My Body. My Pod. with Mini Timmaraju

In collaboration with Abortion in America, our latest episode of My Body. My Pod. with Mini Timmaraju features Julia and her daughter Daniela, a young immigrant whose access to abortion care was blocked by Florida’s abortion ban.

Before we dive in, it’s important to ground ourselves in what’s happening across the country. Right now, undocumented people, immigrants, and people of color are being targeted, surveilled, and subjected to violence. When leaving your house feels unsafe, fear shapes daily life—where people go, who they trust, and whether they seek help when they need it. That fear reaches into exam rooms and clinics. It affects access to abortion. It affects access to prenatal care. It affects access to basic health care. And when people delay care, avoid care, or are denied care altogether, the consequences are real—and often devastating. 

Access to care is never just about whether a service exists. It’s about whether you can safely reach it. 

That reality shapes Daniela’s story. When she needed an abortion, Florida’s six-week abortion ban left her with no real choice—just a deadline designed to run out before most people even know they’re pregnant. For Daniela, that meant leaving her home state to access health care that should have been available in her own community. 

These laws force people across state lines, layering financial and logistical strain onto those with the least room to maneuver—including immigrants, people of color, young people, and families already navigating systemic barriers. When politicians restrict abortion this way, they don’t eliminate the need for care—they impose unjust burdens on individuals and families least able to carry them. At its core, this comes down to a simple principle: decisions about pregnancy should belong to the person who is pregnant, not the government.

Episode recorded on February 2, 2026 

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We’re back with My Body. My Pod. — and this episode is about what happens when fear is used to control who has access to care.

Mini Timmaraju sits down with U.S. Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota to connect the dots between reproductive freedom, authoritarian tactics, and what communities across America are being forced to endure.

Right now, undocumented people, immigrants, and people of color are being targeted, surveilled, and subjected to violence. When leaving your house feels unsafe, fear shapes daily life — where people go, who they trust, and whether they seek help when they need it.

That fear reaches into exam rooms and clinics. It affects access to abortion. It affects access to prenatal care. It affects access to basic health care. And when people delay care, avoid care, or are denied care altogether, the consequences are real — and often devastating.

In this episode, we cover:

🚨 What’s happening in Minnesota — and why many see it as a testing ground for a broader authoritarian playbook.
🏥 What providers are seeing as patients skip prenatal visits, avoid clinics, and disappear from care systems because they’re afraid to be detained or targeted.
📹 The weaponization of power — including intimidation of observers, journalists, and communities, and the distortion of laws meant to protect people.
🏛️ The fight over the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid — and the extremist push to hold people’s healthcare hostage to force new abortion restrictions.
🗳️ Why organizing still works — and how winning elections is the clearest path to protecting and restoring reproductive freedom nationwide.
❄️ Why Minnesota is showing the country what resistance can look like — from mutual aid networks to grassroots organizing that turns fear into action.

Episode recorded on February 9, 2025

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Most Americans agree on the right to abortion care—even when they use different words.

In collaboration with Abortion in America, our latest episode of My Body. My Pod. with Mini Timmaraju features Oklahoma-based nurse Victoria Parks, who reflects on what it means to speak up in a rural community and connect with people who don’t always see themselves as “activists” or “on a side.”

From a conversation with her mother to a moment with a fellow parent at a baseball field, Victoria shows how most people share core values around privacy, dignity, and the right to make personal decisions about their own bodies—even if they use different words.

Her story is a reminder that abortion isn’t divisive—and that common ground can shape culture, policy, and the choices we make at the ballot box.

Episode recorded on November 18, 2025

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Explore more episode resources at reproforall.org/podEP7

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In collaboration with Abortion in America, our latest episode of My Body. My Pod. with Mini Timmaraju features Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an OB/GYN and abortion provider on the frontlines of care under abortion bans.

Dr. Bernard shares how she became an abortion provider, the mentors and communities that shaped her work, and what it means to practice medicine when laws override medical judgment. 

She walks listeners through the realities providers now face—adapting care for out-of-state travel, supporting patients through the trauma of being denied care because they’re not “sick enough yet” to receive treatment per their state’s abortion ban laws.

Despite the harm and trauma caused by abortion bans, Dr. Bernard explains where hope lives: in patients, storytellers, and communities turning lived experience into momentum for change.

Episode recorded on November 18, 2025

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Stacey Abrams joins My Body. My Pod. to explain why the U.S. is already in an authoritarian moment—and how abortion bans and attacks on DEI fit into a larger plan to concentrate power and control our bodies.

Stacey walks Mini through her “10 Steps to Autocracy,” exposing just how far Republicans have gone to seize power. Then, she shares her 10 steps to freedom and power: concrete ways we can defend democracy, protect reproductive freedom, and make sure our government actually delivers for people. Along the way, they dig into Dobbs, Medicaid and ACA cuts, the surveillance state targeting pregnant people, and why we cannot look the other way.

Listen in for a hopeful challenge: we don’t all have to do the same thing—but we all have to do something.

Episode recorded on November 18, 2025

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Politics is personal—and few people embody that more than Congresswoman Sarah McBride. In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Rep. McBride joins Mini to share how caregiving for her late husband, Andy, shaped her belief that access to health care should never depend on luck—it should be a right. Together, they connect the dots between abortion bans, attacks on LGBTQIA+ communities, and Republicans’ shameful cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and health care coverage—all fueled by a dark-money agenda to control who has freedom and who doesn’t. Along the way, Rep. McBride offers a mini-masterclass in what worked in the 2025 elections: leading with affordability, staying curious (not judgmental), and rooting campaigns in local communities and shared values.

Episode recorded on November 6, 2025

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Episode recorded on October 27, 2025

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Why can’t the media tell the full story on abortion? In this episode, Mini sits down with trailblazing journalist and trial lawyer, Katie Phang, to unpack the GOP’s coordinated playbook: the dark-money network funding anti-abortion extremism from judges to disinformation campaigns—and how mainstream coverage so often misses what’s really at stake.

Phang joins RFA's Mini Timmaraju to share why she built her own platform for fearless, nuanced, fact-based storytelling and how independent voices are reaching more audiences that legacy media often overlooks.

Together they dig into attacks on mifepristone, the intersection of voting rights and abortion, the power of local and state races (including judges), and why real stories move policy. Listen, subscribe, and take action.

Episode recorded on October 15, 2025

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In California, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New Jersey, voters heard about abortion—and it mattered, especially when campaigns clearly defined the threats to reproductive freedom. Together, Mini and Molly map the 2026 playbook: define the threat, bring receipts, and connect abortion to everyday life.

Episode recorded on October 7, 2025

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We’re proud to bring you the third episode of My Body. My Pod. in partnership with Abortion in America. In addition to Mini Timmaraju’s regular episodes interviewing leading figures in the fight to protect reproductive freedom, we will periodically share the powerful stories of real people who’ve accessed – or struggled to access – the reproductive health care they need. 

First up: Riata Walker’s journey from firm anti-abortion beliefs to the understanding that abortion is critical health care. 

💬  “My challenge to people who would say that they are pro-life… is to dig a little deeper,” says Riata. “Just listen to some stories and listen to where people are coming from and just try to understand.”

Growing up in a conservative community, Riata was firmly opposed to abortion and never imagined her own pregnancy would test everything she believed. When a devastating diagnosis revealed fatal fetal abnormalities, she made the decision to end her pregnancy. Through her experience, Riata came to understand what abortion truly is: health care. A personal choice. The freedom to decide what’s best for yourself, your family, and your future. Now, Riata advocates for abortion access, and shares why her experience transformed her understanding of privilege, compassion, and reproductive freedom.

Riata’s story is about more than one decision—it’s about the barriers and inequities that determine who can get care and who cannot. She had the support, the means, and the legal access to care. Many do not. Across the country, patients are navigating dangerous laws that endanger their lives and well-being. The consequences are devastating—and often preventable. 

We’re deeply grateful to Riata and other abortion storytellers for their courage, and to Abortion in America for helping bring these voices forward. Visit Abortion in America and follow on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to stay connected with their important work.

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Episode recording: 

October 7, 2025

Dig the new show? Help us spread the word! Like and subscribe to My Body. My Pod. on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.