CHOICE/LESS – Rewire News Group

Jack RR Evans tells the stories of their abortion and of coming out. Jack, who is a nonbinary transgender person, experienced dysphoria during their pregnancy. Jack understood why years later, when they realized they were transgender.

CHOICE/LESS is back, and for the first episode of season 2, host and producer Jenn Stanley speaks to Shout Your Abortion's Amelia Bonow about abortion storytelling and "taking back the moral high ground" from members of the religious right who've laid claim to powerful buzzwords like life, love, and patriotism.

In this preview episode, Rewire turns the mic on the CHOICE/LESS producer and host, Jenn Stanley. We'll hear why she created CHOICE/LESS, what she learned from season 1, and what to expect for season 2, which premieres January 4th.

Rewire has a new podcast series exploring the intersection of pop culture and justice called Get It Right. Here's a look at that (please subscribe and rate/review if you can), plus a sneak peek of what's ahead for CHOICE/LESS later this year.

Catholic hospitals and health-care networks are thriving while other non-profit and community hospitals are struggling. As many hospitals try to stay afloat amidst continued turmoil in the health care industry, some merge with Catholic health-care networks, which follow the ethical and religious directives of the Church.  As a result, about 20 percent of the hospital beds in the United States are owned by the Catholic Church, according to NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Patients at Catholic hospitals might not be aware of how the Church's ethical guidelines might affect the quality of care they receive. When the hospital that employed Dr. Debra Stulberg as a resident merged with a Catholic health-care system, she worried it would affect the abortion training she sought and expected to receive. Then she learned that the Catholic directives affected much more than that, potentially putting patients lives in danger.

Conscience and refusal clauses >allow people and institutions such as hospitals, pharmacists, employers, and insurers to refuse to provide, pay for, or refer for medical treatment. These laws went into effect in 1973, after Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion in the United States, and there has been a resurgence of similar legislation in the last decade.

After Dr. Stulberg learned more about these laws, she was surprised by the lack of data regarding the difference in care and patient outcomes at a Catholic hospital compared with a nonsectarian hospital. The Catholic hospital takeover became the defining moment of her residency, and one that continues to inform her research and practice.

Listen to her whole story here, and please take a moment to rate and review us.

CHOICE/LESS will be back with new episodes in the winter. In the meantime, our podcast feed in iTunes and elsewhere will soon transform from CHOICE/LESS to Rewire Radio. While we prepare new episodes of this show, Rewire will bring you new podcasts and audio stories right here. So stay subscribed and look for a lot more reproductive justice coverage and analysis coming this fall from Rewire Radio.

In this bonus episode of CHOICE/LESS, Rewire's Jessica Mason Pieklo discusses this week's landmark Supreme Court decision, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. While the legal impact is already being felt around the country, a variety of other laws and provisions still impede abortion access in Texas and elsewhere.

Read more of Jessica's analysis at https://rewire.news.

A 2014 amendment to Tennessee's fetal homicide bill allowed the state to charge pregnant women with aggravated assault, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, if they have pregnancy complications after illegal narcotic use. The first law of its kind, it opened the door for the state to charge women for drug use, and at least in one case, for not wearing a seatbelt while pregnant. In theory, the law gave addicted pregnant women two options: get treatment or go to jail. But in reality, the state did little to ensure that treatment was available for women who needed it.

Brittany Hudson, of Knoxville, Tennessee, tells us her story of addiction, loss, and a long road to recovery.

Jessica Valenti is a feminist author, co-founder of Feministing.com, and columnist at The Guardian US. Her new book, Sex Object, explores what it's like to come of age as a female in a misogynist, patriarchal society.

Her experiences with abortion and motherhood have reinforced her feminist, pro-choice beliefs. Valenti has had two abortions. The first was the result of an unwanted pregnancy, and the second ended a very wanted pregnancy that could have been fatal. The first wasn't a difficult decision at all: she just didn't want to be pregnant. The second was profoundly painful. Still, she says, one experience was not more valid than the other.

Listen to her full story here.

Kelsey discusses South Dakota's distressing obstacles to seeking and providing abortion services, including regular protestors, agonizing waits and the looming disapproval of family and community.

Texas is one of 38 states that require some form of parental involvement when a minor seeks an abortion. In the 5th episode of CHOICE/LESS, we hear from Tina Hester, the executive director of Jane's Due Process. She helps Texas minors who, for whatever reason, can't involve a parent in their abortion decisions.