rePROs Fight Back

Catholics have abortions at the same rate as others in the U.S. 58% of Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 68% of Catholics in the U.S. do not want to see Roe v. Wade overturned. Jamie Manson, President of Catholics for Choice, talks to us about all of the ways that Catholicism deeply impacts the human rights of many in the United States.

“Theology of the body,” a theological idea developed by Pope John Paul II, teaches that God made men and women in a specific way with specific anatomy to signal what God’s purpose for humanity, nature, and gender roles are for us. This deeply entrenched theological idea is taught widely at Catholic schools and universities around the U.S. It is this fundamental idea that underlines why the church opposes abortion, contraception, same-sex relationships and marriage, and women serving as faith leaders. 

While it often largely seems as if the Catholic church is mostly focused on curtailing access to abortion, that isn’t the only sexual and reproductive health issue that is impacted by the political power of the church; the Catholic church has been a leading actor in opposing birth control access, LGB issues, trans issues, refusing basic healthcare in clinical settings, and more. It is often the Catholic church that is behind cases in the Supreme Court. Still, the teachings and beliefs of the Catholic church hierarchy do not necessarily inherently reflect that living reality of Catholic practitioners. 

There has been a large broadening of how religious liberty is interpreted—Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrisey-Berru and Fulton v. Philadelphia are examples of court cases in which the Catholic church have expanded definitions of religious liberty in order to discriminate and refuse protections. These religious liberty extensions will be troubling not only for reproductive health and rights, but for a range of human rights issues.  

President Joe Biden is America’s very first pro-choice, practicing Catholic president. This is an opportunity for a person of faith to promote and protect reproductive health and rights. President Biden’s Catholic faith informs much of the administration’s policy, and Catholics for Choice calls on President Biden to state that abortion access is also a value grounded in Catholic social justice. 

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

Support the show

Follow Us on Social:
Twitter: @rePROsFightBack
Instagram: @reprosfb
Facebook: rePROs Fight Back
Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social

Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store

Email us: [email protected]
Rate and Review on Apple Podcast

Thanks for listening & keep fighting back!

“Bridgerton” is a 2020 Netflix show that follows the fictional Bridgerton siblings as they seek love in Regency-era London. The first season features plots relating to maternal mortality, consent, sex education, and much, much more. Laura D. Lindberg, Principal Research Scientist for the Guttmacher Institute, talks to us about the sexual and reproductive health issues that Bridgerton explores, and the ways in which sex education today may be just as hard to access as it was in 1813 London. 

Issues of maternal mortality arise a few times in Bridgerton; The Duke’s mother dies after giving birth to him, while Eloise expresses anxiety to Daphne when remembering their mother’s close brush with death after giving birth to their youngest sibling. Girls and women are seen carrying the emotional weight of pregnancy and childbirth, as both were a necessary social role at the time and yet carried a very large health risk. 

Gender roles are also starkly explored, as gender constrained and shaped the paths that both men and women took in the show. Throughout the season, Eloise rejects her “coming out” as a debutante while proclaiming value in education and writing. Early marriage in Bridgerton underscores the ways in which women and girls could protect their virginity, while men and boys were encouraged to engage in sexual promiscuity. And, after the death of the family’s father, Anthony, the eldest son, takes over as head of the household and must make increasingly intense decisions for the Bridgerton family’s future-- which often puts him in conflict with his mother. 

Daphne has grown up protected in her class-defined bubble and it has kept her far from any kind of comprehensive sex education. When it becomes clear she is uninformed, she seeks knowledge about sex and marriage from her lady’s maid. Daphne becomes increasingly angry with her mother as she realizes her mother sent her out into the world without important information about sex and marriage. The Duke takes advantage of the fact that Daphne does not understand the way sex works, depending on the withdrawal method to not get her pregnant. Ultimately, Daphne discovers the Duke’s insistence that he cannot have children is a philosophical one instead of a physiological one, leading Daphne to sexually assault the Duke and engage in reproductive coercion. 

Bridgerton reminds us that self-managed abortion has been around for a very long time. Out of desperation, Marina unsuccessfully attempts to induce a self-managed abortion by mixing herbs into a tea. Thankfully, in the U.S. and around the world today, self-managed medication abortion is much safer and more effective. Still, it is a reminder that pregnant people want and deserve to have complete autonomy over decision-making about their bodies. 

Today, while some things differ from Regency-era London, access to sex education is still shockingly lacking for young people around the U.S. There has been no expansion in how many teens receive formal sex education in 25 years. When teens do get sex ed, it’s often abstinence-only, without any information on birth control methods and usage. Adult’s un-comfortability with having these conversations sends a message to children in itself. This leaves teens today as in-the-dark as Daphne was.

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

Support the show

Follow Us on Social:
Twitter: @rePROsFightBack
Instagram: @reprosfb
Facebook: rePROs Fight Back
Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social

Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store

Email us: [email protected]
Rate and Review on Apple Podcast

Thanks for listening & keep fighting back!

This week we are doing things a little differently! To celebrate rePROs Fight Back’s 100th episode, host Jennie Wetter will be answering questions sent in by listeners. This week, sit back, relax, and get to know the rePROs Fight Back host just a bit better! 

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

Support the show

Follow Us on Social:
Twitter: @rePROsFightBack
Instagram: @reprosfb
Facebook: rePROs Fight Back
Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social

Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store

Email us: [email protected]
Rate and Review on Apple Podcast

Thanks for listening & keep fighting back!

Medication abortion provides safe, effective, and time-sensitive medical care to patients around the U.S. that require an abortion. Unfortunately, medication abortion faces multiple restrictions, with the Supreme Court recently ruling that patients must access the medication in-person. Especially in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, these restrictions are not only unnecessary, but blatantly dangerous. Dr. Jamila Perritt, a board-certified OBGYN and family planning specialist, and President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, talks to us about these restrictions and how they are impacting people’s access to basic abortion care, in and outside of the context of the pandemic. 

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

Support the show

Follow Us on Social:
Twitter: @rePROsFightBack
Instagram: @reprosfb
Facebook: rePROs Fight Back
Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social

Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store

Email us: [email protected]
Rate and Review on Apple Podcast

Thanks for listening & keep fighting back!

Clinics that are funded by Title X provide critical family planning care to many around the U.S. This care includes pelvic exams, STD testing and treatment, cancer screenings, birth control prescription services, and more. The Trump administration’s 2019 administrative rule, sometimes referred to as the domestic gag rule, has completely gutted the Title X program Robin Summers, Vice President of Healthcare Strategy and Analysis and Senior Council at the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA), talks to us about how the Title X program has been impacted by the Trump administration’s harmful rule, and how the incoming Biden-Harris administration can repair it.

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

Support the show

Follow Us on Social:
Twitter: @rePROsFightBack
Instagram: @reprosfb
Facebook: rePROs Fight Back
Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social

Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store

Email us: [email protected]
Rate and Review on Apple Podcast

Thanks for listening & keep fighting back!

Reproductive Justice is the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. Monica Raye Simpson, Executive Director of SisterSong, Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, sits down with us to talk about how the framework of reproductive justice is deeply interwoven into events that are currently happening in the United States.

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

Support the show

Follow Us on Social:
Twitter: @rePROsFightBack
Instagram: @reprosfb
Facebook: rePROs Fight Back
Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social

Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store

Email us: [email protected]
Rate and Review on Apple Podcast

Thanks for listening & keep fighting back!

Health care is a human right and yet immigrants in the US cannot receive appropriate health insurance coverage or healthcare because of their immigration status. Abbey Zhu, member of the Chicago chapter of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), Luisa Cuautle, activist with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice (NLIRJ) and Candace Gibson, Associate Director of Government Relations at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice sit down with us to talk about the HEAL for Immigrant Women and Families Act and how the legislation will ensure access to quality, affordable, and dependable healthcare coverage for all immigrants.

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

Support the show

Follow Us on Social:
Twitter: @rePROsFightBack
Instagram: @reprosfb
Facebook: rePROs Fight Back
Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social

Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store

Email us: [email protected]
Rate and Review on Apple Podcast

Thanks for listening & keep fighting back!

The the Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice (the Blueprint) lays out a comprehensive, proactive domestic and foreign policy agenda to achieve reproductive health, rights, and justice, envisioning a future that sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice advocates would like to live in. Michelle Batchelor, Vice President of Government Affairs at In Our Own Voice-- National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda and Caitlin Horrigan, Director of Global Advocacy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, sit down with us to discuss.

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

Support the show

Follow Us on Social:
Twitter: @rePROsFightBack
Instagram: @reprosfb
Facebook: rePROs Fight Back
Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social

Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store

Email us: [email protected]
Rate and Review on Apple Podcast

Thanks for listening & keep fighting back!

The International Center for Research on Women defines feminist foreign policy as “the policy of a state that defines its interactions with other states and movements in a manner that prioritizes gender equality and enshrines the human rights of women and other marginalized groups, allocates significant resources to achieve that vision and seeks, through its implementation, to disrupt racist, patriarchal and male-dominated power structures across all levers of influence, such as aid, trade, defense, diplomacy, and that this is informed by the voices of feminist groups, activists, and movements at home and abroad.” Lyric Thompson, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women, and leader of the Coalition for a Feminist Foreign Policy in the United States, sits down to talk to us about the significance of feminist foreign policy, and how it can be achieved. 

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

Support the show

Follow Us on Social:
Twitter: @rePROsFightBack
Instagram: @reprosfb
Facebook: rePROs Fight Back
Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social

Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store

Email us: [email protected]
Rate and Review on Apple Podcast

Thanks for listening & keep fighting back!

Infertility is estimated to impact 10 to 15 percent of couples in the United States, making it the most common diseases of people between the ages of 20 and 45. Frankie Robertson, with the National Birth Equity Collaborative and the Amandla Group, takes time to talk to us about the intricacies of infertility and why we need to look at it as a reproductive justice issue. 

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

Support the show

Follow Us on Social:
Twitter: @rePROsFightBack
Instagram: @reprosfb
Facebook: rePROs Fight Back
Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social

Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store

Email us: [email protected]
Rate and Review on Apple Podcast

Thanks for listening & keep fighting back!