The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. The agency advocates for, provides access to, and educates on sexual and reproductive health and rights services.  Rebecca Zerzan, editor with UNFPA, sits down to talk with us about UNFPA’s 2024 state of world population report, Interwoven Lives, Threads of Hope: Ending Inequalities in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Rebecca also details the ways in which global misinformation impacts access to care.

UNFPA is the world’s largest procurer of donated contraception, which is distributed mostly in low- and middle-income countries. UNFPA also works closely with local organizations and agencies to facilitate access to medically accurate, culturally sensitive education. UNFPA’s recent report looks back over the last three decades, when the scale of maternal death was unknown, rates of adolescent births were higher, and rates of women’s contraception usage was halved, and discusses global progress. The report also researches misinformation around the world and how that impacts an individual’s access to comprehensive care.

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Title IX, a civil rights law enacted in 1972, is a statute meant to protect students from sex discrimination in educational environments to maintain equal opportunity to educational access. This year, the Biden administration released a new Title IX rule, which provides additional protections for those who are most likely to experience sex discrimination at school. Shiwali Patel, Senior Director of Safe and Inclusive Schools at the National Women’s Law Center, sits down with us to talk about what this rule change accomplishes and what challenges it faces. 

In April 2024, the Biden administration released the new rule, which, most significantly, clarified protections for LGBTQI+ students, provided additional protections for pregnant and parenting students, and expands protections against sexual harassment. The rule also undid many of the Trump administration’s harmful Title IX changes. Unfortunately, these celebrated changes are being challenged in court. In addition, some congressional members are using the Congressional Review Act to attempt to reverse these protections.

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In previous episodes, we’ve outlined Project 2025’s reach into global governance, LGBTQI+ health and rights, and the international sphere. Sabrina Talukder, Director of the Women’s Initiative at the Center for American Progress, sits down to talk with us about what the Heritage Foundation’s conservative roadmap means specifically for U.S. sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Project 2025 seeks to misapply the Comstock Act— a 150-year-old law which would allow enforcement power to investigate the U.S. mail for items of an “illicit,” “lewd,” or “immoral” purpose, including items related to abortion—as a national, backdoor abortion ban. Comstock could be applied not only to abortion education and medication sent through the mail, but medical equipment, as well. In addition, Project 2025 seeks to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, which protects free access to emergency contraception for 48 million women in the U.S. Project 2025 will no doubt negatively impact the U.S.’ already abysmal Black maternal health crisis.

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Many of the outlined ambitions of Project 2025 are focused around concentrating executive power, de-regulation, and religious protections, all of which have massive implications in the U.S. and around the world. Gillian Kane, Director of Global Research and Advocacy at Ipas, sits down to talks with us about the active, global reach of Project 2025 and Protego—in multiple countries and in global governance.  

In the previous administration, the Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD) was a tool to cement America and its allies as anti-abortion. This manifesto, signed by 36+ countries, pushes national sovereignty, “traditional” family structures, and anti-abortion ideology, and is used as a guide for Project 2025. Protego, a program designed by the Institute for Women’s Health (IWH), is a new project dedicated to ensuring the GCD takes off. Valerie Huber, past member of the Trump administration and current head of the IWH, has traveled to multiple countries and spoken primarily to first ladies on the implementation of Protego. Valerie Huber is known to be anti-abortion, anti-LBTQI+, and a proponent of abstinence-only education. 

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In conflicts, disasters, and climate and health emergencies, many often consider food, shelter, and water to be the immediate needs of those impacted. While these are incredibly important requirements, women and girls are uniquely impacted by these emergencies, and sexual and reproductive health and rights must also be realized. Gayatri Patel, Chief of External Affairs at the Malala Fund and Senior Fellow with rePROs Fight Back, talks to us about the importance of SRHR provision in humanitarian settings.

Gaps in healthcare access extend to abortion, contraception, gender-based violence and sexual violence counseling and care, STI testing/treatment, and more, often brought on by impacted health infrastructure and supply chains. The implementation, support, and prioritization of these comprehensive needs is a step in the right direction for protecting women and girls in crisis scenarios. Some new practices and approaches are showing promising results, and include mobile clinics, cash assistance, legal assistance and further availability of contraception and midwives. 

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Project 2025 is a broad vision regarding the future of the United States led by the Heritage Foundation. The project is hundreds of pages, centered on continuing a conservative United States through consolidating power in presidency, getting rid of civil servants, and further marginalizing already vulnerable communities. Sarah Warbelow, Vice President, Legal, at the Human Rights Campaign, sits down to talk with us about Project 2025’s specific restrictions targeted at the LGBTQI+ community.

Project 2025 seeks to gut protections against discrimination based on sex across education, healthcare, employment, and more. Project 2025 also seeks to rid the federal government’s website of LGBTQI+ inclusive language, prevent access to gender-affirming healthcare, and prevent LGBTQI+ families from adopting children. Anti-LGBTQI+ policy in Project 2025 extends not only in the U.S., but around the world.

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This week, we are doing things a little differently! We hear from advocates, medical providers, leaders, and researchers, who tell us about their strategies, reflections, hopes, and joys during the ongoing fight for sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice.

Guests featured in this episode include: 

Jennie Wetter, Director of rePROs Fight Back

Dr. Monica McLemore, Professor of Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing at the University of Washington and Director of the Manning Price Spratlen Center for Anti-Racism and Equity in Nursing

Dr. Diane Horvath, OB/GYN and Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Partners of Abortion Care

Beirne Roose-Snyder, Senior Policy Fellow at the Council for Global Equality

Greer Donley, Associate Professor with a reproductive rights focus at University of Pittsburgh Law School

Rev. Katey Zeh, CEO for the Religious Community for Reproductive Choice

Tarah Demant, National Director of Programs at Amnesty International 

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On June 27th, 2024, the Supreme Court punted Idaho v. United States consolidated with Moyle v. United States, which called into question whether federal law protects doctors who provide abortion care in a medical emergency. Jessica Mason Pieklo, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor at Rewire News Group and co-host of Rewire News Group's podcast Boom! Lawyered, talks to us about the implications of the punted case, as well as other Supreme Court rulings that have utterly gutted the administrative state.  

Idaho v. United States consolidated with Moyle v. United States centered on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), which upholds the right to needed healthcare in an emergency. The case centered around EMTALA wasn’t decided on merit—instead, it was dismissed back to the lower courts. At the same time, there exists a similar lawsuit out of Texas questioning EMTALA’s status against the state’s abortion ban. Other Supreme Court cases that will undoubtedly impact the health and rights of Americans include Grants Pass v. Johnson and Chevron U.S.A Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council. Grants Pass, in short, criminalizes and fines those without shelter—which particularly impacts queer youth, those facing domestic violence, people with disabilities, people with mental health issues, and youth who have aged out of foster care systems. Chevron takes deference and administrative decision-making power away from federal agencies and gives it instead to judges. 

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In the past month, the Supreme Court has interacted with three cases that have stark implications for the reproductive health, rights, and wellbeing of many across the U.S. Madiba Dennie, author of The Originalism Trap: How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take it Back and Deputy Editor and Senior Contributor at the legal commentary outlet Balls and Strikes, sits down to talk to us about originalism, the recent Supreme Court case rulings, and what it all means for the sexual and reproductive health and rights of Americans.

On June 13, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that plaintiffs in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine—which challenged access to nationwide medication abortion—did not have a legal standing. For now, this ruling preserves the post-Dobbs status-quo, protecting access to mifepristone, a safe and common medication used in nearly two-thirds of abortions, in some states. On June 21, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Rahimi to prevent those with previous domestic violence restraining orders filed against them to possess firearms. And on June 27th, the Supreme Court dismissed a case that would have prevented abortion in the case of medical emergency in Idaho. Access remains protected—for now. Many of the recent Supreme Court cases are rooted in originalism, or the application of U.S. “history” and “tradition” to undermine rights, which has been a trusted roadmap for anti-rights actors in the courts.

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Medicaid, the largest public health insurance program for people in the United States, exists on a state-by-state basis. But how could Medicaid possibly relate to sexual and reproductive health? Fabiola De Liban, Director, Sexual and Reproductive Health, with the National Health Law Program, sits down to talk with us about what is covered under the program, what’s not covered, Medicaid’s disturbing history related to family planning, and the barriers that patients face on a day-to-day basis. 

Medicaid is the largest public payer of family planning, covering 75% of all family planning expenditures. It covers almost half of U.S. births, including prenatal, labor, delivery, and postpartum. Medicaid also covers prescription drugs, sterilization, breast cancer services, and some gender -affirming care services. Medicaid does not cover abortion due to the Hyde amendment. Medicaid expansion allows someone who is not pregnant or who doesn't have a child or a disability to be able to qualify to the Medicaid program. When the Affordable Care Act passed, Medicaid expansion would have gone into effect nationwide, if not for states who sued to prevent expansion. Medicaid expansion is now optional, with only 9 states having chosen to not expand. 

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