The Green Tide is Rising
The Green Wave Movement began in 2018 in Argentina, focused on anti-femicide but quickly evolving into a bodily autonomy and abortion movement. Protestors took to the streets to not only change the law, but to change the culture across Latin America. Asha Dahya, head of Girl Talk HQ and creator and executive producer of the podcast Green Tide Rising and the short film Someone You Know, sits down to talk to us about this motivating movement across Latin America and what the U.S. can learn.
Latin America previously hosted some of most restrictive environments worldwide for the access of abortion services. Because of Argentina’s initial countrywide protests, the Argentinian government legalized abortion up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. Success in Argentina’s protest spirit then spilled into other countries, including Mexico and Colombia, creating broad judicial and legislative change.
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Transcript
Jennie: Welcome to rePROs Fight Back, a podcast on all things related to sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice. [music intro]
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Jennie: Hi rePROs, how's everybody doing? I'm your host, Jennie Wetter, and my pronouns are she/her. So first, a huge thank you to everybody who has bought merch so far. I am just so surprised. I'm so excited for our merch, so it's so exciting to see y'all be excited and buying things. I love all of the designs we have. The ones from Liberal Jane, our ones from our in-house designer we use, Tanya. I love all of them. I'm so excited to see them on t-shirts and bags and pouches and water bottles and coffee mugs and oh my, so many things. If you have not been to our merch store yet, the link will be in the show notes, but also you can find it at Bonfire if you look for rePROs Fight Back or if you go to tinyurl.com/reprosfbmerch. Yeah, check it out! I hope you love it as much as we do, and I'm just so grateful to the people who have already bought the rePROs merch to wear out in the wild so I can't wait. I hope someday I run into somebody wearing some stuff that would just make my day. I'd be so excited. So, yeah let's see what else is going on... I feel like my brain is like a little sluggish right now I feel like my to-do list keeps getting longer and longer and my will to do anything on it is like getting lower and lower, so I'm hoping the weekend will be like a little bit of a mental reset so I can get some of those things done but yeah I just I'm not really feeling it. I just don't have the get up and go at the moment to tackle it. And I think the longer the list gets, the less I want to tackle it, which is not helpful. But yeah, that's kind of where I'm at mentally right now. But I am very much looking forward to stone fruit season. I have not really dived into it a lot yet. I have some peaches coming my way that I am so excited about. I am looking forward to eating all of the peaches and some nectarines and yeah, stone fruit season has been my favorite. I've already had so many delicious cherries. I'm going to have to think of some baking things to do with all of the delicious stone fruit I have coming my way. It's the little things that make me so happy and stone fruit season in the summer is definitely one of those things that makes me so happy. There is just nothing like a fresh juicy peach. Oh, so good. Like I said, my brain is kind of messy right now, so I'm just going to stop because I feel like otherwise, I'm just going to be rambling all over the place. And let's go to this week's interview instead. So you can listen to a great conversation I had with Asha Dahya. She is the founder of Girl Talk HQ, but we actually have her on talking about this amazing podcast and video series she did called Green Tide Rising, where we talk about the Green Wave movement. Definitely check out the series. It was so wonderful to watch the videos and listen to the podcast. And I had such a wonderful time talking to Asha. So, let's go to my interview with Asha.
Jennie: Hi, Asha. Thank you so much for being here today.
Asha: Hello Jennie!
Jennie: It’s great to be here with you. I'm so glad we are finally connecting. I feel like we’ve been circling each other and trying to connect on various things, and so glad we’re finally making it happen.
Asha: Yes.
Jennie: Before we get started, do you want to introduce yourself and include your pronouns?
Asha: My name is Asha Dahya. My pronouns are she/her. I am based in Los Angeles. As you can probably tell from my accent, I am originally from Australia. I am a filmmaker, and under that banner, I'm predominantly a producer and writer, but I've done some directing. I'm the creator, executive producer, and co-host of a podcast series called Green Tide Rising, which is about Latin America's Green Wave movement and what the US can learn from it. I'm the director and producer of an award-winning short documentary called Someone You Know. It's an animated film focusing on three women's experiences getting a later abortion in the United States before the Dobbs decision. And it kind of shows how hard It has always been to access later abortion, especially for the most vulnerable folks. And I also run a digital feminist magazine called Girl Talk HQ. And from that, I got a book deal. So, there's a spinoff book from the blog. It's called Today's Wonder Women: Everyday Superheroes Who Are Changing the World. So yeah, I'm a media creator. I'm a writer. I'm a storyteller. I think that's probably the best encapsulation of who I am and what I do.
Jennie: So glad you brought up your short film because we are in the middle of a six-month series on abortion later in pregnancy. So, so great to hear that.
Asha: Yes. And thank you for doing that series. It's so important. I feel like there's been too much hesitation, even from left-leaning folks, to talk about this issue, but now we are in the moment we're in, and we need to have that education, that empathy, and storytelling around it, too. I think first-person storytelling... you can never go wrong with it. You know, you can't deny someone's lived experience having to navigate those very real and very harmful barriers. So, thank you for doing that series. And I'm glad that we get to have these conversations.
Jennie: Yeah, no, I totally agree on the storytelling. So, it's so great to have someone whose job is basically, like you said, storytelling.
Asha: Yeah.
Jennie: So, I'm so excited to have you on today we're going to talk about Green Tide Rising which I was telling you right as we got on, like, I had just been listening to it before I signed on so I've just had your voice in my head for all morning as we were getting as I was getting ready for this. Do you want to tell us a little bit about what inspired you to make that?
Asha: Yeah, so, it kind of started very differently to what it is now. I have been wanting to, for about eight years, I wanted to make a docuseries about abortion in the United States originally. And that kind of stemmed from my experience growing up conservative evangelical. I grew up in Australia and it's very different, the landscape is very different there. It's not as politically intertwined as it is here. When I moved here in 2008, I joined a very large conservative evangelical, or I'll say evangelical church in Los Angeles, not understanding the socio-political ties. Of course, 2008 was an election year. It was the election of the first Black president in this country. And I very quickly learned politics around racism, around gender identity, around all the things that are very closely intertwined with abortion rights today. And one of the things that I realized was this idea of being quote unquote "pro-life," and I'm hesitant to use that term, but that's what I had quickly learned that this is what it means to be evangelical in the United States. But what I also saw over the years was that, although there were people on stage, mostly men, some women, talking about how they are very against abortion, all those kind of things, behind closed doors and in the quiet conversations, away from the pulpit, people are having abortions and they're going to the clinics that they claim to not support. There was a huge disconnect there for me and I wanted to explore that in my very curious storytelling nature. So, I went on this journey before, funnily enough, before I had kids to really figure out, okay, so what are the... abortion is not its own silo. It is interconnected to so many aspects of our lives and I was looking at birth control, maternal mortality, sex education and just all the things that we see at healthcare access in the United States. And then I had two kids and then different elections happened in 2016, as we all know, and the pandemic. And so, I had to put that idea aside. As you know, this happens a lot in filmmaking and storytelling, you know, you come up with an idea, you try to pitch it, you get a whole bunch of no's and you think, all right, fine, it's done, it's done. Then in 2021, I met a woman named Ximena Casas Isaza. She's originally from Colombia. She is a researcher and a feminist lawyer. She's based in Spain now. And I met her through WEC, which is an organization that does a lot of great work in Latin America and here in the U.S. And my friend Paola introduced me to Ximena and said, oh, because I told her about this series that I had an idea about. And I said, oh, Latin America is doing some really interesting things. She said, talk to Ximena. Ximena is doing a first of its kind research tracking the impact of abortion criminalization across the region, which hadn't been done before. There have been a few individual countries in Latin America that had tracked data and written reports, some of which Ximena had done. She was doing a regional report looking at the criminalization and also looking at how abortion medication was, how that was impacting the landscape and changing the way people access abortion and the power shift and dynamic, you know, it kind of took away that gatekeeping in a lot of ways. So, as I got talking with her, this is 2021, as she's talking and she's talking about the, telling me the countries she's focusing on, I thought this would be a great docuseries. This is a podcast or something like what you're doing is really fascinating. And this was, of course, about a year before the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. And then by 2022, her project was- her research was kind of moving along. She'd onboarded partners and funders. Then Dobbs happened in June 2022, and I thought we need to do something about this now because in 2021, Mexico's Supreme Court made a really interesting ruling, basically the opposite of what we're seeing in the United States. Just after the Dobbs decision, Colombia, their Supreme Court, made the complete opposite of the Dobbs decision. And now they have one of the most progressive abortion laws in the world, decriminalized abortion as well. And it became very apparent that our... compadres, compatriots in the Global South are doing some really exciting, innovative and different strategic work around abortion access. And what are the things that we can highlight? Because we're so used to, especially in the Global North, having this idea of American “exceptionalism.” So then, you know, cut to 2024, I think, put together a team of producers and we had originally thought, okay, we want to maybe pitch it to a podcast company, you know, like a Serial [Productions] or Wondery or Spotify. We'd put a package together. And we got the usual, well, this is very important, but we don't have the budget for it. It's not right for us. And then we just got to the point where we said, we need to find the funding ourselves and make this happen because it's too urgent and too important to wait around for someone else to give us permission. So, we did that. We found funding through grants and different foundations. And in a very, very short, I would say 14 or 15 weeks, we did fundraising, hiring all our team and production and all the things all in one and we wanted to the idea was to release all eight episodes in the lead up to the presidential election in 2024 which we did and so it was a mad rush to get it all together but yeah it was but we did it. So, Green Tide Rising, that's how it all came together.
Jennie: First of all, it is great. I really, I've enjoyed listening to it. I watched the videos first and then went and I was listening to the full episodes. I haven't made it all through all eight because I started a little too late but that's okay, I will finish it. Okay, so y'all you should definitely check it out but also if you want more on some of that like legal wrangling in the cases that Asha was talking about we talked to the O'Neill [Institute for National and Global Health Law] and some of their partners in Latin America and did some real deep dive episodes on that so we'll make sure to include those in our show notes as well but also the Green Tide Rising has a lot more information about like the specific countries and what happened I have to say I'm really connected to like your first part where you're talking about your upbringing. We were talking before about how I was raised Catholic. I went to Catholic school K-8. I had sex ed from a nun which again that's like heavily air quoted "sex ed" because it was very much the like...
Asha: It almost sounds like an oxymoron, right?
Jennie: Yeah, very much like, you know, the Mean Girls version of like, you have sex, you get this horrible disease and you're going to die. I mean, maybe that was also just '90s sex ed, but like, in particular from a nun, that was... And I think in many ways, like, I was lucky. Like, I think the church I went to was never, I don't remember hearing it from the pulpit and having, like, that heavy, like lots of conversation about it. Maybe I just don't remember it and blocked it out. ‘Cause I was like, no, but, but I don't remember that happening, but I do remember like through like sex ed and things like that, like getting all of the, like, negative, anti-abortion and like, I was thinking that when you were talking in your video, just like the, the shame around sex and like, and that just like, it sticks to you. Like, it's one of those things that as I have evolved all of my thinking and have broken so many of those shackles, like, some of that just like is really hard to get rid of. Yeah, and so that's one of the things, like, I always am very passionate about talking about comprehensive inclusive sex ed and making sure you are getting-
Asha: ...medically accurate...
Jennie: Yes! Like, it is so important for just a whole host of reasons.
Asha: Yeah, yeah, I agree, and I really love having more conversations that connect those people who have those religious backgrounds, and we did that in Green Tide Rising, we spoke to a couple of folks from Catholics for the Right to Decide in Argentina and in Mexico. And it was so great to hear their perspective. And there's such a rich history of activism and social justice with these progressive Catholic organizations. And it was just really heartwarming to hear that. And I hope people get some encouragement out of that, that just because you are a person of faith, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to be anti-abortion or anti-sex ed or not sex positive. You know, it's- not all that ...is said from the pulpit.
Jennie: Okay. So, I really, like I said, I really enjoyed this series. It offers like this great counterpoint to, like, what we were experiencing in the U.S. as we saw abortion continuing to get more and more restricted at the state level, all the way up to Dobbs that the green wave movement was like this great, uh, counterbalance to look at and see how the U.S. was really just out of step with what was happening globally. Do you want to talk a little bit about the Green Wave movement? It's been a little bit since we've talked about it on the podcast. So, maybe start with the real simple, like, what is the Green Wave movement?
Asha: Yeah. So, the Green Wave—and episode one, we talk about where the color green came from, where the bandana came from, so, I'd recommend listening to that—but essentially it began in 2018 in Argentina and it was formed…it kind of was an offshoot of an anti-femicide movement where the women and activists and people were going to the streets and protesting against gender violence and then they realized that to be able to live free and safely you had to have bodily autonomy and that starts with being able to control all decisions about your body including pregnancy, maternal health care, abortion, all of those things. And so, abortion became a very key issue for them because if you have access to abortion, there is this idea that it's because it is connected to maternal health care, all different types of health care, sex education, all the different socio-economic [issues], like, paid leave maternity leave—all the things that we need to live an autonomous life that they needed to fight for abortion. And also prior to Argentina legalizing it, death from unsafe abortion was one of the leading causes of maternal mortality so there was an urgency around this issue. So, they took to the streets, and it wasn't just about changing the law. It was about changing the culture first. They knew that if we can have an army of people in the streets, in colleges, on television, in lounge rooms, in places of worship and faith, and we change the culture first, by the time it gets to Congress, which it did in December 2020, then this is an undeniable movement that they have to pay attention to. And that is exactly what happened. I mean, there were politicians who were on the fence over anti-abortion, but they saw the change that was happening culturally. So, in 2020, they legalized it up to 14 weeks. They did not decriminalize it, but that doesn't mean they're done. So, then Argentina happened in 2020. Mexico saw what was happening. So many countries across the region saw what was happening and thought this was like a what do you guess, like a signal flare being sent up across the region. Like, we can do this. Let's go to the streets. We are everyday people. We don't have to have a ton of money or status or celebrity or power. This is what we need. It's a people-powered movement. So yeah, that's kind of how it spread. And it's still spreading. And the interesting thing about Latin America is that every country has its own set or tiers of abortion restrictions or abortion laws, similar to the way or comparable to the way the United States, every state is now its own country in a sense. So, it's a really interesting comparison and there's a lot we can learn how Latin America, the activists down there have had different approaches for different countries, but there's this overarching sense that we are a wave of people. We are going to make change happen. We're not going to wait for the Supreme Court or the President or the Prime Minister or the leaders to do this for us. We're going to show them what we need and what we want. So, the Green Wave is, it's not one leader, it's everyone and everyone has a role to play. And that's what I love about the movement. It's decentralized. There's a place for everyone to join and do their part and make change happen. So, I get goosebumps talking about it because it's really cool. So, stop me from talking, Jennie, because I could go on.
Jennie: No, it's so energizing. And just the green bandanas just became so... ubiquitous. They were everywhere, like, you saw them in front of the Supreme Court-
Asha: Yeah.
Jennie: -around Dobbs, like they just they have really come from Latin America and you see them in the U.S. now and just-
Asha: You see them in Iran, they're being used in parts of Africa. It's everywhere. It's really cool. Can I also mention something about the green bandana? Because in the US, there's always this binary paradigm of "pro-life" versus "pro-choice." And we interviewed Marta Alanis, who was the founder of Catholics for the Right to Decide in Argentina. And she is the one who created the green bandana. And she was saying how... you know, why we chose green, because it's the color of life. It's trees, it's nature, it's our world. And so, they've kind of taken this weaponized term and really reclaimed it and said, we are the ones advocating for life with this symbol, which has now become global. And I just really love that because it's not such a binary thing. We are fighting for the lives of people to make their own decisions. And I love that they did that.
Jennie: Well, right. And it's always been like, "pro-life" has been more about pro-birth, pro- making you have the baby. And the pro-abortion space has been more about empowering you to live the life you want, and healthy, and, like, having access to the health care you need. And it is so much bigger, especially as you get into Reproductive Justice. It is the real- having that safe, healthy life and being able to make the decisions you need to raise your kids in that safe, healthy environment, or not have kids or whatever you need to be supported and have that full range of bodily autonomy.
Asha: Yeah. And when you mentioned Reproductive Justice, I mean, it's such a completely different paradigm to when you think of reproductive rights or the pro-choice, which is a very, very narrow political slogan. But what Latin America has done was said, this is not a legal movement. This is a human rights movement. And I think even just that little shift in mentality completely opens it up when you look at the Reproductive Justice movement started by Black women in the United States in the early ‘90s they were like legal rights mean nothing in name only when we can't access it. We need to be able to raise…if we want to have a family, how can we raise that family in safety, in community, when we don't have access to these resources? And so, I think just that shifting of our perspective is really, really key to how we fight for abortion today and going forward.
Jennie: Right. And legal doesn't matter if I can't access it, right? If there is not a clinic near me and I need to take time off work and drive or have to travel to get it or I can't afford it or any number of barriers we've talked about over the years on this podcast, right? So, legal, as we've always said, has never been enough. We needed to make it actually accessible and the full range of things that access means. There are so many things encompassed in that small word of access that are important to making sure people are able to make the decisions they want in a way that is supported.
Asha: Yeah. Absolutely.
Jennie: So, I really loved thinking about what U.S. advocates, like what can we learn from the Green Wave movement? Because I really do think they have been so successful and not just in getting change, but like building this real movement. And I would love to see ways we can bring that here. I mean, we've, I think, you know, Dobbs obviously lit off an even bigger movement than there already was, but I still think there as always should be lessons that can be learned from other places.
Asha: Yeah. I think the first thing that we as American audiences, people living in the United States primarily, need to understand, and Lourdes from Pregnancy Justice really outlined this really well in episode eight, is that we need to let go of this idea of American exceptionalism, that we are the leader on human rights, and clearly we are not that. And we need to kind of let go of our pride a little bit and understand that there are people in the Global South who are doing things that we should be taking note of. You know, we're not the, you know, the white savior mentality where we need to shift that. And so that's the first thing I would start with, interrogating ourselves. What I love about the Green Wave, and Ximena talks about this really well, and her research, by the way, you mentioned the O'Neill Institute, she's working with the O'Neill Institute on this, she talks about this idea of social decriminalization. So, we hear the word decriminalization where abortion is decriminalized, meaning that it's typically taken out of the criminal code in a state or a country and put into the health code where instead of criminal penalties or calling the authorities, now it's just under the purview of the healthcare realm. But again, that's just a right in name only or on paper only if you can't access it. So this idea of social decriminalization, which the Green Wave has perfected so well, well, maybe not perfected, but that's what they're centered around. Is that it's not just about what happens in the courts of law. It's: what are you doing in your communities? How are we educating ourselves? How are we using our skills and resources now to advocate for this? And I'll give one example from the series. In episode two, we focused on El Salvador, which has a complete abortion ban, no exceptions. We interviewed a woman named Teodora Vásquez, who was in prison for 11 years for an obstetric emergency. And I won't go into too much details because we do in the episode, we put a trigger warning and there's, you know, there's, it was a very horrific experience for her, but she is now a huge activist and what she has done in a country. Oh, hello. [Jennie's cat makes an appearance]
Jennie: Go lay down . [speaking to cat] Thank you.
Asha: What Teodora has done in El Salvador is nothing short of inspiring because she came out of…by the way, she was a mother when she went into the prison, she had a child at home. What [she] needed [was] medical attention but instead they called the authorities that is so dangerous and so harmful and so stigmatizing in that very vulnerable situation. Nevertheless, she survived, and she did her time in prison and after she came out she was offered amnesty by a number of countries to say come and live here you'll be safe you'll be free. But she was like, no, I don't want other women in El Salvador to go through what I went through. So, she started a nonprofit organization called Mujeres Libres, where she educates women about their rights, educates them about bodily autonomy, about abortion, about all the healthcare things that they should have a right to access. And it sounds like not a big deal, but in a country where all abortion is banned and to start a legally recognized entity, legally recognized by the government, where they advocate for abortion, for her it was a big deal because they know what this organization is. But even though they can't access abortion, they're finding ways to help each other on a community level. So, I think that's one of the key lessons here in the United States that we're seeing more advocates point toward is: what are the community solutions? What can we do with the people in our own networks? Because we might not be able to rely on the laws or all the clinics in our... area might be closed because they've been defunded or there's just no access to any sort of care. So, how do we help each other? And I think that's what Theodora really exemplified. And just that education piece of if the authorities come to your door or your place of work, which is what happened to her, and they start questioning you about your pregnancy, what are your rights and how do you stand up for yourself? And we're seeing that today across the US, not just with pregnancies, but with immigrant communities. What are your rights how do you stand up for yourself how does the community come in and stand up for you and it sounds like it's not really abortion related but it really is because it's all about how we have those individual freedoms and rights to make the best decisions for ourselves without interference from those outside entities and so... yeah, the social decriminalization aspect is really key. And then we had some other cool examples, like in Colombia, they, you know, they didn't just protest outside the courts. They did reggaeton dances. They used art and music and creativity to really-
Jennie: They're trying to steal our joy.
Asha: Right.
Jennie: So, bringing the joy is so important.
Asha: Yes, exactly. You know, why not use comedy? Like, what Liz Winstead does with abortion access. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that we, that is social decriminalization right there because it's breaking down the stigma internally within ourselves, then in our communities, then we can go to get, you know, the lawyers and all those really, really smart people to go to the courts and make the arguments for us. So, yeah, it's every aspect. It's got to be social first, though.
Jennie: Yeah, and getting the information out there is so important. You know, I've talked about on the podcast the importance of, like, conversations with your friends. And I don't mean, like, having, jumping into, like, the hostile conversation. Like, you don't need to do that. But, like... unless that's something you want to do. Like, if that's, if that's your jam, I'm an introvert.
Asha: Coming from an evangelical Christian background where it's like, do you know Jesus? It's like, don't do that.
Jennie: I'm like an introvert who was an only child. So, like, confrontation is not my jam, but it may be yours. So, like.
Asha: Each to their own.
Jennie: Do it, do it. Exactly. But making yourself a resource where people know that they can go to you for information. And I’ve said this a lot: this does not mean you need to know all the things because you can’t. But you know the resources to point them to where they can get trusted information. It’s so important to be that person in your friend group, in your broader circle. Oh, you need access to services? Great. Well, go to I Need an A. This will give you the closest clinic. It'll give you all of the things you need to think about, things like that. Making yourself the resource for trusted information is also so important.
Asha: Yeah. I think the way that I think about it is, or the way that I kind of describe it is that In the filmmaking world, there's this saying, there is no shiny white knight that's going to come and give you all the money and the funding. And it's the same with everyday life. There is no saviour that's going to ride in on their horse and come and save [us]. "We are the ones that we have been waiting for," as the famous June Jordan poem says. What can we give to each other? Even if it's something like... We talked to activist Paula Mendoza in episode seven, and she talks about her immigrant community in New York, where there was a young immigrant girl named Romina, and she made a film about it, where she needed to have an abortion. People showed up with food, with blankets, with medication, with just- really surrounded her with all the things that she knew she may not have been able to get from going to a clinic. And so just all those things like we can be the ones that we need for each other is just a really... It feels empowering because it's like, oh, we can do something and it feels small and insignificant, but it really isn't because it's those everyday actions that collectively make a way, really.
Jennie: That's one thing. So, you just made me think of something I did recently that is one of those things that brings me joy. I forget about it every once in a while, and then I remember it. I'm like, oh, I need to go do this. You mentioned Abortion Access Front. They have a great page on their website where it has clinics’ wishlists, Amazon wishlists, where you can get things that they need and whether it's Plan B or coloring books for people who are just after their care. And I just last week was there and ordered a number of things for a couple of clinics. And like, it's just something like little things that are going to bring joy to somebody else or make their day a little easier. I know it's one of those things that always makes me happy, and I forget about it. So, might as well take a minute to remind people it's out there.
Asha: Yeah, it's important. And it is, you know, it’s important to bring back that joy because there are so many serious aspects to it that we want people to feel good and empowered and surrounded by good people. So, bring the joy wherever we can.
Jennie: I think the other thing I was thinking about, and we don't have to dwell on this because this is so like outside of this exact series, but it made me think about the current moment we're in. And so, we're talking about access to abortion in Latin America, but it just makes me think of the tax on USAID. USAID officially no longer exists. There's no funding right now for sexual and reproductive health. And the U.S. was the largest funder for sexual and reproductive health services. This is going to have huge ripple effects in countries all over the world. And that's just something that, one, because it's part of my day-to-day work I have been sitting with but listening to all of the inspiring stories that were shared in your podcast, it just was also sitting with me in that space.
Asha: It is devastating and really sad because... There's this dominant narrative from the current administration where they're like, we don't want to fund this and fund that. But it's like, the way that I see it and the way that we really encapsulated it in our episode on Brazil is: what responsibility does a global superpower have? That's Brazil and that's the United States. And we have always considered ourselves, you know, since the end of World War II, like we are the leader on human rights. We champion the small guy. We help people like that's who we are. And beyond that, it's the devastating impact of pulling funding because of a political and ideological thought. Like, who are the everyday people who are going to be impacted? They are just ordinary families, young folks, especially young folks are the most impacted by abortion bans and restrictions. And so, I think it's something that we need to think about. You know, we put so much money into, against our will, into our military and into these wars, but yet it's, the idea of helping to fund health clinics around the world where they need some funding to do that, that's seen, you know, why are people against that? And so, I think it's really important to hold our leaders' feet to the fire, no matter who you vote for, but especially people who vote Democrat, you know, make sure we push our leaders forward to understanding that it's not enough to virtue-signal; we have to really stand up for the most marginalized folks in our country and across the globe because that's our responsibility. And whether we like it or not, that's what a global superpower is supposed to do, I believe anyway.
Jennie: Okay, so... I feel like we've already talked about this quite a bit, but we always end the podcast talking about what can our audience do and how can they get involved? So, I think we already hit on a lot of it, but I'll just ask it again: what ways can the people who are listening to this take action?
Asha: So, at the end of each episode in Green Tide Rising, we had our featured expert, Ximena, give us bite-sized pieces of calls to action, which you can find if you go to greentiderising.com. We have a list of all the organizations we featured. There are some in the U.S. as well and some in Latin America. There's things like donating. There are things like sharing information on social media. And beyond that, the biggest call to action that I would recommend and that Ximena shared with us is having those conversations with people in your life. When you sit down at the proverbial kitchen table or if you're in your Instagram DMs and you're chatting over a bit of content with someone and it’s related to abortion, you know, what are those conversations and what are you sharing? I think that first person storytelling you know, like we said, is so important. But yeah, I would encourage you to go to Green Tide Rising. There are a ton of other ways that you can take action. And each organization that we featured, like Pregnancy Justice, like, Catholics for the Right to Decide, and so many others have their own ways that they encourage people to get involved. And honestly, one of the things that Ximena says is that the color green or the Green Wave, there are many different tones of green, meaning each of us has our own skill set that we can bring. And that's what the green wave encourages people to do. And that's how we can bring the Green Wave to the US. What are you doing in your student union? What are you doing with your family at home? What are you doing in your place of work? What are you doing when you talk to colleagues on Zoom or Slack or whatever it is? There are so many ways that we can fight for abortion access, champion bodily autonomy. That can go beyond the voting aspect, or you know marching in the streets if you're not able to do that and or don't- if you can't donate. So, be creative and find different ways. It doesn't just have to be one specific call to action. I hope that makes sense, I kind of rambled a bit.
Jennie: No, huge fan of that. I'm a person who always feels like I need to do all the things and like that is not healthy or helpful, right? Like, nobody is served if I burn myself out. So, like, find the places where you can contribute and I mean that not in a financial way I mean that in whatever way that you feel like you want to engage with this movement there are so many things happening right now yeah so many different places you could get involved just find the one you're passionate about yeah and help in the way you can.
Asha: Yeah, like maybe you're a student who's really good at Canva and you can make graphics and posters for your local organization that they can use and print out at their events or for their social media. It can be things like that—organizing a dance party where you talk about sex education and which clinics people can go to in the area. Use whatever you have and make it joyful because it doesn't have to be awful.
Jennie: Asha, if people want to get involved with you and your work and Green Tide Rising, how can they get engaged?
Asha: Yeah, so you can go to greentiderising.com, all the links, all the episodes, transcripts, resources, links to organizations are there. Also, we are currently in the early phases of launching an educational impact campaign where we're putting together a robust discussion guide and packaging our audio and video materials so that colleges and academic institutions and universities across the United States can kind of take our materials, incorporate it into various disciplines. We're targeting women and gender studies, journalism, history, sociology, poli-sci and law schools. And if you are a professor or you're a faculty member and would love to incorporate Latin America's Green Wave into your curriculum for 2025-26, please, please get in touch. We're not charging anyone. We just really want to get the message out there and feel this is the right time to do that. And if I can, I would love to plug my short documentary, Someone You Know, if anyone would like to organize a screening or discussion, speak to some of the women from the film or the experts, you just go to someoneyouknowdoc.com. I love working with organizations and sharing the film and talking about later abortion. We need to do that. So, if you would like to do that, please hit me up.
Jennie: Well, Asha, thank you so much for being here. It was a real pleasure to finally get to talk to you.
Asha: Yeah, you too. Thanks for having me.
Jennie: Okay, y'all. I had a great time talking to Asha and y'all, I cannot recommend her series Green Tide Rising enough and her short documentary called Someone You Know as well. We'll make sure to have links to all of the things in our show notes so that you can check them out. Otherwise, I will see everybody next week. Thanks. [music outro] If you have any questions, comments or topics you would like us to cover, always feel free to shoot me an email. You can reach me at jennie@reprosfightback.com or you can find us on social media. We're at rePROs Fight Back on Facebook and Twitter or @reprosfb on Instagram. If you love our podcast and want to make sure more people find it, take the time to rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform. Or if you want to make sure to support the podcast, you can also donate on our website at reprosfightback.com. Thanks all!
Follow Green Tide Rising’s Instagram and Substack, as well as Asha Dahya’s Instagram. For a deeper dive, check out the whole Green Tide Rising podcast series.
Have conversations with people in your life. Share dependable resources and information when you do have those conversations.