There are many reasons why someone may require a third-trimester abortion, including both fetal implications and maternal implications (such as health diagnoses and difficult life circumstances). Dr. Shelley Sella, retired OB-GYN, first woman to openly provide third-trimester abortion care in the U.S., and author of Beyond Limits: Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care, sits down to share her expertise, discuss the multitude of reasons why someone seeks a third-trimester abortion, and touch on the personal stories shared in the book.

Global reproductive rights and investment in the agencies and organizations that support reproductive rights have often been used as a political football. The bodies of women, girls, and LGBTQI+ persons have been used to push and pull power for decades—and this anti-rights, anti-choice framework has become increasingly exported around the world. Beth Schlachter, Senior Director for U.S. and External Engagement for MSI Reproductive Choices, talks to us about how attacks to human rights frameworks and funding will further endanger global reproductive health and rights.

Title X, under the Public Health Services Act, allows for a family planning and reproductive health-based pool of funding that government agencies and nonprofits can apply for and use to support patients. Providers who receive Title X funding see all patients regardless of insurance status and income level. Clare Coleman, President and CEO of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA), sits down to talk with us about the recent and extremely harmful changes to Title X announced by the new administration.

T/W: Discussions of suicide in the last 1/3 of this conversation

The health, rights, and wellbeing of the LGBTQI+ community are under increasingly distressing strain, with a collection of new court cases only cementing the burden. Preston Mitchum, writer, policy analyst, consultant, star of Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard, and Senior Fellow with rePROs Fight Back, sits down to talk with us about a host of Supreme Court cases that have broad and damaging implications for the health and rights of the LGBTQI+ community.

The majority of people in the U.S. support abortion, yet access has been decimated around the country. That kind of disparity deserves evidence-based, practiced commentary, and we can think of no better doctors to share their experiences than Dr. Beverly Gray and Dr. Jonas Swartz, OBGYNs and co-hosts of the podcast Outlawed. They sit down to talk with us about being on the frontlines of abortion care in the U.S. at the moment and how their experience contributed to the desire to pursue their podcast. 

After personal experience with severe pregnancy complications and requiring a later abortion among a labyrinth of state abortion bans, Erika Christensen and Garin Marschall co-founded Patient Forward, a national strategy and advocacy organization. Erika and Garin sit down with us to talk about why people need abortions later in pregnancy, what barriers exist to accessing that care, and why government interference in pregnancy outcomes is overwhelmingly unpopular.  

There’s a grab bag of sexual and reproductive health news from around the U.S. From the wins to celebrate to the updates to keep an eye on, Garnet Henderson, investigative reporter specializing in sexual and reproductive health and disinformation, sits down to talk with us about a host of SRHR issues that are moving through the political and judicial landscape.  

Within hours of the new administration’s return-to-office, disorder took over. A foreign aid freeze, a stop-work order, and the dismantling of key foreign aid institutions commenced almost immediately. Gayatri Patel, Senior Fellow with rePROs Fight Back, sits down to talk with us about glimmers of hope for protecting this foreign assistance funding and relevant agencies, as well as how we can prepare for the realistic, long-term impacts of these attacks. 

April 11th- 17th officially marks Black Maternal Health Week—a week-long campaign centered on activism, awareness, and community-building for Black mamas and Black birthing people. Elizabeth Dawes, Director of Maternal and Reproductive Health and Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation and Co-Founder of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, sits down to talk with us about the status of the Black maternal health crisis in the U.S. and the myriad, ongoing attacks to the Black community’s health, rights, and wellbeing from the new administration.