It is critical that young people around the world are engaged and informed on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world, with over 75 percent of the population under the age of 35. Maureen Andinda with Reach a Hand Uganda chats with us about the importance of young people’s knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and young people’s role in combating SRHR challenges.

Financial, social, and cultural issues are often deeply rooted in sexual and reproductive health and rights. Young people must have the knowledge and information on SRHR that would allow them to make informed decisions regarding family planning, because deciding if, when, how, and with whom one might have a family with is a basic human right.

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Over the past year, sexual and reproductive health and rights have endured unending attacks from the administration, Congress, and state legislatures. This year, women and girls around the country have watched as access to vital reproductive health services, and funding have hung in the balance. Jacqueline Ayers with Planned Parenthood reviews 2018 with us, and talks through the ups and downs of SRHR this past year.

The good news is that, so far, we haven’t lost a lot of the progress that we have made. The Affordable Care Act is still in place, the birth control benefit still exists, Planned Parenthood is still funded and Medicaid hasn’t been dismantled. Still, there will be many more attacks on sexual and reproductive health and rights, and it is important to be prepared!

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The Trump administration is reshaping our judicial landscape. During his time in office, Trump has sent 157 judicial nominees to the Senate, which is bad news for reproductive and sexual health and rights. To help explain the sometimes daunting task of understanding the federal judiciary system under Trump, we're excited to have Kate Ryan from NARAL Pro-Choice America sit down with us! 

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Betsy DeVos, the United States Secretary of Education, has proposed changes to Title IX, a federal civil rights law which is meant to protect students from sex discrimination within education programs. These changes would severely undermine the rights of sexual assault survivors. Shiwali Patel with National Women’s Law Center helps us understand the dangers these changes to Title IX may bring. 

The changes being proposed to Title IX would make schools more dangerous for students, tilting the scales in favor of named harassers if the school would decide to investigate. 

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For clarity, these show notes and this podcast episode will be inclusive of undocumented immigrants and immigrants with legal status. 

In the United States today, there are more than 8 million citizens who live with at least one family member who may be undocumented. Yesenia Chavez with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) and Jaclyn Dean with the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) talk to us about the fight for access to healthcare for immigrants. 

Children make up the majority of the millions of citizens who live with at least one family member. In fact, 6 million of these citizens are children. This means that many types of immigration enforcement actions come with severe emotional, mental, developmental, physical and financial repercussions for both the children and the undocumented individuals. 

Immigrants are not able to legally access public benefit programs until they have proven their permanent resident status, and only after five years of having that status. These programs can help provide housing, food, and health security to these communities. It is important to note that this same five-year bar also prevents access to the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace. This means that opportunities for immigrant individuals and families are already limited, and immigrants often rely on a patchwork of insurance sources to cover healthcare. If their employer does not cover insurance or if they do not qualify for Medicaid, then immigrants often have to turn to paying for emergency care out of pocket, or seeking help through a community health center.

46% of immigrant, non-citizen women of reproductive age in the U.S. are privately insured, 19% rely on Medicaid for their insurance, and 34% are completely uninsured. The uninsured rate for immigrant women of reproductive age who are living in poverty is 48%. Nearly half of all immigrants in the U.S. are women and children.

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This week we are doing something a little different. We talked to a number of amazing SRHR heroes to hear their story of how they got into working in the reproductive justice or sexual and reproductive health and rights space. 

We talked with: 

Bergen Cooper, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)

Jennie Wetter, rePROs Fight Back and Population Institute

Jonathan Rucks, PAI

Yesenia Chavez, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health

Mimi Spalding, Planned Parenthood Federation of America 

Jaclyn Dean, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum

Rebecca Dennis, PAI

Jamila Taylor, Center for American Progress  

Jenny Vanyur, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Preston Mitchum, Advocates for Youth

Kirsten Sherk, ICRW (International Center for Research on Women) 

Rachel Fey, Power to Decide

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SRHR isn’t just about domestic and international policies on gender-based violence, unintended pregnancy and STI’s. While that’s very important, pleasure is also a critical part of sexual and reproductive health and rights! Bergen Cooper from the Center for Health and Gender Equity sits down to talk to us about why pleasure matters when discussing reproductive health.

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September 30, 2018, marked the 42nd anniversary of the Hyde Amendment.

It’s no secret that abortion care can be a costly expense for women around the country. As a result of the Hyde Amendment, about 7.4 million women ages 15-49 who have health insurance through Medicaid cannot use their insurance to cover abortion in most circumstances. Kelsey Ryland with All* Above All sits down with us to discuss the details of the Hyde Amendment related to abortion funding restrictions, how it affects women, and why it must go.

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So we say this a podcast about all things repro, but it's actually about all things sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). SRHR is the sum of rights and health issues that are related to human reproduction. Sexual health, sexual rights, reproductive health and reproductive rights are a complex and intersecting set of issues that address full control over individual’s sexual and reproductive lives and maintenance of a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing. Nina Besser-Doorley from the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) explains the components of SRHR and how it is currently faring in the domestic and global arena.

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Comprehensive sexuality education refers to sequential learning between grades K-12, where young people are building education and skills related to medically-accurate and scientific topics that are age, developmentally, and culturally appropriate and related to a host of sexual health issues. These issues include human development, healthy relationships, communication, pregnancy and reproduction, HIV and STD prevention, and sexual health and behaviors, including abstinence. The goal of sex education is to equip young people with the skills and knowledge they need to live sexually healthy lives. So why is it such a contentious battleground in the U.S.? Jesse Boyer with the Guttmacher Institute talks to us about sex education across the country.

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