The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast

396: Yoga for Abortion Care with Sasha Sigel

Description:

We live in a time when access to abortion care is increasingly under threat and attacks on reproductive health are intensifying. What does yoga have to do with abortion care and how can yoga teachers support people going through abortion care before, during, and after the process? Sasha Sigel shares her insights.

Sasha Sigel is a pelvic floor yoga teacher, Reiki practitioner, and abortion doula. Sasha is also a cofounder of a queer yoga collective called Be Queer Now, which offers virtual and in-person programming for the queer community. In her work, Sasha focuses on folks in the LGBTQIA+ community seeking pelvic health support as well as offering trauma-informed, gender-affirming practices. When Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022, she trained to be an abortion doula where she supports folks going through abortion care with accurate information and practical, emotional, and physical support.

In this episode, Sasha shares more how how yoga intersects with reproductive justice and how we can lean on the foundational values of yoga to guide us in supporting people through their reproductive choices. Sasha also explains how yoga is more than just movement – it is a liberatory practice that can offer space for validation, rest, and healing, especially for those who've experienced abortion or miscarriage. Tune in to learn more about the barriers many people face when accessing care, how community doulas and yoga teachers can safely show up, and why normalizing abortion as a part of human healthcare is a crucial part of our work as compassionate spaceholders.

Key Takeaways:

[2:20] Shannon gives a shout out to sponsor, OfferingTree.

[2:46] Shannon introduces her guest for this episode - Sasha Sigel.

[4:51] What does Sasha do and who does she do it for?

[8:37] What does abortion have to do with yoga?

[10:03] What are some quick-bites that Sasha shares with people who may not have considered that abortion is healthcare?

[15:43] How does yoga help people through the journey of abortion care?

[21:42] How can yoga teachers support their students going through an abortion or post-abortion emotionally and with their language?

[23:38] What are some words or phrases that are unhelpful to a person after abortion? What are some ways yoga teachers can reassure them?

[27:51] What has Sasha's experience been with yoga offerings that support people who have received abortion care?

[30:05] Shannon pops in with a message about OfferingTree.

[32:09] What is Sasha's advice about looking up information online and resources for people who live in a place where abortion care isn't available?

[36:45] How does Sasha approach marketing her services as an abortion doula and making sure that people know support is available?

[40:09] Does Sasha have to deal with online hate or misinformation?

[41:32] Where does Sasha suggest a yoga teacher start if they are wanting to get more involved in offering abortion care and support?\

[45:06] What would Sasha say to someone who has gone through abortion care or are considering it?

[47:24] Shannon shares a book that has resonated with her on the topic.

[48:48] Learn more about Sasha and her work via her website or social media.

[50:26] Sasha shares some final thoughts for yoga teachers about abortion care.

[54:29] Shannon and Sasha discuss how people might think that certain things would never happen in their country or state and that's an assumption worth challenging.

[56:52] Shannon shares her biggest takeaways from this conversation.

Links:

• Sasha Sigel

• Sasha Sigel on Instagram

• Aborsh — A podcast about abortion in Canada

• Guttmacher Institute

• Center for Reproductive Rights

• Signal

• DuckDuckGo

• Shout Your Abortion

• AbortionFinder.org

• New York Abortion Access Fund

• National Network of Abortion Funds

• The Great Simplification Podcast - Jeremy Grantham: "The Baby Bust: How The Toxicity Crisis Could Cause the Next Economic Crash"

• Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings

• Looking for Jane, by Heather Marshall

• The Connected Yoga Teacher Facebook Group

• Shannon Crow on Instagram

Gratitude to our Sponsor, OfferingTree

Quotes from this episode:

"Yoga is a liberatory practice and reproductive justice and healthcare is something that's under attack right now in terms of folks having agency over their own body."

"Use non-assumptive, non-judgmental language. We don't know why this person got an abortion. We don't know what their experience was. So our main role is going to be listening to whatever information they do give us."

"How people report their experience after an abortion is often mixed and complicated, but very seldom is the main emotion or experience regret."

"This is not new. This is something that we have the right to, and our bodies have been doing since the beginning of humans being alive."