Episodes

Reproductive rights aren’t only attacked on the federal level; in fact, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade was an abortion ban out of Mississippi. Individual states set the precedent for their own abortion laws, sex education, shield laws, and more. Jillian Riley, North Carolina Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic sits down to talk with us about how reproductive health, rights, and justice can show up on the election ballot in a variety of ways.

September 30th, 2026, marked the 50th anniversary of the Hyde Amendment—a provision enacted in 1976 in response to the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that legalized nationwide abortion. It restricts federally funded abortions through federal healthcare programs like Medicaid and Medicare. Lupe Rodriguez, Executive Director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice (NLIRJ) sits down to talk with us about Hyde’s tragic, dangerous legacy, and how it is past time for repeal. 

Viriginia plays a critical role for abortion access in the South. In fact, Virginia is the only southern state that did not enact a post-Dobbs abortion ban, leaving it the only southern state without a full abortion ban or extremely restrictive ban on the books. April Greene, Executive Director at the Blue Ridge Abortion Fund, talks to us about Virginia’s important role in continuing to providecare for the southern region and help ensure reproductive freedom nationwide.  

Independent abortion clinics collectively provide 58% of abortions in the United States. After 26 weeks of gestation, abortion clinics provide 100% of abortion care in the country. Yet, independent clinics have faced unrelenting attacks to their funding, resources, and physical wellbeing, especially over the past decade. Nikki Madsen and Erin Grant, Co-Executive Directors at the Abortion Care Network (ACN), sit down to talk with us about the critical, community-based work of independent clinics and the importance of International Safe Abortion Day around the world.

**Trigger Warning: Miscarriage and Pregnancy Loss

“One of the most prevalent myths about human pregnancy is that of all possible outcomes, a baby is the most likely. Pregnancy Interrupted challenges the misleadingly linear narrative that begins with two lines on a pregnancy test and ends with a newborn. Kate Clancy shares her own deeply personal stories of pregnancy loss and moving interviews with others, and reveals how the frequency of loss and miscarriage is far more common than most realize.”

Planned Parenthood has been under attack in Texas for years. This has resulted in a lack of access to affordable healthcare, lack of access to birth control, and worsening maternal health outcomes. Shellie Hayes-McMahon, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Texas, which is the 501(c)(3) arm of Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, sits down to talk with us about the perfect storm of attacks to reproductive health and rights in Texas, which provides a perfect blueprint for other states who wish to follow suit.

Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) are unregulated storefronts that exist as a way of pushing out anti-abortion misinformation and blocking people’s access to care through deception, shame, delay, and intimidation. Tara Romano, Executive Director of Pro-Choice North Carolina, talks to us about North Carolina’s CPC landscape.

PEPFAR, or the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, started in 2003 and is the largest country-to-country bilateral investment in addressing any single disease. PEPFAR is not only funding, but expertise, and has saved millions of lives since the Bush administration. Dr. Jennifer Sherwood, Director of Research in the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) public policy office, talks to us about attacks to PEPFAR, the populations that are impacted, and some recent protections to PEPFAR’s crucial work. 

Maintaining hope during this moment in reproductive health and rights, plenty of book-talk, and even a deep-dive into Jennie’s sex education in Catholic school…Tarah Demant, Interim National Director of Programs, Advocacy, and Government Affairs at Amnesty International USA, asks host Jennie Wetter a series of ask me anything (AMA) questions.

August 15th marks the fifth anniversary of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. Gender-based discrimination is a tenet of the Taliban’s policies, which is being enforced and institutionalized across the country. We hear from Metra Mehran, a self-described person exiled from Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover in 2021, and who now focuses on advocacy work related to gender apartheid with the End Gender Apartheid Campaign, as well as advocacy with Congress to hold the Taliban accountable through Amnesty International.

Reproductive rights, LGBTQI+ rights, and democracy cannot be discussed in isolation; fundamentally, they are all about who has the freedom to make choices for themselves, and each one affects the other. Cristina Uribe, Chief of Programs at the Collaborative for Gender and Reproductive Equality (CGRE) and Director of the Gender Equity Action Fund (GEAF), sits down with us to explain how these topics are deeply interconnected.

Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case which overturned Roe v. Wade was decided, there’s been an abortion access crisis, an assault on legal precedent for abortion protections, and an opportunity to create a stronger and even more inclusive plan to reproductive autonomy than Roe ever provided. Amy Myrick, Senior Council at the Center for Reproductive Rights, sits down to talk with us about legal trends in federal and state courts in the past four years.