Katie's Reaction to the Overturning of Roe
The Femtastic Podcast
A raw, unedited, unproduced reaction episode to the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. Includes advice for how you can support abortion access and fight back, in both the short and the long term. The episode ends with a moment for reflection, featuring a song called "Animal" by Jean Rohe. In Jean's words, "'Animal' is a song about my own abortion experience, but ultimately much more: the things we can choose (or should be able to choose) in the garden of our lives, and all that lies beyond our control as mortal humans." May this song serve as a moment of un-silence,...
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The Loophole That Lets Abusers Keep Their Guns
The Femtastic Podcast
It’s no secret that our country’s gun laws are riddled with loopholes, but one is killing women specifically. Since the beginning of the pandemic, murders linked to domestic violence have risen dramatically, up 58% in the last decade. Guns are the most common weapon abusers use to kill their partners, and victims are usually women. And many of these perpetrators are not even allowed to have guns in the first place. Under federal law, people convicted of a felony, a domestic violence misdemeanor, or who are subject to family violence protection orders are not allowed to have guns. But...
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How Does Being Denied an Abortion Affect Someone's Life?
The Femtastic Podcast
Recently, Politico a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case on the future of Roe v. Wade. Unsurprisingly for many in the reproductive rights community, Alito calls for the overturning of Roe. We know that overturning Roe will mean that millions of people of reproductive age will be without access to abortion care. But what does it look like when someone who otherwise wanted an abortion is forced to carry a pregnancy to term? We don't have to imagine it, because the landmark Turnaway Study has already studied...
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Part 2: How Crisis Pregnancy Centers Use Clients' Private Data Against Them
The Femtastic Podcast
In Part 2 of our 2-part series on the misleading practices of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, we delve into another misleading, yet surprisingly underreported, aspect of Crisis Pregnancy Centers (aka CPCs aka "fake clinics). As we covered in Part 1, CPCs masquerade as if they are real health clinics - but because they are not, they're not subject to privacy laws like HIPPA that protect your personal health information. Of course, by design, their clients do not know this. CPCs then use information given to them by clients seeking their services to violate privacy and confidentiality for many...
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Part 1: Crisis Pregnancy Centers 101 - How Your Tax Dollars Fund Fake Women's Health Centers
The Femtastic Podcast
Crisis pregnancy centers, or “CPCs,” are anti-abortion organizations that target pregnant people with predatory, deceptive marketing. They by operating under the guise of offering comprehensive reproductive healthcare. Instead, they are religiously-affiliated, anti-abortion, and often unlicensed “medical” centers that, as stated by the California legislature, dissuade pregnant people from abortion through “intentionally deceptive advertising and counseling practices that often confuse, misinform and even intimidate” clients from making informed choices. Eighty-three...
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What Do the FDA's Updates Mean for Access to Medication Abortion?
The Femtastic Podcast
Back in early December 2021, you may have heard some rumblings celebrating that the FDA had changed some of its draconian and scientifically unsupported regulations around medication abortion. Medication abortion, a safe and legal method of first-trimester abortion, accounted for 54% of US abortions in 2020 but has been subject to decades of politically-motivated FDA regulations that placed strict and unnecessary controls on it to limit access. In late 2021, amidst the most hostile environment to abortion since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, some of these limits were lifted. However, the...
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A Glimpse Into a Post-Roe Future: Funding Abortion in a State That's a "Destination" for Them
The Femtastic Podcast
Today on the podcast is the a grassroots nonprofit that provides financial support for people traveling to and living in Maryland who need abortion care, and as the Supreme Court decides in June on a that threatens legal abortion like never before, they’re working to remove the financial barriers for those seeking abortion care. As of late 2021, 30% of BAF’s callers were already from out of state, and the majority of people that BAF supports are 13 weeks or further into their pregnancy. BAF discusses on the podcast the implications of further...
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Using Information to Overcome the Gender Pay Gap
The Femtastic Podcast
You've probably heard of the - the fact that, according to the most recent from 2018, women of all races earned, on average, just 82 cents for every $1 earned by men of all races. Last week, Equal Pay Day was recognized on March 7 - this is the number of days into 2022 women would need to work to earn the equivalent of men in 2021. Do you know how the gender pay gap may impact your earnings over the course of your career? Do you know that the gap is ? In fact, the wage gap for women in some racial minority groups is not only wider than the overall gender wage gap, but it is also . ...
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The Meaning of a 6-Week Ban on Abortion
The Femtastic Podcast
You may have heard that Texas enacted a six-week ban on abortion in 2021, and that other states have begun attempting to pass copycat laws. You also may have heard many people remarking that 6 weeks is "before many people even know they are pregnant." But do you know why that is? Dr. Lauren Ralph, Associate Professor in the (ANSIRH) program at UCSF, recently that found that 1 in 3 people discover pregnancy past six weeks or later, and almost 2 in 3 young people discover pregnancy past six weeks or later. She is on the podcast today to explain WHY many people don't know they are...
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Reproductive Justice 101 with SisterSong
The Femtastic Podcast
It's Black History Month, and we're also in what may quite possibly the last few months of Roe v. Wade's existence as we know it. So it seems an important time to talk about what exactly Reproductive Justice means, the history of this Black women-led movement, and why it's so very important. Joining the podcast is Monica Simpson, Executive Director of *the* organization for the Repro Justice (RJ) movement, . Monica explains what RJ is; its history and founding by Black women; how we do everyone a disservice if we shy away from talking about sex when we talk about reproductive justice;...
info_outlineOn May 17, 2021, the Supreme Court announced that it will hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case out of Mississippi that would that ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Depending on how the court rules on this case (and given the conservative make-up, it's not looking good), Roe v. Wade could either be entirely overturned or the court could give the green-light to states to further restrict abortion access - which is already logistically inaccessible to millions of Americans of reproductive age. All in all, this is the most dangerous and credible threat to Roe since the decision was made in 1973.
To explain the potential ramifications of this case is Carole Joffe. Carole is a Professor in the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) program in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and the author of several books on abortion provision, including her most recent, "Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America."
Carole describes what's at stake for millions of Americans, what accessing abortion might look like if Roe were to fall or be further restricted, and what YOU can do now to protect abortion access, regardless of the outcome of the case.
Resources:
- National Network of Abortion Funds: To support abortion access in your area, Find Your Local Abortion Fund. For help accessing abortion care, including financial and logistical support, check out this page.
- National Abortion Federation Hotline: 1-800-772-9100
The NAF Hotline Fund operates the largest national, toll-free, multi-lingual Hotline for abortion referrals and financial assistance in the U.S. and Canada. They provide callers with accurate information, confidential consultation, options counseling, and referrals to providers of quality abortion care. They also provide case management services and limited financial assistance to help people afford the cost of their care and travel-related expenses. The Hotline is free and offers services to everyone, regardless of their individual situation. - Read Carole's most recent books:
- "Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America"
- "Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us"
- Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings (Perspectives on Gender)
- Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion Before and After Roe V. Wade
- In this Twitter thread from 2018, when the bill was first introduced in Mississippi, Dr. Daniel Grossman, director at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, breaks down why the abortion ban is based in politics rather than science.
- Book about The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having―or Being Denied―an Abortion: A groundbreaking and illuminating look at the state of abortion access in America and the first long-term study of the consequences—emotional, physical, financial, professional, personal, and psychological—of receiving versus being denied an abortion on women’s lives.