Speaker 1: Hi everyone, I'm Kitty Kuric and this is next question.
Speaker 1: As twenty eight year old Ali Phillips tells it, She's
Speaker 1: just a regular working mom to Alleie, her six year
Speaker 1: old daughter. Allie runs a daycare center from her home
Speaker 1: and never considered herself to be a political person. Then
Speaker 1: came Allie's second pregnancy, which involved life threatening complications for
Speaker 1: her and no chance of survival for her baby. As
Speaker 1: Allie was scrambling to secure an abortion in a state
Speaker 1: other than her native Tennessee, where abortions were banned, Miley,
Speaker 1: the name she had given her second daughter, died in utero.
Speaker 1: To say the whole ordeal was traumatic doesn't even begin
Speaker 1: to describe what Ali and her family went through. When
Speaker 1: she returned to Tennessee, Ali met with her state representative,
Speaker 1: who told her that he hadn't thought of situations like
Speaker 1: hers because he thought only first pregnancies could have serious complications.
Speaker 1: She was dumbfounded by his ignorance, so she decided she
Speaker 1: needed to do more. She's running for office, and she's
Speaker 1: suing Tennessee with the help of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Speaker 1: Ali's story is both harrowing and inspiring, and shows in
Speaker 1: stark terms what happens in many states when a woman
Speaker 1: no longer has access to abortion care. Here's Ali in
Speaker 1: her own words.
Speaker 2: My name is Ali Phillips. I'm twenty eight years old
Speaker 2: and I live in Tennessee. I grew up here in Tennessee.
Speaker 2: I've been here my whole life. We actually grew up
Speaker 2: in a very small town, so everybody knew everybody. You
Speaker 2: couldn't do anything without the neighbor knowing. And growing up,
Speaker 2: we were a lower income family, so we didn't really
Speaker 2: do a lot of traveling or big trips and stuff
Speaker 2: like that. And when I turned sixteen, I got my
Speaker 2: first job at Sonic and from there, I've just had
Speaker 2: a job ever since, and I've just kind of worked
Speaker 2: in food industry. I've worked in retail, just a little
Speaker 2: bit of everything, kind of public work. And then when
Speaker 2: I was twenty, I was in a relationship with somebody
Speaker 2: and found out I was pregnant very early on, and
Speaker 2: that relationship ended shortly after she was born. She was
Speaker 2: two weeks old when we separated, and I was a
Speaker 2: single mom after that, not really getting help from him,
Speaker 2: but my parents helped as much as they could. I
Speaker 2: was going into my last semester of college the time
Speaker 2: she was born. She was born in the middle summer,
Speaker 2: and so I was a full time college student, a
Speaker 2: newly single mom with an infant, and I was working
Speaker 2: three jobs to one make sure my daughter had her
Speaker 2: formula because she had a lot of digestive issues. Had
Speaker 2: by the expense to formula, and I was on wick
Speaker 2: to alleviate some of the costs, but she wouldn't take
Speaker 2: so much formula. I had to buy a lot out
Speaker 2: of pocket. So I was working three jobs to make
Speaker 2: sure I could get through college. My daughter was fed
Speaker 2: and clothed, and that we were just Our bills were
Speaker 2: paid and everything was kind of stable.
Speaker 1: Your husband, Brian Lynch, has been a wonderful stepfather to Adalie,
Speaker 1: which is so great because it sounds as if it
Speaker 1: was quite a struggle for you as a single mom
Speaker 1: with your daughter, and to have rekindled your relationship with
Speaker 1: your now husband, Brian must have been a relief for you,
Speaker 1: not only to have a partner, but also to have
Speaker 1: someone who would be a father to your daughter.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and he actually grew up with a single mom.
Speaker 2: He's never met his father, and that is something that
Speaker 2: he has devoted his life to Addalie is making sure
Speaker 2: she never knows what it's like to not have a
Speaker 2: dad around, and I think that's a lot about him
Speaker 2: as a man. He doesn't have any biological children of
Speaker 2: his own, so Attalie is his only child, and he
Speaker 2: has taken it with so much grace and so much patience.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty two was a very interesting year. We got
Speaker 2: married that March, and then we bought the house that
Speaker 2: we're in right now in October, and I found out
Speaker 2: we were pregnant the beginning of November, and so that
Speaker 2: was the timeline we kind of wanted for ourselves, was
Speaker 2: get married, by a house and then try for a
Speaker 2: baby because we wanted to expand our family. He wanted
Speaker 2: a biological child, and so the fact that we bought
Speaker 2: the house and then two weeks later found out I
Speaker 2: was pregnant, it was just like, okay, well, we wasted
Speaker 2: no time at all. So we were really excited and
Speaker 2: we immediately called friends and family, really close friends and family.
Speaker 2: But I told him that I wanted to make sure
Speaker 2: everything was okay with the pregnancy before we told like
Speaker 2: the public, before I posted on Facebook and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: because you know, it's never official unless it's Facebook official, right.
Speaker 2: So we went through the first trimester and everything was fine.
Speaker 2: There was never any reason for concern, and we hit
Speaker 2: that twelve thirteen week mark and everything is again still
Speaker 2: was perfect. So we went ahead and made our public
Speaker 2: posts that we were expecting in July of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: and so the love and support that we received from
Speaker 2: friends and family was so phenomenal and it just made
Speaker 2: us that much more excited. And we had already started
Speaker 2: buying things that you need for a newborn. We have
Speaker 2: the crib, we had blankets, swaddles, pacifiers, bottles, diapers, whites, toys,
Speaker 2: everything you can think of we had ready to go
Speaker 2: in the garage. And it was around fifteen weeks. My
Speaker 2: mom actually got me one of those four D ultrasound
Speaker 2: gender reveal little things, and so we went and did that.
Speaker 2: We were hoping for a boy since we already have
Speaker 2: a daughter, but nonetheless we found out we were having
Speaker 2: a girl, and so we were still very excited. I
Speaker 2: told him that he just gets to be a girl
Speaker 2: dad now, and you know, he should be proud of that.
Speaker 2: He'll get his nails painted and bows in his hair.
Speaker 2: And so we started thinking about girl names, and I
Speaker 2: personally don't like the super common names. Like my daughter's
Speaker 2: name is Adalie. I don't know any other Adalie's. So
Speaker 2: I wanted her to have a unique name. And we
Speaker 2: are both big Miley Cyrus fans, and I thought about
Speaker 2: it and I was like, you know what, Miley is
Speaker 2: a household name because of Miley Cyrus, but I personally
Speaker 2: don't really know. I don't know any other Miley's. It's
Speaker 2: a common no name, but I don't know any Miley's.
Speaker 2: And so I started thinking about the name Miley. And
Speaker 2: then her song Flowers had just dropped, and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: well let's think about a flower. And so I called
Speaker 2: my husband he was at work, and I was like,
Speaker 2: what do you think of the name Miley Rose? And
Speaker 2: that's how her name came about.
Speaker 1: You all were very excited about this baby girl.
Speaker 2: We were ecstatic. We were My parents were excited because
Speaker 2: they were ready for another grand baby. This was going
Speaker 2: to be his first biological child. And I, growing up,
Speaker 2: I always wanted to have two I always wanted to
Speaker 2: have two babies, to kids, and so I knew that
Speaker 2: this was part of my life's path, was to have
Speaker 2: another child so we were over the moon. We were
Speaker 2: so excited.
Speaker 1: When did you get the news that something was wrong
Speaker 1: with the baby.
Speaker 2: So we went to our nineteen week anatomy scan, and
Speaker 2: we made it a family occasion because we didn't have
Speaker 2: any other reason to think it was going to be
Speaker 2: anything but a normal appointment. And so me, Brian, and
Speaker 2: Attalie all went to the doctor together and it was
Speaker 2: about five minutes into my ultrasound that the technician had
Speaker 2: stopped and told me that she needed to go grab
Speaker 2: my doctor, that she had saw some pretty serious things.
Speaker 2: And her face kind of dropped and my husband looked
Speaker 2: at her and said, why do you look sad? And
Speaker 2: she just, very kind of under her breath, said I
Speaker 2: just don't want to tell anybody bad news, and then
Speaker 2: she walked out of the room. Immediately, I got like
Speaker 2: a knot in my throat, my hands started getting sweaty,
Speaker 2: my heart's beating really fast, and I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: like this is new to me. This is only my
Speaker 2: second pregnancy. My first pregnancy was completely fine, had no issues,
Speaker 2: so I didn't know what to expect. And my ob
Speaker 2: came in so I just looked at your ultrasound images
Speaker 2: and the fetus seems to have no fluid ambiotic fluid
Speaker 2: around her. Also, both of her kidneys seemed to have
Speaker 2: not formed correctly and aren't functioning. And she's measuring about
Speaker 2: fifteen weeks, so about a month behind. So with that,
Speaker 2: they said that there was further testing that they wanted
Speaker 2: to be done. So they referres over to a maternal
Speaker 2: fetal medicine specialist and so we set up that appointment
Speaker 2: four days later. This was on February twentieth last year.
Speaker 2: February twenty fourth was that Friday. We went to Nashville
Speaker 2: for the high risk doctor appointment, just me and Brian
Speaker 2: this time, and we go in start the ultrasound. This
Speaker 2: ultrasound lasted a little bit longer and again the technician
Speaker 2: was like, I need to go grab your doctor, stay
Speaker 2: right here, and so she went and grabbed the doctor.
Speaker 2: And one of the first things she asked me when
Speaker 2: she came in was how was your first pregnancy? And
Speaker 2: I told her completely normal, didn't even have morning sickness.
Speaker 2: Labor and delivery went great, she came out healthy, perfectly fine,
Speaker 2: and she was like, okay, so this is what we're
Speaker 2: looking at. The ultrasound technician put the wand back on
Speaker 2: my lower abdomen, and so as we were looking at
Speaker 2: the TV seeing Miley in my womb, the doctor was
Speaker 2: explaining what we were looking at. She reconfirmed what my
Speaker 2: ob had said and said that there was little to
Speaker 2: no ambiotic fluid around the fetus. She confirmed that both
Speaker 2: of her kidneys did not form correctly, and then she
Speaker 2: did confirm that she was measuring a month behind. But
Speaker 2: then she continued, and she continued to say that her
Speaker 2: bladder and her stomach did not form correctly either and
Speaker 2: were not functioning. She said that they could not find
Speaker 2: lung development, and she said that her heart only had
Speaker 2: two out of four working chambers in it. Now, while
Speaker 2: she was saying all of these things, in my mind,
Speaker 2: I'm going through all of the like okay, well she
Speaker 2: can get a heart transplant. She can live with one kidney,
Speaker 2: so we can get a kidney transplant. You know, we
Speaker 2: can tube feed her, like trying to think of like everything,
Speaker 2: like okay, these things are fixable, like this is okay,
Speaker 2: we can do something. But then she continued up and
Speaker 2: she went to her head and she said, and up here,
Speaker 2: we're looking at her brain. And as soon as she
Speaker 2: said we're looking at her brain. I just felt my
Speaker 2: chest sink because I knew the brain is the engine
Speaker 2: of your body, and if there's something wrong with the brain,
Speaker 2: there's a good possibility it's not good. And so she
Speaker 2: continued to show me on the ultrasound image that there
Speaker 2: is a line between her brain that did not completely complete,
Speaker 2: and she said that her brain didn't split into two
Speaker 2: hemispheres at the early stages of pregnancy, and that is
Speaker 2: diagnosed as semi lobar holoprosencephale and semi lowbar HPE. Only
Speaker 2: three percent of fetuses usually survived to birth with that
Speaker 2: diagnosis slone, and then they usually passed within that first
Speaker 2: year of life. So with the HPE and everything else
Speaker 2: that was wrong, she was deemed incompatible with life, and
Speaker 2: so my doctor had said that she would likely not
Speaker 2: survive outside of the womb and possibly could pass in utero.
Speaker 2: Hearing all that information, it was it was like a
Speaker 2: surreal kind of moment. I felt like I was in
Speaker 2: a haze. I was just kind of waiting for her
Speaker 2: to be like just kidding, like she's totally fine, but
Speaker 2: like it was just kind of one of those it's
Speaker 2: so awful, How can this be true, and so the
Speaker 2: first thing I thought to ask was what are we
Speaker 2: supposed to do? And she said that I had two options.
Speaker 2: She said that I could continue my pregnancy, but if
Speaker 2: I chose to continue my pregnancy, I'd be putting myself
Speaker 2: at risk for a miscarriage is still birth, or if
Speaker 2: she did survive birth, she'd be put into hospice care
Speaker 2: immediately after to pass. And then she said, my other
Speaker 2: option was to terminate. She said, if you chose to
Speaker 2: terminate because of Tennessee's ban, you would have to look
Speaker 2: out of state and I cannot offer you any resources.
Speaker 2: You would have to do that on your own. And
Speaker 2: so my husband chimed in because at this point, I'm
Speaker 2: just stunned. I'm like frozen in place, and he asked
Speaker 2: her how long does she have? Like what are the
Speaker 2: chances if we continue? How long is she going to
Speaker 2: live for? And she said that there's no way to tell,
Speaker 2: but the longer I stayed pregnant, the worse she was
Speaker 2: going to get and the higher risk my health would become.
Speaker 2: Because her growth stunted at fifteen weeks, even though I
Speaker 2: was nineteen weeks, Miley was never going to hit viability.
Speaker 2: So even if I stayed pregnant and I was progressing
Speaker 2: in my pregnancy, she was staying at a fifteen week fetus,
Speaker 2: and so she told us that we didn't have to
Speaker 2: make a decision right then and there, but to call
Speaker 2: her if we had any further questions, and then we left.
Speaker 2: They didn't really tell me specifics of what was going
Speaker 2: to cause me to be at risk. I think because
Speaker 2: she stopped growing at fifteen weeks and had all of
Speaker 2: these fatal anomalies that the longer I stayed pregnant, she
Speaker 2: was essentially just kind of going to kind of deteriorate
Speaker 2: in my uterus, which is going to cause health problems
Speaker 2: for me. With the little to know ambionic fluid, at
Speaker 2: some point, the uterus is going to most likely shrink
Speaker 2: with her, and it could cause infertility to happen. It
Speaker 2: could cause me to lose my uterus, and if her
Speaker 2: body so when organs aren't working, they essentially just kind
Speaker 2: of start decaying, and so that would put me at
Speaker 2: risk for infections and things like that, possibly going septic.
Speaker 2: So they didn't really give me a diagnosis of like,
Speaker 2: if you stayed pregnant, you're going to end up with this.
Speaker 2: She just said, the longer I stay pregnant, the worst
Speaker 2: Miley's going to get, the higher risk my health becomes.
Speaker 2: So we drove home after the appointment. We live in Clarksville,
Speaker 2: so it's about an hour north of Nashville, and it
Speaker 2: was a very quiet drive. We didn't talk to each other.
Speaker 2: We just sat in silence, kind of reliving everything we
Speaker 2: were just told. And my parents drove up from Nashville
Speaker 2: to meet us at home because we had to break
Speaker 2: the news to my then five year old that her
Speaker 2: little sister wasn't coming home. And so we sat and
Speaker 2: we talked to my parents and I talked to my husband,
Speaker 2: and it was a very hard decision to come to
Speaker 2: the route of termination. I kept telling my that I'm
Speaker 2: not in the best health as it is due to
Speaker 2: a recent surgery I had a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: I struggle with vitamins, hydration, protein, things like that for
Speaker 2: a healthy body. So I knew if I was putting
Speaker 2: my life at risk, it was going to be a
Speaker 2: very challenging situation to go through. And knowing that I
Speaker 2: don't have the healthiest body as it is, I didn't
Speaker 2: want to risk leaving my five year old without a mom.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to risk leaving my husband without his wife.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to risk leaving my parents without their daughter. So,
Speaker 2: knowing that Miley was going to die at some point,
Speaker 2: whether in utero or immediately after birth, it didn't make
Speaker 2: sense to put my life at risk too and cause much,
Speaker 2: so much more damage than needed. So ultimately we decided
Speaker 2: that termination was the best route to preserve my health
Speaker 2: and fertility and to keep my family stable in together.
Speaker 2: I shared my journey on TikTok one because I was
Speaker 2: already on TikTok before all of this happened, and my
Speaker 2: followers knew that I was pregnant, And the week before
Speaker 2: I had posted a video saying my daughter's name is
Speaker 2: hidden in this video, can you guess it? And it
Speaker 2: was me and Adalie dancing around to Miley Cyrus's song Flowers,
Speaker 2: and Adalie was holding a rose. And so my idea
Speaker 2: was I was going to go to my anatomy scan,
Speaker 2: get new ultrasound images, come home, and then make a
Speaker 2: video with the new images stating like this is Miley's name,
Speaker 2: or this is her name Miley Rose, like a lot
Speaker 2: of you guys guess it, and just kind of be
Speaker 2: like a fun reveal. So we got home. That was Friday.
Speaker 2: It wasn't until Saturday when I made that follow up
Speaker 2: video of Miley's diagnoses, because after my parents left that day,
Speaker 2: I cried myself to sleep. I didn't want to be awake.
Speaker 2: I just wanted everything to be a nightmare and hoped
Speaker 2: that I woke up and everything was going to be okay.
Speaker 2: So I went to sleep, and so the next day
Speaker 2: is when I followed up and made the video, because
Speaker 2: that Monday, I posted video saying my doctor said there's
Speaker 2: something's wrong, so we're going to see a high risk doctor.
Speaker 2: So a lot of my followers were like, keep us posted,
Speaker 2: what's the update, hope everything's okay, let us know what's
Speaker 2: going on, and so I wanted to update them. And
Speaker 2: I'm very transparent on my account. I don't really sugarcoat things.
Speaker 2: I'm very upfront, and so when I made that video,
Speaker 2: I didn't expect it to go viral. I didn't expect
Speaker 2: to get any sort of news media requests from it.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to update my followers on what was
Speaker 2: going on. Also, I was paying very close attention to
Speaker 2: Roe v Wade being overturned, and I was very vocal
Speaker 2: on my account about how I felt about Tennessee's trigger band,
Speaker 2: and so, knowing that I was fighting for abortion access,
Speaker 2: never knowing I was going to need one myself, I
Speaker 2: thought it was extra important that I pointed out the
Speaker 2: fact that this is a non viable pregnancy and I
Speaker 2: have to flee my state. And I wanted that reality
Speaker 2: to be documented because so many women don't talk about
Speaker 2: things like this because they're made to feel ashamed or
Speaker 2: disgusted or whatever it is society makes us feel about abortions.
Speaker 2: I wanted to make sure that one my emotions were
Speaker 2: documented and to show how real and raw it is.
Speaker 2: So I made that video, and I think that's my
Speaker 2: most viewed video as far as my pregnancy journey goes,
Speaker 2: and it went viral. It actually went international, and so
Speaker 2: I started getting media requests to talk about it, and
Speaker 2: then that amplified the story, and then I started showing
Speaker 2: up in the news and news articles and people were
Speaker 2: seeing like, oh my god, this woman has to leave
Speaker 2: her state for pregnancy that's threatening her life, a non
Speaker 2: viable pregnancy, and so throughout the process, I wanted to
Speaker 2: make sure I documented every single moment of it. Good
Speaker 2: and bad. And I did that because when you read
Speaker 2: an article, you read very minimal details, you just kind
Speaker 2: of get the overview of what happened. But me kind
Speaker 2: of logging what was happening to me made it so
Speaker 2: much more real for people to see the raw emotion
Speaker 2: that I was going through. One of the videos being
Speaker 2: me in New York City crying in a corner by myself.
Speaker 2: That was a video of the most raw emotion I
Speaker 2: think I've ever posted online. And a lot of people
Speaker 2: ask me why I'm putting that on the internet, and
Speaker 2: I said, because it needs to be on the internet,
Speaker 2: because people need to see what women are going through
Speaker 2: that live in these states that have completely taken away
Speaker 2: our right to abortion care or just healthcare like that
Speaker 2: in general. So I documented it for the sole purpose
Speaker 2: of humanizing the situation, so it's not just black and
Speaker 2: white words on a screen, it's a face and a person.
Speaker 1: After this break, Alie takes us through her journey to
Speaker 1: New York City to give the medical care she couldn't
Speaker 1: get in Tennessee. If you want to get smarter, every
Speaker 1: morning with a breakdown of the news and fascinating takes
Speaker 1: on health and wellness and pop Culture. Sign up for
Speaker 1: our daily newsletter Wake Up Call by going to Katiecouric
Speaker 1: dot com. You had to go out of state because
Speaker 1: of Tennessee's restrictions. How did you decide to go to
Speaker 1: New York? How did you determine where you were going
Speaker 1: to get your abortion? And quite frankly, Ali paid for it.
Speaker 2: It wasn't an easy process, I'll tell you that. So
Speaker 2: my high risk appointment was on that Friday. That following Monday,
Speaker 2: my mom and I took the day off work to
Speaker 2: start calling clinics in different states, clinics that allowed abortions. Now,
Speaker 2: when we talk about states that allow abortions, we have
Speaker 2: to remember that not every single one of them is
Speaker 2: the same. Some states allow abortions up to fifteen weeks,
Speaker 2: some states allow it up to twenty weeks or viability.
Speaker 2: Some offer medical exceptions, some don't. So you have to
Speaker 2: call these individual states and individual clinics and truly ask
Speaker 2: them the question, like when is your cutoff? And some
Speaker 2: of the states I are. Some of the clinics I called,
Speaker 2: their cutoff was eighteen weeks or fifteen weeks or twenty weeks.
Speaker 2: And at that point I was going into my twentieth week,
Speaker 2: and I knew that I needed to go the following
Speaker 2: week because I had to give my daycare moms enough
Speaker 2: notice to find backup care for their kiddos, so I
Speaker 2: wasn't able to do it that week, also for the
Speaker 2: simple fact of the cost. So we called five different
Speaker 2: states and I ended up calling the New York abortion
Speaker 2: line and gave them the information that they asked for,
Speaker 2: and they connected me to a clinic in Manhattan. Now,
Speaker 2: another problem that women like me are facing is when
Speaker 2: calling these clinics and trying to get an appointment, there's
Speaker 2: a long wait list because not only are they seeing
Speaker 2: patients from in state, they're seeing an influx of out
Speaker 2: of state patients as well. And not knowing how long
Speaker 2: I had before something bad happened with my pregnancy, I
Speaker 2: couldn't wait two weeks, three weeks, a month or two
Speaker 2: before I could get in for the procedure because my
Speaker 2: doctor couldn't tell me what longer meant. An hour, a month,
Speaker 2: we don't know, and so I was kind of just
Speaker 2: playing a guessing game every day with my life, not
Speaker 2: knowing women things were going to get bad. So I
Speaker 2: got a hold of this clinic in Manhattan, and one
Speaker 2: of the things I wanted to make sure the clinic
Speaker 2: was accommodating for was one I wanted to do the
Speaker 2: surgical procedure. I didn't want to do it induced labor.
Speaker 2: I love Miley to death, but I didn't want to
Speaker 2: see her in that way. I didn't want to see
Speaker 2: her deceased. And then the other thing was being able
Speaker 2: to have that coordination with a funeral home to obtain
Speaker 2: her remains to get her cremated so I could bring
Speaker 2: her home. Some clinics do not work with funeral homes.
Speaker 2: So there were a few things that I wanted to
Speaker 2: make sure we're done, and this clinic was very helpful
Speaker 2: and they checked every box I needed. Midtermber abortions are
Speaker 2: a two day procedure. The first day is a lot
Speaker 2: of pre op stuff and the second day is the
Speaker 2: actual surgery. And once we confirmed everything was good, they
Speaker 2: told me how much it was going to be. And
Speaker 2: at twenty weeks, I was looking at around one thy
Speaker 2: to eleven hundred, and then at twenty one weeks, I
Speaker 2: was looking closer to two thousand dollars, and so it
Speaker 2: jumps a grand based off of a week, and so
Speaker 2: I was like, OKAYT let's just confirm this day and
Speaker 2: me and my husband will figure it out. So the
Speaker 2: thousand to eleven hundred dollars for the procedure was already
Speaker 2: a lot for a low income family, and then we're
Speaker 2: looking at a three day stay in Manhattan that's also
Speaker 2: a lot of money, and also round trip from Nashville
Speaker 2: to LaGuardia for two people, and then taxis, ubers, food,
Speaker 2: whatever you know. It added up. It ended up being
Speaker 2: close to five thousand dollars, which we don't have anything
Speaker 2: in savings. We don't even have five thousand dollars in
Speaker 2: our account, so trying to pay for that was impossible
Speaker 2: for us. We started looking into taking out loans. We
Speaker 2: reached out to family, but our families aren't independently wealthy,
Speaker 2: so you know, they could only help with a little bit.
Speaker 2: And I shared that online how much show was going
Speaker 2: to cost, and some of my followers had suggested I
Speaker 2: started to go fundme. And at first I didn't want
Speaker 2: to start to go fund me because it wasn't anybody
Speaker 2: else's problem but mine. I want people to think I
Speaker 2: was being just taking money from people from my situation.
Speaker 2: But it got to the point that I was like
Speaker 2: if I don't get to New York, I don't know
Speaker 2: what's going to happen to me. And so I bit
Speaker 2: the bullet and I started to gofund me and I
Speaker 2: shared it online and my followers matched the goal the
Speaker 2: same day even exceeded the goal, and so we were
Speaker 2: able to book our round trip airfare. We were able
Speaker 2: to pay for the abortion, and everything was covered. All
Speaker 2: costs were covered, and I was able. We were both
Speaker 2: able to take that week off of work. That's another
Speaker 2: thing is we both had to take that week off
Speaker 2: of work, which is two weeks technically of a paycheck
Speaker 2: being cut from us. So the cost is very damaging
Speaker 2: for low income families. And that is something I've talked
Speaker 2: about with these abortion bands, is these affect low income
Speaker 2: families because if you're wealthy enough, you can just go
Speaker 2: out of state and it's not going to hurt your
Speaker 2: bank account. But for us, it's a big ask. My
Speaker 2: husband flew to New York together, Ada Lee stayed with
Speaker 2: my parents in Nashville, and we got to New York
Speaker 2: City on that Monday in March seventh was my appointment.
Speaker 2: I had to go to that appointment alone because a
Speaker 2: lot of abortion clinics are patient only, one for privacy
Speaker 2: and two to just kind of keep the traffic inside
Speaker 2: the clinic down. So I had to leave my husband
Speaker 2: behind at the apartment we were at, and then I
Speaker 2: went to the clinic. I was told i'd be there
Speaker 2: for about five or six hours that day, so to
Speaker 2: plan for a long day, and so I started the
Speaker 2: day doing blood work, just random things that you need
Speaker 2: to do if you're going to be going under anesthesia.
Speaker 2: And I was there for a couple hours when I
Speaker 2: was called back to do my sonogram. They do the
Speaker 2: sonogram before the abortion to make sure they're charging the
Speaker 2: correct amount for the feet of size, and because I
Speaker 2: was twenty weeks but she was measuring it fifteen weeks,
Speaker 2: they just wanted to make sure they were charging me correctly.
Speaker 2: And so I went in and we started the ultrasound.
Speaker 2: And the difference between this ultrasound and the ones before
Speaker 2: is ultrasounds before you have the technician next to you
Speaker 2: and the sonogram machine, but then there's a TV in
Speaker 2: front of you so you can see what the technician
Speaker 2: is seeing. In this room, there was no TV. I
Speaker 2: was just facing a brick wall, and for a moment,
Speaker 2: I was like, why is there not a TV in here?
Speaker 2: Because I was looking forward to seeing Miley again one
Speaker 2: last time. But then it kind of clicked in my
Speaker 2: head that some women may not want to see and
Speaker 2: I understood, and so I lay there and I just
Speaker 2: stare at the ceiling and she starts the ultrasound and
Speaker 2: she quickly asks me when my last ultrasound was. I
Speaker 2: told her it was about a week and three days prior,
Speaker 2: and she was like, okay, and there was a heartbeat then,
Speaker 2: and I said, yeah, there was a heartbeat. I went
Speaker 2: and got it saved in a little bunny and she
Speaker 2: was like, oh, okay, and then she was just quiet
Speaker 2: and I looked at her. I was like, is there
Speaker 2: not a heartbeat? And she said, no, ma'am, there's not.
Speaker 2: And so I sat up and I looked at her
Speaker 2: screen while she still had the wand on my stomach,
Speaker 2: and I said, why she's not moving and she goes, no, ma'am,
Speaker 2: she's not. And then I just it immediately hit me
Speaker 2: and I just cried, and I cried out loud like
Speaker 2: a mom does when she finds out that her she
Speaker 2: just lost her child. I'm sorry, And this technician helped
Speaker 2: me and she cried with me, and she told me,
Speaker 2: in all the years that she's worked there, she's never
Speaker 2: had a telewoman that her baby was already gone. And
Speaker 2: so she looked at me and she said, I need
Speaker 2: to go get the doctor and tell him what I found,
Speaker 2: if you don't mind just going back to the waiting
Speaker 2: room for a moment. So instead of going into the
Speaker 2: waiting room, I walked out of the clinic. The clinic
Speaker 2: was an on a sixth floor of a skyscraper, and
Speaker 2: I walked out of the clinic into the hallway where
Speaker 2: the elevators are, and I sat down in a corner
Speaker 2: of that hallway and I called my husband and I
Speaker 2: had to tell my husband over the phone that his
Speaker 2: daughter was gone. And at the time I didn't really
Speaker 2: think about this, but afterwards I realized that yes, I
Speaker 2: was alone in that clinic, but I was surrounded by
Speaker 2: nurses and doctors that were able to comfort me. My
Speaker 2: husband was completely and utterly alone in that room at
Speaker 2: the apartment we were at. And so I told him
Speaker 2: that she was gone, and I heard his voice crack
Speaker 2: and tell me that he would he would talk to
Speaker 2: me later, that he needed to go, and so he
Speaker 2: hung up the phone, and I called my mom because
Speaker 2: my mom was waiting for updates, and I told her
Speaker 2: what happened, and she said to me, Honey, I am
Speaker 2: so sorry, but I think this is the best gift
Speaker 2: Miley could have given you, because you went to New
Speaker 2: York with so much doubt and so much guilt about
Speaker 2: the decision you were making, that she took all of
Speaker 2: that away from you. Because I did go to New
Speaker 2: York with guilt, because I let people online get in
Speaker 2: my head saying doctors are wrong all the time, that
Speaker 2: their pregnancy was deemed incompatible, but their babies tend now
Speaker 2: and doing great, and I just got in my head, like,
Speaker 2: what if my doctor's wrong? What if I'm making the
Speaker 2: wrong decision here? What if I'm prematurely ending her life
Speaker 2: when she could be okay? And so my mom said
Speaker 2: that she took all of that away from me, and
Speaker 2: she went on her own. And it still sucked at
Speaker 2: the time, but now I'm grateful that that happened because
Speaker 2: I don't have to live with that guilt anymore. My
Speaker 2: doctors were right, she wasn't compatible, and she showed us that.
Speaker 2: So within the next light ten to fifteen minutes, I
Speaker 2: was called back. I was called back to speak to
Speaker 2: the doctor, and the first thing he said to me was,
Speaker 2: I don't want you to blame yourself. I know you're
Speaker 2: blaming yourself right now, but please know there was nothing
Speaker 2: you could have done differently to change this outcome. But
Speaker 2: then he continued to say, because my last confirmed fetal
Speaker 2: heartbeat was almost two weeks ago, there's a two week
Speaker 2: window when a fetus dies that when your body doesn't
Speaker 2: recognize it, you're now at risk for blood cloths, infections,
Speaker 2: and going septic. And since they can't confirm when her
Speaker 2: heart actually stopped, they have to go off the last
Speaker 2: fetal heart beat. And so he said that because of
Speaker 2: that risk, I was now at a higher risk because
Speaker 2: I was closer to that two weeks that they wanted
Speaker 2: to push my abortion that same day instead of the
Speaker 2: next day. So he did a pelvic exam, a quick
Speaker 2: pelvic exam to feel my cervix, and he said that
Speaker 2: my servix is very hard. Normally, they give you a
Speaker 2: cervix softener to go home with and take the night before,
Speaker 2: and he said that due to my cervix being so hard,
Speaker 2: they're going to try, but they may not be able
Speaker 2: to get through my cervix today and if that's the case,
Speaker 2: they'll give me the medication and the spacers to go
Speaker 2: home and then come back first thing the next morning.
Speaker 2: So I was going into the surgery not knowing if
Speaker 2: it was going to be successful or not. After he
Speaker 2: said that it was very quick, I went and signed
Speaker 2: paperwork for the anesthesia. I had to undress and put
Speaker 2: a gown on, and then I was in the surgery
Speaker 2: room and I climbed up in the bed and the
Speaker 2: anesthesia anesthesiologist came in and told me that I was
Speaker 2: going to go to sleep, and that's what I did,
Speaker 2: and I woke up, not in the same room, not
Speaker 2: in the same bed, and there was a nurse standing
Speaker 2: next to me. And immediately when I woke up, I
Speaker 2: felt the pain in my lower abdomen, and she said,
Speaker 2: miss Phillips, how are you feeling? And I said, I'm
Speaker 2: in a lot of pain and she said that is normal.
Speaker 2: And then I cut her off and I said was
Speaker 2: the surgery successful? She said, yes, man, the surgery was successful.
Speaker 2: And I said, so I'm not pregnant anymore. She goes, no, ma'am,
Speaker 2: you're not. And then of course I just started crying
Speaker 2: again because that reality hit that I came to New
Speaker 2: York pregnant and I was leaving I was leaving not pregnant.
Speaker 2: When I got back home from New York. Postpartum depression
Speaker 2: hits whether you had your baby or not, and I've
Speaker 2: already struggled with depression since I was fourteen. I've been
Speaker 2: on medication for it, so my mental health was already
Speaker 2: in a rough space getting back from New York. I
Speaker 2: ended up taking an extra week from the daycare center
Speaker 2: I run from my home because I just couldn't function
Speaker 2: as a person and I was struggling with suicidal thoughts.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to be in a world without Miley
Speaker 2: and my daycare I took care of four kids under
Speaker 2: the age of three, so one of them being an
Speaker 2: eight month old baby at the time, and I just
Speaker 2: knew if I saw a young baby, it would just
Speaker 2: kind of shove that knife in deeper. And so I
Speaker 2: continued to share my journey on TikTok, and my grief
Speaker 2: went from heartache to being very angry after that two weeks.
Speaker 2: It took a very stern conversation from my mom and
Speaker 2: husband to tell me that me sit laying in bed
Speaker 2: isn't going to bring Miley back. Addalie was losing her mom.
Speaker 2: I needed to get up, get myself together, and get
Speaker 2: back into a part of life, and so I didn't
Speaker 2: want to neglect Attalie any longer than I already was.
Speaker 2: So I pulled myself together the best I could. But
Speaker 2: I got very angry, and I got angry because what
Speaker 2: I went through I shouldn't have had to gone through.
Speaker 2: I shouldn't have had to been in a different state.
Speaker 2: I shouldn't have had to figure out logistics to fly
Speaker 2: to a clinic. I shouldn't have been alone when I
Speaker 2: went through surgery and sat in recovery. I shouldn't have
Speaker 2: had to go through any of that. I should have
Speaker 2: been able to get a procedure here in my home
Speaker 2: state and go home and sleep in my own bed,
Speaker 2: surrounded by my husband and daughter. But that wasn't the case,
Speaker 2: because male politicians think they know it's best for women.
Speaker 2: And so I turned my anger into more vocal activism
Speaker 2: and more of my video started gaining traction, and the
Speaker 2: Center for Reproductive Rights had reached out to me because
Speaker 2: they currently had a case in Texas with women, and
Speaker 2: they asked me if i'd be interested in suing Tennessee. Yes. Immediately,
Speaker 2: I didn't even think about my answer. I said yes
Speaker 2: because I wanted Miley. I wanted her story to be
Speaker 2: the change that happens. And so while I was starting
Speaker 2: the process of being a plaintiff in a legal case,
Speaker 2: I started thinking about what I could do on a
Speaker 2: lower level, I just as a citizen, and so I
Speaker 2: thought of Miley's Law. And Miley's Law essentially would just
Speaker 2: give exceptions back to parents when diagnosed with fetal anomalies.
Speaker 2: For me, exceptions aren't enough. But I know, being in
Speaker 2: a majority GOP state, just banning the ban altogether wasn't
Speaker 2: going to be possible. So I figured if I could
Speaker 2: throw them a bone and we take some baby steps,
Speaker 2: that that would be the best course. And so I
Speaker 2: met with my representative on June eighth last year, and
Speaker 2: I told him my story. We sat in a two
Speaker 2: hour meeting. I told him my story, and I told
Speaker 2: him my idea for Miley's Law, and I asked for
Speaker 2: his help to create the bill. Because I've never written
Speaker 2: a before, I have no idea how to do that,
Speaker 2: and so I wanted his help to write that bill
Speaker 2: and get it up to the legislature, and he said
Speaker 2: he would help me. And during that conversation I kind
Speaker 2: of confirmed the thoughts I already had about our male lawmakers.
Speaker 2: I had told him that I already had a daughter
Speaker 2: here and that this was my second pregnancy that I lost,
Speaker 2: and he said, wait a second, and I quote this,
Speaker 2: I'm just a man, but I only thought it was
Speaker 2: the first pregnancy that could go bad. And I said,
Speaker 2: first pregnancies can go bad. Any pregnancy can go bad,
Speaker 2: though it's not just the first pregnancy. He was told
Speaker 2: that it was just first pregnancies that go bad, and
Speaker 2: so it didn't make sense to him when my second
Speaker 2: pregnancy failed. On top of that, I tried to humanize
Speaker 2: my story with him, because he made sure to tell
Speaker 2: me that he is pro life and that I wasn't
Speaker 2: going to make him pro choice, and I said, I'm
Speaker 2: not trying to make you pro choice. I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to make you understand what I went through. And he
Speaker 2: has a daughter who's not much younger than me, twenty
Speaker 2: five I think, and she doesn't have any children, and
Speaker 2: so I was like, great, imagine this was her first
Speaker 2: pregnancy and she called you and told you everything. I
Speaker 2: just told you told you that her pregnancy wasn't viable
Speaker 2: and that if she continued it was putting her life
Speaker 2: at risk. What advice would you give her? And he
Speaker 2: told me that I wasn't going to like his answer,
Speaker 2: and I said, I want to hear it. What advice
Speaker 2: would you give your daughter? And he said that the
Speaker 2: way he grew up is that he would tell her
Speaker 2: that he thinks she should continue her pregnancy. And I said,
Speaker 2: even if it's putting her life at risk, and he
Speaker 2: said that's just how I grew up. I said, what
Speaker 2: happens if she gets the abortion? Are you going to disowner?
Speaker 2: He said, I wouldn't disowner, but I wouldn't be happy
Speaker 2: with her. And I think at that moment, it's solidified
Speaker 2: for me that if these representatives don't even care about
Speaker 2: their own child's wellbeing, they sure as hell don't care
Speaker 2: about the rest of us. And so after that meeting,
Speaker 2: I followed up with him a few times, asking where
Speaker 2: we were, on him helping me, where we were on
Speaker 2: these meetings, like what's next? And I kept getting the
Speaker 2: run around, and I think it was after a month
Speaker 2: or two roughly I messaged him one final time. I
Speaker 2: said what are we doing? Like, are you helping me
Speaker 2: or not? And he said that there's really nothing he
Speaker 2: can do until the session starts back in January. And
Speaker 2: I said, so women in Tennessee, ye are just supposed
Speaker 2: to suffer and die until January. And he never responded
Speaker 2: to me. And so that moment again, I was just like,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm not going to sit around and
Speaker 2: wait for a man to help me do anything. I'm
Speaker 2: going to do it myself. And that's when people started
Speaker 2: telling me I should run for office. Now, being a
Speaker 2: politician or being an elected official in any capacity was
Speaker 2: never something I thought I would do in my life.
Speaker 2: I went to school for journalism. I wanted to be
Speaker 2: a reporter. I wanted to write stories. That's my calling,
Speaker 2: I thought, And so people started to My mom was
Speaker 2: the first one to susjust it. And I was like,
Speaker 2: you're crazy and she was like, no, but actually, like
Speaker 2: you have the passion, You're very well spoken, you have
Speaker 2: the heart, You're very relatable, and people listen to you.
Speaker 2: You already have the following and the platform. She's like
Speaker 2: why not. It's like why would I? I personally don't
Speaker 2: like politics. The most I've ever done with politics is
Speaker 2: go out and vote, and I thought I was doing
Speaker 2: my due diligence, but more and more people started coming
Speaker 2: up to me and saying, have you ever thought about
Speaker 2: running for office? You should really think about running for office?
Speaker 2: Like what is wrong with you? Like? Do you guys
Speaker 2: just not have anybody else to run? Is that what's
Speaker 2: going on here? And I will say there wasn't like
Speaker 2: an aha moment for me. It was kind of I
Speaker 2: was building this tier and with every layer gave me
Speaker 2: another reason to decide to run for office. These reasons
Speaker 2: being as I was on TikTok, I would also share
Speaker 2: other women's stories from Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Idaho, people other
Speaker 2: women having to flee their states, are being denied abortion
Speaker 2: access in their states. And it was the ten year
Speaker 2: old girl who was raped and had to go across
Speaker 2: state lines to get an abortion that really hit me.
Speaker 2: And I was like, my daughter now at that point
Speaker 2: was six, she's very close to that age. I know
Speaker 2: what I went through as a twenty eight year old woman.
Speaker 2: I could not imagine the trauma and the damage that
Speaker 2: does to a ten year old girl. And that was
Speaker 2: the biggest slab for me was to be like Okay,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm going to consider it. And then
Speaker 2: it came into there's other things that I care about
Speaker 2: my daughter, like I said before, as autistics, so she
Speaker 2: has an IEP in her school, she's special needs. She's
Speaker 2: in a public school. Our state is currently trying to
Speaker 2: implement a voucher program that would take public school funding
Speaker 2: and put it into private schools. Or her public schools
Speaker 2: are already underfunded and we need to take away more
Speaker 2: funding that takes away these things like IEP assistants and
Speaker 2: these resources for kids that have disabilities. So it's like,
Speaker 2: that's going to affect my daughter, That's going to affect
Speaker 2: my life. And then the fact that my six year
Speaker 2: old is scared to go to school some days because
Speaker 2: she does these active shooter drills, and the fact that
Speaker 2: I'm scared she's not going to come home some days.
Speaker 2: I try to remember what clothes she's wearing. I don't
Speaker 2: buy her light up shoes because I don't want her
Speaker 2: to be seen in a dark room. These are very
Speaker 2: real things that American moms have to worry about. And
Speaker 2: then I realized I run an in home daycare for
Speaker 2: the simple fact that I know how hard it is
Speaker 2: to pay for daycare as a single mom, because I
Speaker 2: did it for three years. And there are so many
Speaker 2: more things. I didn't get a maternity leave. I took
Speaker 2: two weeks off of work when I had Adelie to heal.
Speaker 2: I didn't get paid for those two weeks. Those were
Speaker 2: two weeks unpaid. And then I went back to work
Speaker 2: when she was two weeks old. And so I was like,
Speaker 2: there are so many things that I just kind of
Speaker 2: lived through and accept it because it is what it is.
Speaker 2: What am I going to do to change it? And
Speaker 2: then that's when I really started to accept that what
Speaker 2: our state is doing to women, families, and children is
Speaker 2: so far beyond unacceptable. Then I can't just sit here
Speaker 2: and complain on TikTok anymore. I can't just sit here
Speaker 2: and vote for the blue guy anymore. I have got
Speaker 2: to be in one of those seats making decisions when
Speaker 2: we come back.
Speaker 1: Ali breaks down her campaign strategy and share some of
Speaker 1: the reactions she's getting from voters.
Speaker 2: I actually announced earlier than what many people did because
Speaker 2: my opponent is very wealthy and consulf on his own campaign.
Speaker 2: I wanted to make sure I had enough time to
Speaker 2: fundraise as much as I could, so I announced over
Speaker 2: a year before the election, so majority of what I've
Speaker 2: been doing has solely been online. I posted my campaign
Speaker 2: launch video, and I've been doing interviews like this that
Speaker 2: talks about my campaign and my story, and we have
Speaker 2: it's public now. But we have raised over ninety thousand
Speaker 2: dollars in the first like two and a half three months,
Speaker 2: which is crazy for a small local election for somebody
Speaker 2: that's never ran for office before. Now that we're in January,
Speaker 2: I have done community events. I've done fundraisers. I've been
Speaker 2: to other people's fundraisers. I've been to community meetings and
Speaker 2: things like that, school board meetings. I just went to
Speaker 2: a teacher union meeting last night and heard their concerns.
Speaker 2: But now that we're in January and actually in the
Speaker 2: election year, now I'm going in like feet on the ground.
Speaker 2: I pulled my petition I think in a week or
Speaker 2: two and I'll be going and knocking on doors to
Speaker 2: get signatures so I can officially be on the ballot.
Speaker 2: And so I'm going to be posting round table discussions
Speaker 2: with different community organizations in my area and asking them
Speaker 2: what is it that using needs to be improved, What
Speaker 2: is it that you're concerned about I'm taking my story
Speaker 2: and putting it on the back burner. My story's been
Speaker 2: told enough. Now I want to hear from them. One
Speaker 2: of the things that just recently came out on Wednesday
Speaker 2: from the Journal of American Medicine was that there are
Speaker 2: around sixty five thousand women and girls with rape related pregnancies.
Speaker 2: And these are just coming from the fourteen states that
Speaker 2: have a ban or a restriction on abortion access. And
Speaker 2: these are the women and girls that have reported it.
Speaker 2: So how many are unreported? How many have just gone unnoticed,
Speaker 2: And so I think that brings a new light and
Speaker 2: a new fact to people that say, oh, rape related
Speaker 2: abortions are so rare, they don't happen that often. Sixty
Speaker 2: five thousand women and girls have come forward just within
Speaker 2: the last year or so since Roe was overturned. The
Speaker 2: thing with the argument of it being birth control is
Speaker 2: for some women, it may be it may be that
Speaker 2: they accidentally got pregnant or you know, took precautions to
Speaker 2: not get pregnant, but they still ended up pregnant and
Speaker 2: they don't want to be pregnant, and so yeah, it
Speaker 2: could be used as a form of birth control for
Speaker 2: some women. But to ban a life saving procedure for
Speaker 2: the woman who is going septic and bleeding out because
Speaker 2: you don't want your neighbor to go get an abortion
Speaker 2: because she accidentally got pregnant doesn't make a whole lot
Speaker 2: of sense. The thing with abortion that people need to
Speaker 2: understand is it is a medical procedure, whether that fetus
Speaker 2: is dead or alive. I've had so many people in
Speaker 2: my comments telling me, well, your baby died, you didn't
Speaker 2: get an abortion, she was already dead, And I'm like,
Speaker 2: that is such an illogical explanation of what an abortion is.
Speaker 2: The abortion is literally the procedure the removal of the
Speaker 2: feudal tissue. So when I have to tell people, no,
Speaker 2: I still had an abortion, it doesn't matter that she
Speaker 2: was dead, it doesn't matter if they're alive. It is
Speaker 2: still the same process. Some people listen, some people don't.
Speaker 2: But another way I try to humanize it to people
Speaker 2: is we can't pick and choose who gets healthcare and win.
Speaker 2: For example, if you have two patients that are diagnosed
Speaker 2: with cancer, one of them being Stage one, one of
Speaker 2: them being a stage four, you don't get to look
Speaker 2: at the stage one patient and say you're not sick enough,
Speaker 2: We're not going to let you have chemo, but then
Speaker 2: give the stage four patient chemo, because now you're just
Speaker 2: taking away that stage one patient their ability to get
Speaker 2: healthcare and preserve their health. We want to be proactive
Speaker 2: and not reactive. But the whole point of choice isn't
Speaker 2: being pro abortion. That's something that I tell I tell
Speaker 2: people all the time. Could be pro choice without being
Speaker 2: pro abortion. Being pro choice is literally supporting women having
Speaker 2: the right to choose, whether that be they need an
Speaker 2: abortion or want an abortion, whether that be they want
Speaker 2: to have the baby and keep it, or whether that
Speaker 2: be they want to put it up for adoption. It's
Speaker 2: whatever works best for that woman that you support their
Speaker 2: right to choose. And when you take away that right,
Speaker 2: you start seeing things like women dying, You start seeing
Speaker 2: things like rape increasing because there's there's no penalty, because
Speaker 2: how many convictions actually have happened from those sixty five
Speaker 2: thousand rapes that were recorded. How many That's the problem
Speaker 2: we face as women as well, is coming forward when
Speaker 2: we are raped and being believed. This has become so
Speaker 2: important to me because I am a mom, and as
Speaker 2: a mom, it's my job to protect my children, and
Speaker 2: my daughter is growing up in this state and she
Speaker 2: may raise her own family in this state, and it's
Speaker 2: my job to make sure that she's protected and cared for.
Speaker 2: And so running for office, I don't know if I'm
Speaker 2: going to win my election. I hope I do, but
Speaker 2: showing her that just because something is doesn't mean it
Speaker 2: has to be. If you know in your heart that
Speaker 2: something is wrong and it's hurting people, you have the
Speaker 2: right to stand up and speak out. And so I
Speaker 2: hope I'm leaving a legacy for my daughter to be
Speaker 2: active and be loud about the things she cares about
Speaker 2: and to never give up no matter how many people
Speaker 2: try to tear her down. The fact that I'm making
Speaker 2: so many people mad on the other side tells me
Speaker 2: I'm doing something right. So this is important for me now.
Speaker 2: I feel like this is my purpose to keep Miley's
Speaker 2: name alive and to push Miley's Law, and to just
Speaker 2: push the fact that abortions are healthcare no matter how
Speaker 2: you look at it, and to normalize the word abortion.
Speaker 2: The stigma that's been on it has been on it
Speaker 2: far too long, and I just want to make sure
Speaker 2: that women and children across this state and across this
Speaker 2: country are not being attacked and having rights taken away
Speaker 2: because at this point we feel like second class citizens
Speaker 2: and it's not okay. It's not okay, But I just
Speaker 2: hope that it's enough, and if it's not, I'm going
Speaker 2: to keep fighting until it is.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening everyone. If you have a question for me,
Speaker 1: a subject you want us to cover, or you want
Speaker 1: to share your thoughts about how you navigate this crazy world,
Speaker 1: reach out. You can leave a short message at six
Speaker 1: h nine five point two five to five oh five,
Speaker 1: or you can send me a DM on Instagram. I
Speaker 1: would love to hear from you. Next Question is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia and Katie Kuric Media. The executive producers
Speaker 1: are Me, Katie Kuric, and Courtney Ltz. Our supervising producer
Speaker 1: is Ryan Martz, and our producers are Adriana Fazzio and
Speaker 1: Meredith Barnes. Julian Weller composed our theme music. For more
Speaker 1: information about today's episode, or to sign up for my newsletter,
Speaker 1: wake Up Call, go to the description in the podcast
Speaker 1: app or visit us at Katiecuric dot com. You can
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