's not good for the country,
Speaker 1: and you've got to figure out who you should really
Speaker 1: be in solidarity with. So I'm hopeful we'll see some
Speaker 1: people cross party lines, and predominantly, you know, whether we
Speaker 1: like it or not, we need some of those folks
Speaker 1: in the suburbs to turn out and turn out in droves,
Speaker 1: because that's where some of these key districts are going
Speaker 1: to be in when some of those swing districts are
Speaker 1: So my hope is that it will be a wake
Speaker 1: up call for some folks who have not voted on this,
Speaker 1: and I think it may be a wake up call
Speaker 1: for some folks who white folks who haven't necessarily been
Speaker 1: voting but are like, oh, this maybe maybe matters. You know.
Speaker 1: What do you think, you know in terms of how
Speaker 1: like you mentioned, and I've said this on wokef many
Speaker 1: times about this president not uttering the word abortion, about
Speaker 1: Democrats in general being as you said, squishy on the issue,
Speaker 1: hiding behind you know, moderate Democrats and basically voting like
Speaker 1: Republicans on abortion, on reproductive health issues, and they've been
Speaker 1: allowed to do so we are here, I find myself
Speaker 1: at this moment not just because of Republicans being relentless
Speaker 1: in their pursuit to repeal Roe v. Wade, but in
Speaker 1: Democrats being apathetic to the fact that it was coming
Speaker 1: because they've allowed all of these measures to be chipped
Speaker 1: away at for the last fifty years. So what do
Speaker 1: you think needs to happen in terms of the pivot
Speaker 1: with the Democratic Party as a whole and our leaders
Speaker 1: in the way that they are talking about this issue.
Speaker 1: Because if it is to be a galvanizing force, then
Speaker 1: what does that actually look like. That's such a great question. Look,
Speaker 1: I think that the way that we've really been let
Speaker 1: down on this is not only they won't talk about it,
Speaker 1: but when they do, it's in isolation. It's with euphemisms,
Speaker 1: it's like segmented out from other things. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think what we need now is a full throated, aggressive
Speaker 1: articulation of the fact that this is part of a
Speaker 1: wider agenda that if you believe in economic security, if
Speaker 1: you believe in maternal health and wellbeing, if you believe
Speaker 1: in family stability, if you believe in wanting to see
Speaker 1: our future look better than it is today, then this
Speaker 1: is one of those core value issues. It isn't about
Speaker 1: abortion per se. It's about who do you think should
Speaker 1: have power and control over the fundamental decisions that so
Speaker 1: shape our lives, that will so influence our communities, that
Speaker 1: will so shape you know, our economic futures. I mean,
Speaker 1: Janet Yellen was just talking about the you know, incredible
Speaker 1: reduction of our GDP that could happen because of all
Speaker 1: of these abortion bands. I mean, if you care about
Speaker 1: our economic future, our community safety, you know, our families
Speaker 1: being able to make ends meet, if you care about
Speaker 1: the health and well being of anyone with a uterus,
Speaker 1: then it's got to be a part of that. It
Speaker 1: can't be like, oh, there's this thing over here called
Speaker 1: abortion that now it's now, it's going to be and
Speaker 1: that's bad and we're not happy about that, and you
Speaker 1: should go out and vote about that. It needs to be.
Speaker 1: This is about the values that we hold and the
Speaker 1: belief that fundamental to your freedom in this country and
Speaker 1: your ability to shape your future is being able to
Speaker 1: decide whether, when and with whom to have a child.
Speaker 1: And you take that away and everything suffers, and everyone suffers.
Speaker 1: It isn't just people who need abortions, although as my
Speaker 1: dear ally and friend, Renee Bracy Sherman reminds us all
Speaker 1: that everyone loves someone who's had an abortion, whether they
Speaker 1: realize it or not, but it is everyone. You know,
Speaker 1: everyone is going to be impacted, whether you're in a
Speaker 1: state that bans it or in a state that is
Speaker 1: like New York State, California, Illinois, Massachusetts where we're working
Speaker 1: to expand access and build out the infrastructure. It's going
Speaker 1: to impact that. It's going to mean the carceral system
Speaker 1: is going to have this whole new avenue that it's
Speaker 1: already playing with in really terrible ways. It's already experimenting
Speaker 1: with how to go after people who have miscarriages, who
Speaker 1: have you been able to use medication abortion or otherwise
Speaker 1: terminate their pregnancies on their own trusts in their communities
Speaker 1: rather than you know, they have already shown us that
Speaker 1: they want that pathway that's going to affect everyone, you know,
Speaker 1: So I think it has to be really an embrace
Speaker 1: of what are we for, what do we believe in?
Speaker 1: And how clearly this demonstrates the hypocrisy and just the
Speaker 1: mean spiritedness, the lack of compassion of those in the
Speaker 1: GOP who are driving this agenda because they do not
Speaker 1: care about the health and wellbeing of families. And you know,
Speaker 1: I mean there's so many great talking They voted again
Speaker 1: to baby formula today they WoT exactly so, these are
Speaker 1: people who are about forced birth, and I believe it
Speaker 1: was a h In ninety two Republicans in the House
Speaker 1: voted against that's right, How the defensive Production Act to
Speaker 1: support people who are trying to feed their babies exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are so many examples. Mississippi, which is
Speaker 1: the state at the heart of the current case before
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court, is one of the few states that
Speaker 1: refuses the federal government's incredible offer to extend Medicaid postpartum
Speaker 1: from the minimal sixty days to twelve months. Because we
Speaker 1: all know lots of issues, health issues for you know,
Speaker 1: parents and for infants happen after sixty days, right and
Speaker 1: if you care again. But but they don't want to
Speaker 1: do that. They don't want to support childcare, they don't
Speaker 1: want to support expanding access to healthcare. They you know,
Speaker 1: the same states that are banning abortion of course, we
Speaker 1: know are the same states trying to suppress voting. They're
Speaker 1: the same states that are attacking you know, trans children.
Speaker 1: I mean, the list goes on and on. So to me,
Speaker 1: it needs to be a real full throated like this
Speaker 1: is just if you want to make it about this
Speaker 1: as a sort of singular entree point, say, this is
Speaker 1: just the latest piece of powerful evidence that shows just
Speaker 1: how out of not only out of touch, but how
Speaker 1: uncaring unfeeling and with no compassion. They want to set
Speaker 1: us on a course that will be economically, socially, culturally,
Speaker 1: public health devastation for everybody. And that is not that
Speaker 1: should not be our future. We can do better than that.
Speaker 1: You know, last thing that I will ask Andrea is
Speaker 1: you know you have been doing again this work for
Speaker 1: the last eleven years and pay honestly, I've been doing
Speaker 1: I was going to say, you've been doing it for
Speaker 1: the last eleven years at at Irah, But in your life,
Speaker 1: this is your work. What are you where? Where are
Speaker 1: you most fearful right now? Like what you know? And
Speaker 1: where are you most fearful? And where do you see
Speaker 1: some if any opportunity at this moment? So where most
Speaker 1: fearful honestly is that it's just where people are going
Speaker 1: to be so harmed. I mean, I'm just so afraid
Speaker 1: of how much just trauma and drama and harm is
Speaker 1: going to come from this, whether people are eight who
Speaker 1: are in states where it's going to be banned, are
Speaker 1: able to access abortion care or not, just what they're
Speaker 1: going to have to go through to do it, and
Speaker 1: what they're going to have to sacrifice and what they're
Speaker 1: the hoops, they're gonna have the hurdles they're going to
Speaker 1: have to jump over. You know, I fear for the
Speaker 1: impact on maternal and infant health and wellbeing and mortality
Speaker 1: and morbidity. I think that my hope is that we
Speaker 1: won't see scores and scores and scores of women dying
Speaker 1: from unsafe abortion like we saw before ROW, because thank
Speaker 1: fully we have medication abortion now. But but will people
Speaker 1: be able to avail themselves of it? And if they do,
Speaker 1: will they be able to avoid being prosecuted for it?
Speaker 1: So what I fear is just the level of harm
Speaker 1: that's going to be done to so many people, And
Speaker 1: of course we know it will be disproportionate harm on black, Indigenous,
Speaker 1: latinex Asian, American Pacific islanders, you know, people who people
Speaker 1: of communities of color, people struggling to make ends meet.
Speaker 1: I that just breaks my heart. That really breaks my heart.
Speaker 1: The flip side as you ask what gives me hope?
Speaker 1: What keeps me going? I mean, I am seeing and
Speaker 1: our team is hearing from so many quarters, people who
Speaker 1: are turning out in droves saying how can I help?
Speaker 1: What can I do? And that includes elected officials and states.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been blown away by how quickly. I mean,
Speaker 1: a lot of things were in the works for you know, months,
Speaker 1: if not years, to try to get to the point
Speaker 1: where we could get states to not only you know,
Speaker 1: enshrine protections in their state law. Let's remember, before Row,
Speaker 1: we only had four states really two on the mainland
Speaker 1: that had legalized their abortion laws. We now have seventeen,
Speaker 1: plus the District of Columbia, and there are more who
Speaker 1: are looking to do it, and they are going beyond that.
Speaker 1: They are funding services at you know, exponentially, they are
Speaker 1: covering abortion care for those who can't pay for it.
Speaker 1: They are you know, funding practical supports. They're looking at
Speaker 1: how to create greater safety measures so that people seeking
Speaker 1: care and people providing it can do so in a safer,
Speaker 1: safer environment. So I'm seeing that all across the country,
Speaker 1: and we're hearing frankly from We're hearing from people, you know,
Speaker 1: city councils and mayors and people working with them in
Speaker 1: red states and blue states and purple states. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's things that can be done at the local level
Speaker 1: even if a state is really challenging, and we're seeing
Speaker 1: that kind of innovation, just like ramp up, and similarly,
Speaker 1: we're seeing states step up, and I think we're going
Speaker 1: to keep seeing that, and I think the more people realize,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously I wish that we weren't in this place,
Speaker 1: but I am heartened to see that elected officials are
Speaker 1: stepping up, that we're seeing people just in the community
Speaker 1: stepping up. And there's so much people can do. There
Speaker 1: really is. There's there's something everyone can do, and I'm
Speaker 1: hopeful that people are really looking to do those things.
Speaker 1: Andrea Miller, thank you so much for making the time
Speaker 1: to join willke F. I know that we will speak
Speaker 1: to you many times over in the months to follow
Speaker 1: as we lead into midterms. So I appreciate you and
Speaker 1: the work of ni RH and hope to talk to
Speaker 1: you again soon. Thank you so much, Danielle. Wonderful to
Speaker 1: see you again, to be here, and thank you for
Speaker 1: having me. The Damage Report with John Idarola is one
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Speaker 1: it for me today, Dear friends, on this Friday, I
Speaker 1: wish you all a RESTful recharging I don't even know.
Speaker 1: Find some joy this weekend. Find something that makes you happy,
Speaker 1: do it, hold onto it, really, revel in it. Tap
Speaker 1: out from this shit, and I will see you all
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Speaker 1: all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.