Repro.

It’s no secret that abortion access and reproductive healthcare have been under attack in the U.S. recently. Elizabeth Nash and Megan Donovan from the Guttmacher Institute sit down with us to discuss what abortion access currently looks like in the United States, and how some states are standing up and fighting back.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights discussions, especially in today’s world, can often be depressing, bleak, or just a bit of a downer. But on January 22nd, the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, New York recently passed proactive legislation called the Reproductive Health Act (RHA), which modernizes a state law that previously limited when people could access legal abortion care.

Any conversation we have about reproductive health, reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy, or abortion should include detailed discussions of all of the available options on how abortion care can be accessed-- and that includes self-managed abortion. Self-managed abortion is not a new concept, but it has been historically accessed in unsafe and secretive ways. With the current administration’s constant attacks on reproductive health and rights, as well as the shifting of the Supreme Court with the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, abortion rights are being undermined and many fear the return of unsafe, self-managed abortion methods. Megan Donovan with the Guttmacher Institute talks to us about the evolving ways in which self-managed abortion is becoming a more easily accessible, safe, and effective option.

It is critical that young people around the world are engaged and informed on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world, with over 75 percent of the population under the age of 35. Maureen Andinda with Reach a Hand Uganda chats with us about the importance of young people’s knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and young people’s role in combating SRHR challenges.

Over the past year, sexual and reproductive health and rights have endured unending attacks from the administration, Congress, and state legislatures. This year, women and girls around the country have watched as access to vital reproductive health services and funding have hung in the balance. Jacqueline Ayers with Planned Parenthood reviews 2018 with us, and talks through the ups and downs of SRHR this past year.

The Trump administration is reshaping our judicial landscape. During his time in office, Trump has sent 157 judicial nominees to the Senate. Of those, about a quarter of them have documented anti-choice records, which is bad news for reproductive and sexual health and rights. To help explain the sometimes daunting task of understanding the judiciary system under Trump, Kate Ryan from NARAL Pro-Choice America sits down with us!

Betsy DeVos, the United States Secretary of Education, has proposed changes to Title IX, a federal civil rights law which is meant to protect students from sex discrimination within education programs. These changes would severely undermine the rights of sexual assault survivors. Shiwali Patel with National Women’s Law Center helps us understand the dangers these changes to Title IX may bring.

In the United States today, there are more than 8 million citizens who live with at least one family member who may be undocumented. Yesenia Chavez with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) and Jaclyn Dean with the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) talk to us about the fight for access to healthcare for immigrants.

This week we are doing things a little differently! We talked to a number of amazing SRHR heroes and heard their stories of how they got into working in the reproductive justice or sexual and reproductive health and rights space.