After the Dobbs case (which overturned Roe v. Wade) was decided, several grassroots activists in various states appealed to the ballot constitutional amendment to protect reproductive freedom in their state constitutions. Brigitte Amiri, Deputy Director at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, sits down to talk with us about recent reproductive freedom amendments, equal rights amendments, and current litigation around the U.S. 

By getting measures on the ballot, collecting signatures, and gathering funds, activists have been committed to protecting reproductive autonomy via the state constitution. Cases are currently pending in Missouri, Ohio, Arizona, and Michigan, where litigators are in the process of blocking down and striking various abortion restrictions. 

For more information, check out Sex Ed with DB: https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/sex-ed-with-db-smart-science-backed-sex-education/id1819071622

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Comprehensive sex education can help young people navigate relationships, traverse sexual and reproductive decision-making, and learn more about their own minds and bodies. Yet, sex education often varies in the U.S. from state-to-state, school district-to-school district, and teacher-to-teacher. Callie Simon, Executive Director of SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, sits down to talk with us about the importance of achieving comprehensive sex education and the coordinated opposition of the anti-rights minority. 

Comprehensive sex education, which includes not only discussion of sex, but of anatomy, consent, sexual orientation and gender identity, healthy relationships, violence prevention, media literacy, contraception, and more, is delivered in age-appropriate ways. Yet, last year, SIECUS found over 1,000 pieces of legislation at the national and state level impacting young people’s access to healthcare and education. There was a 20% increase in aggressive legislation against sex education as compared to 2024. 18 bills were ultimately passed into law in 2025, which were aimed at restricting comprehensive, medically accurate sex education and information. For example, Baby Olivia bills require AI-generated, anti-abortion videos be shown to children starting in third grade. 

For more information, check out Sex Ed with DB: https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/sex-ed-with-db-smart-science-backed-sex-education/id1819071622

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Approximately 10 million students per year are attending community colleges in the U.S., and many students are balancing multiple responsibilities while they study. Yet, most community colleges do not offer robust health care services, like contraception, STI testing and treatment, and pregnancy testing. Dr. Martinique Free, Director of Connect for Success at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, talks to us about the state of limited access to sexual and reproductive health services and care on community college campuses and the program that is seeking to change that reality.

The Connect for Success Initiative considers the dramatic shift of the sexual and reproductive health and rights landscape in the U.S. over the past five years. The program gives funding support to nonprofits, health departments and community colleges that are working to provide SRHR care and information to students across the U.S.’ geography and policy environments. Connect for Success also works hand-in-hand with students that attend partnership universities to make sure the programming matches their true needs. 

For more information, check out Sex Ed with DB: https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/sex-ed-with-db-smart-science-backed-sex-education/id1819071622

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From an IRS agent who originally penned the Hyde Amendment to the lawmakers involved in creating parental consent laws, there are several actors in the antiabortion movement’s fight to dismantle Roe v. Wade. Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent at the Nation, freelance abortion writer, and author of Killers of Roe: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Abortion Rights, sits down to talk with us about the motives, means, and opportunities behind the antiabortion movement's victory, and helps us more closely unpack the murder of Roe. 

For more information, check out Sex Ed with DB: https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/sex-ed-with-db-smart-science-backed-sex-education/id1819071622

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Fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs) are different approaches to tracking fertility and identifying which days someone is most likely to conceive if they are having sex without contraception. These include features such as tracking one’s menstrual cycle, basal body temperature, and cervical mucus, among others. Chelsea Polis, Principal Research Scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, sits down to talk with us about different FABMs, their effectiveness, advantages, and disadvantages, and why it is necessary for each method to be rooted in scientific evidence and reproductive justice. 

By tracking these markers, someone can choose to have sex for the purposes of pregnancy or abstain from sex/use additional contraception methods if they seek to avoid pregnancy. Based on their advantages and disadvantages, FABMs may work for some individuals and not others. Some people use FABMs for contraceptive purposes, yet not all of the methods have been tested for that purpose or approved by any regulatory body for that use. Some methods are engaging in inappropriate marketing as a contraceptive tool, when it is not backed up by science or regulatory approval. FABMs have also become a piece of the Make America Health Again (MAHA) movement, being touted as a substitute for the full spectrum of reproductive care.

To best integrate FABMs as a contraceptive option into the full menu, we need to support providers, fund research, and combat misinformation. 

For more information, check out Sex Ed with DB: https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/sex-ed-with-db-smart-science-backed-sex-education/id1819071622

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It has now been one year of the second Trump administration, with many attacks to sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice aligning entirely with Project 2025’s blueprint. Amy Friedrich-Karnik, Director of Federal Policy at the Guttmacher Institute and Anna Bernstein, Principal Federal Policy Advisor at the Guttmacher Institute, sit down to talk with us about the year’s assaults on sexual and reproductive health and rights, LGBTQI+ rights, and science and healthcare by the Trump administration. 

From day one of their return to office, protections for abortion access put in place by the Biden administration were rolled back. This included several protections for privacy, emergency care, and veteran’s access. President Trump immediately pardoned anti-abortion activists who had previously violated the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act and has stopped enforcing the act in most places. Anti-science rhetoric increases, with the Food and Drug Administration endorsing junk-science against mifepristone-- one of the drugs used in a medication abortion. To promote mis- and disinformation, data sets, research, and websites were removed from the internet. The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act defunded Planned Parenthood and set work restrictions on Medicaid coverage. Additionally, the administration froze Title X funding, expanded the already-expanded Global Gag Rule, and issued endless attacks to the transgender community.

For more information, check out Sex Ed with DB: https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/sex-ed-with-db-smart-science-backed-sex-education/id1819071622

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A humanitarian crisis-- where life has been upset by natural disaster, conflict, or forced displacement-- can disproportionately impact women and girls. Women and girls, at disproportionate risk for gender-based violence, maternal health complications, and barriers to accessing aid, have different requirements in these settings. Julianne Deitch, Associate Director of Research at the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), looks back with us on this last year’s foreign aid cuts and talks to us about the substantial impacts on women and girls in crisis.

Before 2025, the U.S. was one of the largest donors to humanitarian aid globally, with aid hovering at 13 billion dollars annually to address immediate needs for population in crises. Still, humanitarian aid made up less than 0.1% of the gross national income. In January 2025, the Trump administration froze all U.S. foreign aid and dismantled U.S. foreign assistance infrastructure (including closing USAID). Over the last year, WRC collected concrete evidence from over 32 countries. They found that women and girls in humanitarian crises: 1) have lost access to necessary health care (maternal health, sexual and reproductive health care, antiviral drugs, and more); 2) are less safe from gender-based violence; and 3) have lost access to women-led, targeted, trusted, local support. Increased funding, advancing the life-saving principle of gender-specific humanitarian aid, supporting local, women-led organizations, and holding governments accountable are all recommendations for addressing this reality. 

For more information, check out Sex Ed with DB: https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/sex-ed-with-db-smart-science-backed-sex-education/id1819071622

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The Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community is made up of various ethnicities, languages, and translation needs, requiring different and individualized advocacy and policy discussions-- particularly when that policy relates to sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice. Christina Baal-Owens, Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) sits down to talk with us about recent research performed by NAPAWF showing the most pervasive barriers to abortion access for the AAPI community and AAPI immigrants in the U.S. 

Stigma, cultural differences, language and translation, and healthcare deserts prevent AAPI immigrants from accessing necessary services, such as abortion. Additional clinics and health centers, improved language accessibility, and expanded access to health insurance (regardless of immigration status) are all options for lowering barriers to this care. It is important to remember that ICE activity impacts AAPI communities, too. ICE’s presence negatively affects the realization of reproductive justice; many might be fearful to access services outside their homes, many might worry about their naturalization process, or others may be stymied by criminalization and stigma.

For more information, check out Sex Ed with DB: https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/sex-ed-with-db-smart-science-backed-sex-education/id1819071622

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The Global Gag Rule, started by President Ronald Regan in 1984, prevented foreign NGOs from receiving U.S. family planning assistance if they performed, promoted, advocated for, counseled on, or referred patients for abortion. It has gone in and out of place since then, depending on who is in the White House. It was expanded during the first Trump administration to apply not only to family planning funding, but all of global health funding. Caitlin Horrigan, Senior Director of Global Advocacy at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Beirne Roose-Snyder, Senior Policy Fellow at the Council for Global Equality, sit down to talk with us about the new and purposefully broad expansion on an already-devastating rule.  

The Global Gag Rule impacts the most marginalized—women and girls, Black and brown people, the LGBTQI+ community, those in humanitarian settings, those living rurally, people living with disabilities, and more. At the 2026 March for Life, JD Vance announced the policy, “Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance”, which includes three federal rules applying to grants and contracts coming from the State Department. It operationalizes and expands the existing global gag rule to all foreign assistance, to new actors (including new governments), and with new definitions. It also applies to those promoting “gender ideology” and “discriminatory equity ideology” or engagement in “unlawful diversity, equity, and inclusion-related discrimination.” These rules are purposefully long and complicated to create less obvious legal challenges. This expansion lands on top of an already devastated global health landscape.

For more information, check out Sex Ed with DB: https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/sex-ed-with-db-smart-science-backed-sex-education/id1819071622

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It has officially been one year since the beginning of the second Trump term. Almost immediately, the administration dismantled global public health, including sexual and reproductive health. Gender equity and LGBTQI+ health and rights, especially transgender health and rights, have been consistently attacked. Jessica Mason Pieklo sits down to talk with us about the administration’s recent strategies of authoritarianism, and what to continue to watch for. 

In January, the Supreme Court heard arguments to a case challenging Idaho’s and West Virginia’s ban on trans girls playing sports. At its core, the cases ask the legal question as to whether categorical sports bans based on gender identity violate the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. With this month marking Roe v. Wade’s decision anniversary, fears continue to grow over access to mifepristone and telehealth. The concept of fetal personhood is being brought into legislative sessions all over the country, while birth control could be a new target. 

For more information, check out Sex Ed with DB: https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/sex-ed-with-db-smart-science-backed-sex-education/id1819071622

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