April 11th- 17th officially marks Black Maternal Health Week—a week-long campaign centered on activism, awareness, and community-building for Black mamas and Black birthing people. Elizabeth Dawes, Director of Maternal and Reproductive Health and Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation and Co-Founder of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, sits down to talk with us about the status of the Black maternal health crisis in the U.S. and the myriad, ongoing attacks to the Black community’s health, rights, and wellbeing from the new administration. 

The U.S. maternal mortality crisis has seen an overall reduction in maternal death rates in every racial group except for Black birthing people-- due to racism and inequity at institutional, systemic, and interpersonal levels. This is despite continuous, targeted, and hard-fought advocacy since 2014. Solidifying key actors, distributing resources and funding, and amplifying direct, local care and Black-led initiatives can make a sizeable change and help tackle the persistent, systemic oppressions and health injustices disproportionately felt by Black individuals. 

For more information, check out Amicus with Dhalia Lithwick: https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus

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A new case with tremendous possible consequences for U.S. sexual and reproductive health and rights has made its way onto the Supreme Court docket. Medina v. Planned Parenthood of South Atlantic is a culmination of decades of anti-choice activist’s attacks to Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health care providers, specifically targeting efforts to kick these providers out of Medicaid. Jessica Mason Pieklo, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor of Rewire News Group and co-host of Boom! Lawyered, sits down to talk with us about the implications of this case for the country’s most vulnerable. 

The question in front of the Supreme Court is whether the Medicaid statute confers a right to its recipients to go to providers of their choosing. Not only does this open doors to re-defining “qualified” and “unqualified” reproductive health care providers, it allows an opportunity for legal conservatives on the court to meander around Congressional conferring of rights via statute. Oftentimes, Planned Parenthood affiliates are the only option for low-income, Medicaid patients. 

For more information, check out Amicus with Dhalia Lithwick: https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus

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This week, we’re bringing you a special feed drop from Rom Com Vom, a miniseries from Sex Ed with DB that unpacks beloved rom-coms, strips away their hidden toxic messages, and rewrites the script on love and sex.

In this clip, host Danielle Bezalel sits down with Dr. Gretchen Sisson, a sociologist and expert on adoption and abortion, to break down Juno’s portrayal of teen pregnancy, adoption, and reproductive rights. They discuss what the film gets right, what it glosses over, and why its cultural impact still lingers today. If you enjoy this conversation, check out the full episode—plus more deep dives into rom-com tropes—by finding Sex Ed with DB wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information, check out Amicus with Dhalia Lithwick: https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus

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rePROs Fight Back released its 13th annual 50-State Report Card on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. The United States, overall, received an ‘F’ grade, while 5 states received an ‘A’ and 25 states failed. Jennie Wetter, Director of the rePROs Fight Back initiative and host of the rePROs Fight Back podcast, sits down to discuss this staggering loss of rights and the continuous fight for our right to bodily autonomy with Tarah Demant, Interim National Director of Programs, Advocacy, and Government Affairs at Amnesty International USA. 

While 2024 had some bright spots, including abortion-related ballot measures passing in 7 of the 10 states where they were on the ballot, we are still experiencing the fallout of the 2022 Dobbs decision. The human rights crisis unleashed by that decision has led states to continue restricting abortion access and has emboldened anti-rights advocates to increase their attacks on gender-affirming care. Using 11 criteria, the 50-State Report Card ranks each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia on three broad indicators relating to reproductive health and rights: prevention, affordability, and access to services.

For more information, check out Amicus with Dhalia Lithwick: https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus

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The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is a landmark federal law that revolutionized the right to emergency healthcare and provides crucial protections for pregnant people. Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, Deputy Director at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, sits down to talk with us about the status of the case and what we can continue to do to protect emergency abortion services.

When EMTALA was originally passed by Congress in 1986, the law directed every hospital in the country with an emergency department to provide whatever healthcare was necessary to any individual who visited the hospital presenting with an emergency medical condition. This is especially important for pregnant people, who require intensive attention in and outside of emergency situations. For the nearly 40 years EMTALA has been in effect, it was understood across party lines that if someone needs emergency abortion care, EMTALA protects that access. But following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Idaho’s extreme abortion ban did not feature an exception for those in emergencies. The Department of Justice sued Idaho to ensure EMTALA’s nationwide reach and the case advanced to the Supreme Court. The lawsuit against Idaho has now been dismissed under the new administration. 

For more information, check out Amicus with Dhalia Lithwick: https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus

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Medicaid, the United States’ largest public health insurance program, currently insures over 72 million people with low incomes. Medicaid covers a host of health needs, including those related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Madeline Morcelle, Senior Attorney at the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) and co-chair of the National Coalition for Gender Justice in Health Policy, sits down to talk with us about how Medicaid is indispensable for SRH coverage and how recent proposed cuts would impact those who are enrolled.

Medicaid plays an essential role in securing SRH for those with low incomes and other underserved communities, including Black, indigenous, and other people of color, people with disabilities, women and LGBTQI+ people, young people, and people with limited English proficiency. States are required to cover family planning services and supplies, pregnancy-related care, and abortion within the Hyde Amendment’s exceptions. The House recently passed a budget resolution that requires at least a minimum of $880 billion in budgetary cuts from the Energy and Commerce Committee—who’s vast majority of financial jurisdiction is centered in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Assuredly, proposed cuts would cause states to limit eligibility for Medicaid insurance and impact million’s access to SRH care. 

For more information, check out Amicus with Dhalia Lithwick: https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus

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A complete lack of abortion access and a climate of fear amongst patients and providers has descended over Texas in the past few years. Wendy Davis, former Texas state senator and Senior Advisor for Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, sits down to talk with us about the current landscape for abortion access in Texas and her famous 2013 filibuster.

Texas currently has a complete ban on abortion with extremely limited exceptions. Only a few years prior, in 2021, Texas passed SB 8, which banned abortion at six weeks of pregnancy and allowed virtually any private citizen the ability to sue someone who accessed or attempted to access an abortion. Recent ProPublica research has found data on increased poor health outcomes and death due to the impacts of the present abortion ban. The Texas legislature has denied the data to be reviewed by the state’s Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee.

For more information, check out Amicus with Dhalia Lithwick: https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus

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Reproductive justice is the human right to control our bodies, our sexuality, our gender, our work, and our reproduction.  This right can only be achieved when everyone, especially those most marginalized, have the complete economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about their bodies, families and communities. Bridgette Jackson, Director of Public Policy at In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, Kat Olivera, Director of Government Relations at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice (NLIRJ), and Fajer Saeed Ebrahim, Senior Policy Manager at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), sit down to talk with us about the reproductive justice policy agenda. 

NAPAWF, NLIRJ, and In Our Own Voice lead the Intersections of Our Lives Collaborative, which developed the comprehensive policy framework for achieving reproductive justice. The agenda is structured around three key pillars: healthy body, healthy families and communities, and healthy democracy. The policies included are focused on accessible sex education, abortion and contraception equity, gender-affirming care, and resistance to the criminalization of bodies. 

For more information, check out Amicus with Dhalia Lithwick: https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus

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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was previously the largest bilateral donor across the world, was created in 1961 to use the U.S.’s soft power to influence and assist other countries. It has since grown into a department with more than 13,000 employees, the majority of which have worked overseas to provide emergency and humanitarian response, food assistance, economic growth activities, and more. Elissa Miolene, reporter at Devex, sits down to talk with us about the impact of the past few week’s chaotic attacks to USAID.

Within hours of President Trump returning to office, there was a foreign aid freeze, followed by a stop-work order. Disorder took over, with a Congressional communication that USAID would be downsized, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing he would take over USAID, and waves of furloughs and layoffs at the agency and with partners that USAID works with. The deterioration of USAID has, of course, resulted in people in countries around the world being unable to access dependable care and resources. 

For more information, check out Amicus with Dhalia Lithwick: https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus

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The first day of President Trump’s administration, the outright attacks on the transgender community began. A drove of extreme executive orders has ruthlessly targeted transgender individuals’ safety and wellbeing. Chris Geidner, author of Law Dork, sits down to talk with us about these heinous assaults, their already-felt impacts on transgender individuals, and what to expect in the near future.

The Trump administration’s collection of executive orders includes those that place rigid definitions on the term “sex” and force transgender women in prison to be housed in men’s facilities, ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports, declare transgender individuals unfit for military service, and prevent transgender children from accessing gender-affirming care. Multiple lawsuits have already arisen that challenge the initial executive order, which largely erases and others the transgender community. 

For more information, check out Amicus with Dhalia Lithwick: https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus

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