The State Department is Cutting Out Human Rights Abuses from Annual Reports

Whether it’s communicated in polls or at the ballot box, access to abortion is extremely popular in the United States. Yet, our rights are being blatantly stripped away—and abortion care won’t be the only sexual and reproductive right to face attacks. Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, sits down to talk with us about the status of abortion access in the U.S., what to anticipate, and what brings her hope. We're experiencing a coordinated strategy by anti-abortion extremists to dismantle reproductive freedom nationwide. And they won’t stop just at abortion—contraception and gender-affirming care will face the exact same attacks, likely using the same strategies. The fight for emergency abortion care continues, too. Post-Dobbs and Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” hospitals, especially in rural areas, will continue to close their obstetrics wards. Abortion care will be continuously  pushed farther out of reach. For more information, check out Pantsuit Politics: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/podcastSupport the showFollow Us on Social: Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfbFacebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store Email us: [email protected] and Review on Apple PodcastThanks for listening & keep fighting back!

Abortion later in pregnancy is often misunderstood and heavily targeted through both policy and stigma. Erika Christensen, co-founder of Patient Forward and later abortion patient and advocate, Jenn Chalifoux, later abortion patient and advocate, and Dr. Diana Greene Foster, demographer and Professor at the University of California San Francisco and lead of the Turnaway Study, sits down to share their personal stories and talk with us about why access to later abortion will always be needed.Some people—including young people, people with chronic health conditions, and people who have been recently pregnant—are late to discover they are pregnant. That means those who make this discovery later in pregnancy in states with six-week abortion bans do not have access to abortion. Further into pregnancy, costs rise, available providers decrease, and barriers to care mount. Since Dobbs, ten states have enshrined viability measures into their constitutions, and 41 states still ban abortion at some point in pregnancy. The good news? Culture is shifting—more Americans agree that legislators should not be involved in pregnancy decisions, including in the third trimester. There are also more clinics and providers for abortion later in pregnancy than there were previously, and states are continuing to repeal viability limits. For more information, check out Pantsuit Politics: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/podcastSupport the showFollow Us on Social: Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfbFacebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store Email us: [email protected] and Review on Apple PodcastThanks for listening & keep fighting back!

This week, we’re bringing you a special feed drop from Aborsh, a podcast that examines why talking about abortion is still such a big deal, what “choice” really means and looks like, and why that answer is different for different people.In this episode, host Rachel Cairns takes a critical look at how abortion is represented in media and entertainment with the research initiative Abortion Onscreen and journalists Nora Loreto and Liz Renzetti—and what those portrayals reveal about the broader forces threatening bodily autonomy and gender equality, as well as how we can confront them. If you enjoy this conversation, check out the Aborsh wherever you get your podcasts!https://www.aborsh.comFor more information, check out Pantsuit Politics: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/podcastSupport the showFollow Us on Social: Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfbFacebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store Email us: [email protected] and Review on Apple PodcastThanks for listening & keep fighting back!

Starting in her teenage years, Kate Helen Downey’s menstrual cycle was extremely painful. In her adult life, she received an endometriosis diagnosis, which can cause severe menstrual pain. Kate, host and producer of the podcast CRAMPED, sits down with us to share about her experience and encourage everyone to talk about their period pain. Kate’s podcast, CRAMPED, seeks to explore more about why the medical system—and all of us—know next to nothing about period pain. Many people learn about menstruation through movies and TV, where a young girl getting her period for the first time is the primary representation of menstrual health. Rarely do we see reliable depiction of the pain that comes with menstruation. Talking openly with your friends and loved ones about the experience of menstruating can help us destigmatize periods, understand our own pain, understand other people’s pain, comfort one another, and heal.For more information, check out Pantsuit Politics: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/podcastSupport the showFollow Us on Social: Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfbFacebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store Email us: [email protected] and Review on Apple PodcastThanks for listening & keep fighting back!

The State Department’s Human Rights Reports were mandated by Congress in 1974 to ensure funding did not go toward torture, involuntary detention, and suppression of fundamental freedoms. The reports collect information on human rights abuses around the world. But this year’s human rights reports were created under completely rewritten instructions, featuring a huge reduction in information on human rights abuses. Amanda Klasing, National Director of Government Relations and Advocacy at Amnesty International USA, sits down to talk with us about these devastatingly slashed human rights reports. The reports provide a human rights overview for any given country for the year, and they require human rights desk officers in embassies to engage with human rights defenders within the country and document any abuses. This allows Congress to make fact-based decisions and protect asylum seekers. This year’s human rights reports featured a complete rewrite of the instructions for dramatically reduced sections related to fundamental freedoms for particular populations (including women, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, and more). The reports are 1/3rd shorter than they were before. For more information, check out Pantsuit Politics: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/podcastSupport the showFollow Us on Social: Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfbFacebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store Email us: [email protected] and Review on Apple PodcastThanks for listening & keep fighting back!

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), President Trump’s Tax and Spend mega bill, recently passed Congress. It will strip billions of dollars from essential health programs while paying for billions of dollars in tax cuts for the rich, expand mass deportation programs, and continue to harm reproductive justice. Madeline Morcelle, Senior Attorney at the National Health Law Program, sits down to talk with us about OBBBA and how it’s going to particularly impact Medicaid. Medicaid, the largest public health insurance program for people in the United States, including those of low incomes, currently provides coverage for over 71 million people. Medicaid is a critical line for people to access sexual and reproductive health care. OBBBA ushers in the most sweeping Medicaid cuts in U.S. history—specifically, $990 billion dollars in Medicaid cuts over the next decade and ending health insurance coverage for over 10 million people. Among other cuts, OBBBA imposes mandatory, nationwide work requirements on Medicaid expansion and partial expansion beneficiaries aged 19-64.For more information, check out Pantsuit Politics: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/podcastSupport the showFollow Us on Social: Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfbFacebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store Email us: [email protected] and Review on Apple PodcastThanks for listening & keep fighting back!

Fetal personhood, in short, labels a pregnancy as a person. It is the idea that anything a person is legally entitled to, a fetus is, as well. Karen Thompson, Legal Director at Pregnancy Justice and Garin Marschall, co-founder of Patient Forward, sit down to talk with us about viability, state involvement in pregnancies, and criminalization. Fetal personhood tracks alongside viability, which is the point in a pregnancy’s gestation in which the government recognizes personhood. Since Roe, and long before, viability limits became enshrined in law. Dobbs has now dropped all the guardrails. 41 states currently ban abortion at some point in pregnancy - including six states that have enshrined viability limits in their state constitutional amendments. The granting of state power over pregnant people at a certain point has profound implications for criminalization—including for behaviors during pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and threats to bodily autonomy and diminished rights of pregnant people. For more information, check out Pantsuit Politics: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/podcastSupport the showFollow Us on Social: Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfbFacebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store Email us: [email protected] and Review on Apple PodcastThanks for listening & keep fighting back!

From recent court cases, to LGBTQI+ health and rights, to sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, we have the perfect news source for you. Garnet Henderson and Susan Rinkunas, journalists and co-founders of Autonomy News, a worker-owned reproductive rights and justice publication, sit down to talk with us about their new publication platform and how it can not only teach, but empower.  Recent reporting on Autonomy News includes a case in Texas involving the first federal lawsuit against Aid Access—a large provider of abortion pills in the United States. Other reporting also includes a threatened lawsuit from the Arkansas Attorney General who has sent cease and desist letters to Plan C and Mayday Health, which also provide medication abortion. Additional articles include those examining a circulated, biased survey sent to OBGYNs and the rising number of Planned Parenthood clinic closures.For more information, check out Pantsuit Politics: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/podcastSupport the showFollow Us on Social: Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfbFacebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store Email us: [email protected] and Review on Apple PodcastThanks for listening & keep fighting back!

Abortion clinics, their staff, and the patients seeking care often face instances of blockading, harassment, threats, and violence. This blockage of access to basic healthcare services resulted in the 1994 bipartisan passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Erin Matson, Co-Founder, President, and CEO of Reproaction, sits down to talk with us about the FACE Act and how the current Trump administration is attempting to disassemble its protection. Upon his return to office, Trump pardoned 23 individuals convicted of FACE Act violations, while at the same time, the Department of Justice announced it would only in “extreme” circumstances enforce the FACE Act. Shortly thereafter, the Heritage Foundation released a white paper calling for the FACE Act’s repeal. For more information, check out Pantsuit Politics: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/podcastSupport the showFollow Us on Social: Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfbFacebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store Email us: [email protected] and Review on Apple PodcastThanks for listening & keep fighting back!

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. For more information, check out Pantsuit Politics: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/podcastSupport the showFollow Us on Social: Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfbFacebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store Email us: [email protected] and Review on Apple PodcastThanks for listening & keep fighting back!