Under the Influence (with Jo Piazza) - March 20, 2025


America Gets a Failing Grade in Women's Health—SURPRISE!

Topics
women's reproductive rights teen Sex Ed ballot measures winning
What if Social Media Were Good for Tween Girls？ Sunday Nice Things： Too Much Money

Episode Stats


Length

37 minutes

Words per minute

160.66

Word count

6,080

Sentence count

433

Harmful content

Misogyny

7

sentences flagged

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
00:00:00.000 Hey you! Joe here and you are listening to Under the Influence.
00:00:11.160 Today's episode is about politics. I'm just going to say that right up front. Today we are talking
00:00:17.220 about women's reproductive rights and the shitty way that this country is handling them. So if that 0.99
00:00:22.180 is something that you just don't feel like listening to right now, which is totally your
00:00:26.380 prerogative. You should listen to something way more fun or you should go watch that Meghan Markle 0.53
00:00:31.020 show. I've got a whole episode on the Meghan Markle show coming up. She may or may not have
00:00:36.960 inspired me to start making my own candles and I might have ordered a beehive. We've got other
00:00:43.100 fun episodes. So if you're just protecting your brain and your heart and yourself right now,
00:00:49.800 you do that. You do that. Do what is best for you. But if you want to talk about a subject
00:00:56.100 that is near and dear to my heart, my ride-or-die issue, women's reproductive rights, and how this
00:01:02.060 country has been failing them, but also why we should have some hope. There is hope at the end
00:01:06.620 of this episode. Then stay tuned. Join us. Keep listening, and I'm so happy to have you here today
00:01:12.300 to listen to my interview with Jenny Wetter. Jenny is the director of Repros Fight Back.
00:01:19.520 It's a podcast dedicated to sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice.
00:01:25.260 This week, they did something pretty amazing.
00:01:27.740 They released a report card on all 50 states, showing how each state ranks on reproductive health and rights.
00:01:35.000 With everything that is happening in the world and everything that has happened in the last year with regards to women's reproductive rights,
00:01:42.240 I know that it is completely overwhelming to keep up.
00:01:45.860 But this report card really helps summarize where things are at right now in a way that is familiar and digestible.
00:01:53.560 Here's my interview with Jenny.
00:02:02.100 Hey, Jenny.
00:02:03.800 Hi, Jo.
00:02:05.300 Thank you so much for being here today to talk about something so uplifting and cheery.
00:02:12.240 Just, you know, a bright—oh, actually, no, that's the wrong guest.
00:02:16.160 That's the wrong person.
00:02:18.100 It's not you.
00:02:18.860 No, that is not me.
00:02:20.420 So sorry, y'all.
00:02:21.500 I'm going to be a major bummer.
00:02:23.460 You're going to be a major bummer today.
00:02:27.640 But before we get into it, I want to start off by asking a question that I think we need to ask each other more of these days.
00:02:35.820 Because we have to take care of each other and we have to care about the answer.
00:02:39.500 How are you feeling today?
00:02:41.000 How are you doing?
00:02:42.480 Oh, as always, such a loaded question.
00:02:46.800 I am a bit of a mess right now.
00:02:49.480 I'm mostly okay.
00:02:50.640 I think a lot of you're talking to me as I'm releasing this big report that we're going to talk about and lots of things with that, getting ready to go on vacation.
00:03:02.000 So like trying to prep things for that.
00:03:04.580 And that's nice.
00:03:05.360 Where are you going?
00:03:06.020 I am going on a cruise with my mom to like starting off in Sweden and then doing like the like outer Scottish Isles and then Ireland and England and a little bit back and forth and ending in London.
00:03:24.540 I love everything about this.
00:03:26.360 So I'm very excited.
00:03:27.880 Yeah, as well. You should be. I actually want that whole itinerary.
00:03:30.300 And it's a good reminder that we can feel weird and shitty and messy, which is how I feel right now.
00:03:38.820 And also have something wonderful to look forward to because there are still good things in the world.
00:03:43.600 Absolutely.
00:03:44.540 So, you know, just like I'm ready to disconnect when that comes and like not think about work and not think about all of the other things going on.
00:03:52.480 and just get a chance to take a deep breath, do some reading, and have some time to recenter a
00:04:00.740 little bit. Because this first couple months of this year have just been, I mean, chaos.
00:04:07.020 Yeah. Yeah. That's a nice way of putting it. It really, it is. It is indeed. And yeah,
00:04:13.420 I mean, I feel you. I am all of the things, all of the time. I didn't really expect to be
00:04:20.140 feeling this strange right now but yeah but I do and well I what I've been trying to do
00:04:26.240 is tune in when when I need to and then also be really conscious about tuning out
00:04:32.500 yeah I'm really taking I mean I'm on social media as I need to be for work and like to promote the
00:04:39.780 podcast and stuff and to like kind of keep an eye on what's happening but I'm really engaging so
00:04:45.220 much less to not get caught in the like minute to minute new terrible things that are happening
00:04:51.700 but trying to keep the big picture like it is going to be a long uh it's going to be a long
00:05:00.340 four years and as we talk about this stuff it is absolutely a marathon it's like an ultra marathon
00:05:07.160 and this is an ultra marathon this is this is not a this is not a sprint triathlon here
00:05:11.700 this is the iron man absolutely and you need to step back you need to know you can't do all the
00:05:17.760 things like and it's okay to not do all the things like do the engage in the parts that work for you
00:05:24.720 and like step back when you need to we are all in this together we have to work together and
00:05:30.760 and don't take everything on your shoulders I'm a terrible I'm terrible at that I feel like I need
00:05:36.620 to do all the things and engage in all the ways. And I'm really, really trying to not feel like I
00:05:44.200 am a bad advocate or a bad activist because I can't do some of the things or they're not the
00:05:51.260 right things for me. And so we need to find what works for you and engage in those ways.
00:05:58.520 Well, also, you can't do everything. It's just such a good reminder. You have to pick your thing.
00:06:02.660 think your thing and you be the person that that does that thing and I love what you just said
00:06:09.200 about the big picture because the big picture is what we're talking about today uh you you you
00:06:16.980 guys have created a report card now it's I love a report card by the way I really do I love I love
00:06:24.940 being graded on things right yes I do but this report card pissed me off so tell everyone tell
00:06:31.060 our audience what this is. Yeah. So starting in 2011, we saw this huge uptick in attacks on
00:06:40.240 sexual and reproductive health at the state level. But when you talk to people, it became clear that
00:06:45.920 they may know like particular things that were happening in a state where something particularly
00:06:50.620 egregious was happening, like in, say, Texas. But when you had like a longer conversation with
00:06:55.880 people, they may not understand what the laws were in their own state around sexual and
00:07:00.620 reproductive health and rights. They didn't know that their state didn't mandate sex ed
00:07:04.900 or any number of things. So we decided to step into that gap and create a report card looking
00:07:12.940 at a broad range of sexual and reproductive health measures so you could see how your state
00:07:21.340 was doing in comparison to other states. I think this is great. I think this is great.
00:07:26.880 Well, for so many reasons. One, because so much of politics right now and what we can do right now is going to be local.
00:07:36.060 Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:07:37.720 Absolutely. And I do think that there is a massive gap in most of our knowledge. And I'm saying this even for me, someone who does live in the political ecosystem, who does so much writing in this space. I still have so many gaps in my knowledge about what's happening at the state level because there's no longer any media reporting on it.
00:07:58.760 Absolutely.
00:07:59.480 You know, I still learn things every year.
00:08:01.280 And honestly, I've been doing this report card for 13 years.
00:08:04.100 And I feel like every year there are states that have things that I'm shocked about.
00:08:08.000 Like every year, every year I do the report card.
00:08:11.360 I am always consistently surprised.
00:08:13.960 Massachusetts doesn't mandate sex education.
00:08:16.640 What? 1.00
00:08:17.420 What?
00:08:18.140 There are just there are some states where you assume that everything is is good.
00:08:23.760 But there are just gaps where they could be doing a better job of meeting people's sexual and reproductive health needs.
00:08:32.980 So talk to me about the methodology of this report card.
00:08:37.120 What exactly have you been measuring?
00:08:39.900 Yeah, so we look at it as three different buckets.
00:08:43.380 So we look at prevention, and that is things like sex education.
00:08:47.860 Does your state have a comprehensive, medically-based sex education?
00:08:54.700 Does that sex education require that you are getting information about condoms and birth control?
00:09:00.360 Is it teaching about consent?
00:09:02.260 Is it LGBTQ inclusive?
00:09:05.000 A couple other things like that.
00:09:06.860 We also want to make sure that if a person, a sexual assault victim goes to the emergency room, they are informed about the option of emergency contraception and that the hospital gives that to them.
00:09:21.460 This is one of those things that may seem so obvious, but it is shocking the number of states that don't mandate this and see previous lots of states have bad sex ed.
00:09:31.280 People may not know that this is an option when they are in the emergency room.
00:09:35.860 And so that puts a barrier to accessing the service if they are not told about it and if the hospital doesn't give it to them because then they need to go find it on their own.
00:09:44.480 And while, you know, you just maybe need to go to a pharmacy, it's over the counter.
00:09:49.020 But like those are barriers if you are unaware that this is an option and where you need to go to get it.
00:09:55.400 Huge barriers.
00:09:56.540 Right.
00:09:57.000 Yes.
00:09:57.400 Yes. And then the last thing we look at under prevention is making sure that minors have the ability to consent to birth control so that they can go and get out of birth control if that is what they want. 0.62
00:10:07.760 Right. Right. Without without their parents having to go with them. Right. 0.60
00:10:12.300 I think about that one all the time, because, you know, I had a mom who was really supportive about reproductive rights and my decision to go on birth control when I was 16 years old.
00:10:28.840 And most of my friends did not.
00:10:30.860 I went to Catholic high school.
00:10:32.540 Okay.
00:10:33.260 Tell me about it.
00:10:33.680 I went to Catholic school, K through 8.
00:10:35.340 I literally had sex ed from a nun.
00:10:37.960 Same, same, same.
00:10:39.300 I mean, it's so funny because you are not the first person to come on this podcast who had the same sex ed education.
00:10:45.140 And, like, that is heavily air-quoted sex ed, right?
00:10:47.600 It was not sex ed.
00:10:49.080 It would be a zero on our measure.
00:10:51.580 It was a massive zero.
00:10:53.900 I don't think that our – I wish I had the book with me.
00:10:58.260 I think my friend Becky still has one.
00:11:00.180 But, you know, I don't think it had changed since 1950.
00:11:03.540 There was no mention of sex.
00:11:04.540 It was abstinence, abstinence all the time.
00:11:06.360 And abstinence is never going to work.
00:11:07.820 Like, okay, my friends, let's be honest.
00:11:09.400 We've all been teenagers. 0.99
00:11:10.900 I very much had, like, the mean girls version of, like, you're going to have sex and get this horrible disease and you're going to die. 0.99
00:11:16.500 And you'll die. 0.99
00:11:17.380 Or all those things. 0.99
00:11:19.700 We also had a special, like, a couple weekend session that was valuing your sexuality.
00:11:26.620 Oh, okay.
00:11:28.100 Okay.
00:11:28.980 Wow.
00:11:29.640 Wow.
00:11:30.320 Yeah.
00:11:30.760 Yeah. And I think that this matters now, even more than back then, because there is so much
00:11:38.220 misinformation about birth control on social media right now. I'm served this misinformation.
00:11:44.740 I am constantly served influencers these days. And we're going to do a whole other episode about
00:11:49.020 this podcast that are telling me that birth control is infinitely dangerous for women,
00:11:56.120 that it will destroy your fertility, that it will give you cancer, that it will make you 0.90
00:12:00.480 attracted to your cousin is my favorite one. I don't know if I've seen that one. Oh, you haven't
00:12:05.220 seen that? Because I'm pretty. Oh, it gets repeated by high up conservative politicians
00:12:11.320 all the time that it will make that birth control will make you attracted to to your cousin or
00:12:17.840 people who look like your cousin and that it makes women attracted to more feminine looking men.
00:12:23.200 And it's insane what it says.
00:12:25.840 And I'm saying this as a person who doesn't love birth control.
00:12:28.740 Like, I didn't love being on it.
00:12:29.840 I was still on it for 20 years.
00:12:32.900 But, like, psyched that my husband has a vasectomy and I'm not on it anymore, still think it's the best thing to do to prevent pregnancy.
00:12:39.720 Yeah. So we have had Dr. Regan on, who is with Power to Decide, to talk about this and talk about all of the myths and disinformation around birth control and what they're doing to push back against it.
00:12:54.720 it's really important to meet people where they are because young people are going out and trying
00:12:59.720 to find information again see that like all of these issues are interrelated see bad sex ed if
00:13:06.140 you're not getting the correct information in school you're going to go and try and find it
00:13:09.780 online you're going to get served mis and disinformation that is going to be harmful
00:13:14.360 as you're trying to navigate living a healthy life yeah yeah exactly
00:13:19.940 we have so much to get into we're going to take a quick break and when we get back we're going
00:13:25.260 to talk about some of these grades okay we are back let's do the biggest picture overall did
00:13:38.400 you give a grade to the united states yes so for the sixth year in a row we had to give the u.s
00:13:45.040 a failing grade. Big fat F. Big fat F. And honestly, this was getting an F clearly if it's
00:13:54.620 been six years before Dobbs was overturned. So it's so bad out there, y'all. 16 states have
00:14:01.880 completely banned or almost completely banned abortion. It makes it really hard for people to
00:14:07.500 then access abortion services, which is just health care. It means they need to travel out
00:14:13.020 of their state if they want care. And that means that your ability to exercise your human rights,
00:14:18.860 your right to abortion, depends on where you live and the resources you have, right? Because not
00:14:25.280 everybody is going to be able to take the time off of work, find child care, travel out of state.
00:14:30.820 If you're in Texas, that means you have to travel really far to get to another state where you might
00:14:36.460 be able to access abortion. It is a huge barrier. Or people may decide that they want to access
00:14:44.800 telehealth in their state and put themselves at legal jeopardy or self-manage their abortion.
00:14:51.000 And that's the same, right? You put legal, worry about being prosecuted. And this is just so hard.
00:15:00.980 People are being forced to carry pregnancies they may have wanted an abortion for.
00:15:07.300 And we know, according to the Turnaway Study, there are long-term consequences to those decisions.
00:15:15.240 It means people are more likely to have economic instability and insecurity for a long time.
00:15:21.680 They are more likely to stay in contact with a violent partner if they are unable to get a wanted abortion
00:15:27.160 or have serious health complications, including death,
00:15:31.560 that wouldn't have occurred if they had access to abortion.
00:15:36.040 So, like, let's just sit with that for a minute.
00:15:38.220 And as we are talking about a country that is in the middle of a maternal mortality crisis,
00:15:43.620 this is huge.
00:15:45.920 Yeah. Yeah. Huge, terrifying, devastating.
00:15:49.340 Has it gotten worse?
00:15:50.540 yeah i mean as you see states trying to find ways to make it harder for people to access care
00:15:59.720 trying to intimidate providers out of state by suing them for ones who are doing the mailing of
00:16:06.720 abortion pills you are seeing all these ways that people are trying to make it harder for people to
00:16:13.260 access care and and i think another thing that is really important to note is so when the dobbs
00:16:19.400 decision happened that was, that'll be three years ago this summer, you saw this huge outpouring of
00:16:26.760 donations to abortion funds and things like that, and a lot of rage donating. And you've seen that
00:16:33.120 trickle off. And so you are seeing people who need more resources because they have to travel.
00:16:40.660 So abortions are more expensive because you are having to save money to travel out of state.
00:16:45.660 abortion funds are needing to give more to support those patients with less resources. So
00:16:51.440 it's really bleak out there right now. Yeah, yeah. I hear and I see that a lot. I have a friend
00:16:59.380 who works with an incredible organization that helps women travel from states where they do not
00:17:08.260 have access to abortion to states where they do have access to abortion and helps house them. So
00:17:14.700 volunteers like my friend um let them stay at their houses or their apartments and then they
00:17:20.040 take them to their appointments the travel can often be quite expensive and donations are down
00:17:27.140 and like this is just my shout out if you can donate to an abortion fund they are doing such
00:17:33.220 good work or other groups that are doing the practical support like you mentioned sometimes
00:17:37.800 abortion funds do both. And if you are able, this is my like little gem that I always like to
00:17:45.560 talk about. If you can donate $5 a month, even like being a monthly donor means that abortion
00:17:54.660 fund knows they're getting $5 every month and they can count on it and they can plan and budget
00:18:01.260 better. So I am a monthly donor to a couple of abortion funds. I still do do like one-offs,
00:18:09.960 but I try to do monthly when I can because that helps them plan for their year better.
00:18:16.680 Such a good tip. You know, that, the monthly NPR. Yeah. Just the gamut of things that we want to
00:18:24.440 continue to survive in this country, honestly. So talk to me on a state level. Can we start with
00:18:30.560 my state can we start with pennsylvania sure let's see here um so at this state level there's a
00:18:39.340 wide variety we know right now i have 25 states that got a failing grade um which is 25 25 so
00:18:48.900 half the country half the states in this country got a big fat f yes so that's not good y'all
00:18:56.480 not great not great okay so pennsylvania got a
00:19:00.560 D. Okay. Interesting. And I find this so interesting. I say this all the time. Pennsylvania, to me, feels like a microcosm of the country, given that we do have, you know, these urban areas. We have many elite colleges. And then we have very, very rural areas as well.
00:19:24.100 We are, you know, clearly a purple moving towards red state like much of the country.
00:19:30.600 And yet we have a very progressive governor in Josh Shapiro.
00:19:36.540 We remain a state that's never elected a female senator or a female governor.
00:19:41.600 I very much relate to that.
00:19:42.580 I am originally from Wisconsin.
00:19:44.200 I grew up there.
00:19:45.460 Oh, my husband's from Wisconsin.
00:19:47.900 Big stuff happening in Wisconsin in the next couple of weeks.
00:19:50.920 Yes, there is a Supreme Court election.
00:19:52.780 There is. There is indeed a Supreme Court election that, by the way, Elon Musk is trying to buy a seat. And so that's going to be fun.
00:20:01.960 Yeah, I have to say my thank you to that side is my mom still lives in Wisconsin and she thought the election was on April 8th for some reason.
00:20:13.280 It's not. It's on the 1st. It's on the 1st.
00:20:14.780 But she got a door knocker for Elon Musk's person, which she lives in a rural area.
00:20:21.420 So we never get door knockers.
00:20:23.160 So that's weird to begin with.
00:20:24.840 Yeah.
00:20:25.120 And they informed her of the correct date.
00:20:28.300 So thank you so that she may go and make sure to vote on the right day.
00:20:33.060 Oh, good.
00:20:33.600 Good.
00:20:33.960 Excellent.
00:20:34.460 Excellent.
00:20:34.800 Yeah.
00:20:35.180 I do a lot of work with Emily Amick, who runs the Emily in Your Phone Instagram account
00:20:42.300 and newsletter.
00:20:43.280 And we have a big piece coming out this week about that that Supreme Court fight that is definitely worth reading, because, again, you know, like we said before, I don't think we're talking nearly enough about what's happening on the state level.
00:20:57.380 And it matters, you know, as much and sometimes even more than what's happening on the federal level.
00:21:03.820 OK, so Pennsylvania.
00:21:06.180 Big Fetty, Big Fetty.
00:21:07.300 So Pennsylvania is doing really well when it comes to the affordability measures we have, which is looking at Medicaid. So they have expanded their Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act. They have expanded family planning beyond what Medicaid requires up to 220 percent of the federal poverty line, which is great.
00:21:27.140 And what is healthy does that mean in normal lay human people terms? Because I think people get really confused when they hear some of these things.
00:21:34.460 Yeah. So this means if you make up to 220 percent of the federal poverty line, sorry, I would have to look that up because I can't remember what it is off the top of my head. It is shockingly low, though. I do know that. It means that you qualify for Medicaid family planning coverage and that it will cover your sexual and reproductive health services, which is amazing.
00:21:58.160 So that means more people are able to get affordable birth control that they want.
00:22:04.220 And it includes men and people under 19, which is beyond what Medicaid has in its base.
00:22:11.400 Okay.
00:22:11.820 Okay.
00:22:12.280 So we're doing okay there.
00:22:14.340 Yeah. 0.79
00:22:15.020 They are not doing well when it comes to sex education.
00:22:18.180 While it does mandate that the state teach HIV education, it doesn't require that that education include condoms.
00:22:25.300 which okay it's kind of important i mean it's just anyone not wanting to talk about condoms
00:22:33.260 and how useful they can be yeah just it blows my freaking mind okay i will give them points they do
00:22:39.920 they do require that they talk about healthy relationships which as somebody who was in
00:22:45.180 it suffered from intimate partner violence from at a young age like that is really important
00:22:50.100 to see that states are covering that so i am i i did you get point a point for that
00:22:56.300 okay okay one point right and then again they fall down a little bit because they have some
00:23:02.620 abortion restrictions they ban abortion at 24 weeks and they have a 24-hour waiting period so
00:23:10.340 if you go and you want an abortion you have to make two trips to the clinic and you know is that
00:23:16.520 new in Pennsylvania? No, I think it's been around for a little while. Okay. And I think some people
00:23:22.900 may hear that and they're like, whatever, 24 hours, no big deal. But you have to think of this
00:23:28.140 as a person who is encountering this system. If you are low income or if you don't have stable
00:23:36.760 childcare or any number of things, just think of all of the barriers this presents. You have to
00:23:43.080 take off of work twice you have to travel to that clinic twice it may not be close to you
00:23:49.040 you have to get there you have to find child care twice right and yeah and if you can get off work
00:23:54.700 so this is actually a pretty big barrier if you have to go twice no a big barrier and then they
00:24:01.240 also require parental consent which you know we talked about before with with birth control most
00:24:07.180 young people do get access abortion care in consultation with their family but not everybody
00:24:12.800 is in a position where they can do that. And so that is another hoop that young people need to
00:24:17.600 navigate to try and access abortion care. And is it just one parent? In Pennsylvania, yes. Some
00:24:26.640 states do require both. Right, right. Not very many. I think there's only a handful. 0.52
00:24:32.100 All right. All right. So that's a D. That is a D. That is a D right there. Which state,
00:24:41.860 I mean, this might be obvious.
00:24:44.120 Which state is the worst, in your opinion, on this report card?
00:24:48.940 I think this year it was Alabama.
00:24:53.440 Okay.
00:24:55.240 There's a couple that, you know, vie for that honor.
00:24:58.720 Yeah.
00:24:59.280 They're fighting for it.
00:25:00.380 Yes.
00:25:01.760 It may be Alabama or Texas.
00:25:05.060 There's a couple that are, like, in the low teens 20 area.
00:25:09.980 Okay.
00:25:10.260 And, you know, they have so many restrictions. I think the one place a lot of those states get points is they have, I have to say, you know, as one thing I was really nervous about when we added this to our report card last year was Medicaid allowed states to expand their maternal health coverage for one year postpartum.
00:25:33.080 Remember, I mentioned earlier there's a maternal mortality crisis.
00:25:36.020 This is something the Biden administration did to ensure that people were getting care for longer to help fight this maternal mortality rate, especially for black women.
00:25:47.320 And so I was really nervous when I started doing this, like that we were going to see the same thing we saw with the Affordable Care Act, where so many states were going to refuse to do that.
00:25:56.100 And that was not the case.
00:25:59.280 All but two states have made that expansion.
00:26:02.480 And that is Wisconsin. Come on, Wisconsin. And Arkansas. And I just find that shocking that so many states did that immediately, which was so wonderful to see.
00:26:13.060 This is very disheartening. There's no other way to put it. I want to take one more quick break. And when we get back, I want to talk about concrete actions that people can take, how they can keep educating themselves about these things, because there's so much nuance, what they can do in their own communities, and if there's any signs of hope out there.
00:26:43.060 okay we are back all of this information like all of the information these days is a lot
00:26:55.220 to absorb and i think we can often feel very helpless in the face of it because it seems so
00:27:04.920 big, right? As this report is circulating, as people are reading it, what can they do
00:27:13.040 to take actions that are both big and small and manageable for them?
00:27:20.280 Yeah, I am a big believer in having conversations. And that doesn't mean going up to everybody and
00:27:29.960 having conversations that you may be uncomfortable with.
00:27:33.200 Of course.
00:27:33.720 Like that, that's not helpful, but that's stressful to you.
00:27:37.240 You don't need to do that.
00:27:39.840 But I, I'm a big believer in, you know, like I said before,
00:27:44.960 so many people don't know what the laws are in their own state.
00:27:48.680 Yeah.
00:27:48.900 So this year, the report card has a really fun new resource.
00:27:51.820 We have a micro site where you can go and play around with the report card.
00:27:57.140 So not just seeing how your state rates overall, but now you can go and look by category.
00:28:03.020 And so that is a real fun way where people can learn more.
00:28:06.580 And so if you're in a conversation and somebody is talking about what's happening around abortion or sex ed or something in a different state or it's in the news, you can push people to the report card so they can learn more about what's happening in their state.
00:28:24.720 I'm a big believer in having those conversations and making sure that people are aware of what's happening.
00:28:31.680 I always say you don't need to know all the things.
00:28:34.560 You don't need to know all the things.
00:28:36.160 But if you know where you can direct people, where they can get reliable information, which is harder and harder these days.
00:28:42.440 Again, like the reason we talk about so many of these issues on this podcast, which is ostensibly about social media, is that so much of this mis- and disinformation is coming from social media.
00:28:56.180 So you can't talk about one without at least trying to correct the record here.
00:29:02.400 Absolutely.
00:29:03.020 So finding out those resources is super important.
00:29:08.380 So that is one big thing is having those conversations and knowing the resources.
00:29:11.980 you can point people to. If you want to do something more active, you can reach out to
00:29:19.300 your local abortion fund or someplace that does practical support or your local clinic
00:29:24.900 to see if they have ways that you can directly engage, if that is something you are interested in.
00:29:31.380 There are so many different things you can do. There are groups that get together that
00:29:36.240 put care packages together for patients or groups that write notes to abortion providers who are
00:29:45.620 dealing with this whole situation while trying to care for patients and just sending them positive
00:29:51.520 notes can be wonderful um there are just like little things like that you can do finding ways
00:29:58.700 you can engage in your state finding out what those state laws are you know you have the report
00:30:03.620 card which can point you to some areas but then finding the groups on the ground who are doing
00:30:08.860 that work um and i definitely encourage finding the small local group um your reproductive justice
00:30:17.720 groups on the ground that are doing that work instead of maybe reaching out to some of the
00:30:21.460 bigger ones because those smaller groups could really use the help right now right right and
00:30:26.860 And they're, again, they're local, so they are directly having an impact in your community.
00:30:33.960 And they know what your community needs.
00:30:35.700 Mm-hmm.
00:30:36.740 Mm-hmm.
00:30:37.400 Yeah, you mentioned something that I think often gets lost in this conversation.
00:30:42.340 You know, we are talking about the people seeking care and probably not enough about the care providers.
00:30:48.440 And it has never been more difficult to be a doctor or a nurse providing any kind of medical care to women in this country.
00:31:00.480 Am I right?
00:31:01.520 Yeah.
00:31:01.880 You know, we talk about like doing the thing that is right for you and finding the way you could get involved.
00:31:08.620 And I think about that a lot, because if I was a provider on the ground or somebody working at a clinic and had to turn people away every day for a wanted abortion because they are past our state's gestational ban or whatever, like, I think that would break me.
00:31:28.400 Like, I do not think I could do that. The emotional labor that is being required of that. So that is part of why I do the like big picture advocacy work. But I just think of all of those people who are having to do that hard emotional work every day. And it's a lot.
00:31:48.620 Yeah. And the little things, the sending a thank you note, sending a care package, I think those things do add up when you're a provider who is carrying this burden every single day.
00:32:03.740 Yes. And by the like sending a care package, like make sure you are doing it in consultation with the clinics. They know it's coming. Like don't just send a package to a clinic.
00:32:15.220 Yeah, that's going to creep them out.
00:32:16.800 Yeah.
00:32:17.000 That's a creepy thing.
00:32:17.980 That's a creepy thing.
00:32:18.740 They will worry that it's a bomb threat or something like that.
00:32:21.540 So make sure it is something they are expecting.
00:32:24.320 Don't just send some cookies.
00:32:25.780 Correct.
00:32:26.620 Good, nice thought.
00:32:28.140 Nice thought.
00:32:28.820 Yes, exactly.
00:32:29.980 Exactly.
00:32:32.280 Are there any signs of hope out there right now?
00:32:39.020 What brings you hope right now?
00:32:40.580 Okay, so a couple things.
00:32:41.660 first let's think back to last year abortion was on the ballot in what was it 10 states
00:32:49.680 in 10 states in seven seven states it won that is amazing and when you say and when you say one
00:33:00.340 tell me because yes because the language of you know what does winning mean in this case correct
00:33:05.740 So it overturned some abortion restrictions or expanded access to abortion. It varies state by state. Again, 10 ballot measures, 10 different things. Right. But it made a huge difference. So thinking of Missouri and Arizona were two of the states at one where it struck down some restrictions on abortion.
00:33:28.400 And while those states still have some restrictions, we're talking about moving from like a six-week ban or almost complete ban to having like a viability ban.
00:33:37.460 That is a huge difference in people accessing care.
00:33:40.980 And so even when I say seven of 10 states won, that's only even on a technicality because Florida had, I think it was 53% voted to pass their measure that would extend to access.
00:33:56.280 But Florida required is required the number to be 60 percent. So like still the majority of people in Florida said we need to increase access to abortion. And that is amazing, y'all. Like all of those measures winning is signs of hope that people see that abortion is is important health care that people have access to.
00:34:19.600 Now, not all states can do ballot measures and it's never, you know, that simple.
00:34:24.180 They're still fighting over enacting all of the parts of the law of the ballot initiatives, having to fight through the courts to make sure things happen, like striking down old laws.
00:34:34.680 But it is expanding access and it gives me hope.
00:34:39.700 And then the other thing that gives me hope is seeing all of the amazing work that is being done on the ground.
00:34:46.700 You know, I talked about that I wouldn't be able to work in a clinic because it would it would break me. But the amazing work that they are doing day in and day out or that abortion funds are doing to ensure as many people as possible are able to access the health care they want and need is it gives me so much hope that this can happen and that things can change.
00:35:10.140 And, you know, I often have people ask, like, am I hopeful? Do I think that we are going to win? And the answer is obviously yes. Like, I couldn't do this work if I did not believe we would get to that better future where people are able to exercise their right to bodily autonomy easily and have access that they can afford, which is so important.
00:35:36.900 And it may not be tomorrow. It may not be next year, but we will win and we will get to the point where people are able to access the care they need in an affordable manner.
00:35:48.840 Mic drop. I mean, I think we end it there, right? Like, let's just I want to end on some hope.
00:35:53.860 Okay. I just, I want to end on hope and joy. So thank you for doing all of this work that you're
00:36:01.140 doing and, you know, for sharing it with our audience in a way that I think is digestible
00:36:06.940 and, and also for, for giving us, giving us a little ray of hope at the end right there.
00:36:12.600 Jo, thank you so much for having me. It was so much fun to talk to you.
00:36:15.620 That is all we have for today. I have hope. I do. A lot of the time I feel weird right now.
00:36:20.660 I wasn't screwing around about the beekeeping. I think I'm getting some bees. But mostly because
00:36:26.380 Nick Astor won't let me have backyard chickens. If you love this podcast, give it a review.
00:36:32.060 Share it with a friend. Make sure to order your copy of Everyone is Lying to You. Do it right now.
00:36:37.560 Get it right now. You're going to love this book, I promise. Now, go take a nap. That's what I'm
00:36:42.340 going to do. I'm going to eat some cheese and I'm going to take a nap because after this conversation,
00:36:47.000 I deserve it. And so do you.
00:36:50.660 Thank you.
00:37:20.660 Thank you.