257: Abortion is About Women’s Health and Human Rights. Vote Like It.

What Do You Mean By That?

When we first recorded this episode, we were at the end of the Trump presidency, when we still had a legal right to abortion in this country. Roe v. Wade was still the law of the land, and women had access to safe abortion options in many states.

Now, on the eve of the 2024 Presidential elections, abortion is on the ballot in a post-Dobbs world, where we have women dying because they cannot get legal abortions, and there’s a whole bunch of lawmakers (mostly White dudes) who want to tell women what they can and cannot do with their own bodies. Oh, and don’t be fooled by Melania’s sudden desire to be pro-choice: there’s only one Presidential candidate who cares about women’s health and human rights (of which abortion is one), and her name doesn’t end with Trump.

So, take this as your reminder to vote for the candidate who cares about women - not about sexually assaulting them, but about their healthcare, their agency, and their bodies. And also, hopefully, as you listen to this re-release, you find that there are so many people out there fighting for women’s health care and reproductive justice, just like If/When/How and Mariko Miki are, and that there is a real community in this. That part is hope personified. And that is what we need to lean into now as well. So vote. And hold onto that hope.

Have questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at [email protected].

What to listen for:

• What is a self-managed abortion anyway?

• What are some of the issues when it comes to criminalizing reproductive decision making? Sign a petition here.

• How we need to destigmatize abortion and decriminalize women’s reproductive lives.

• The groundbreaking work If/When/How is doing in spearheading a legal defense fund for reproductive justice.

• Resources people can use, including:

• a Reproductive Legal Helpline for anybody thinking about a self-managed abortion,

• and the latest state-by-state information on what’s happening in the legal landscape of women’s reproductive rights (with a quick escape button if you need to close the browser immediately).

For this episode, we spoke with Mariko Miki, who is the Managing Director and General Counsel at If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, where she oversees the organization’s programs, people, and policies. Joining If/When/How in 2010, Mariko designed, launched, and directed the Reproductive Justice Fellowship Program, now in its 10th year, and worked to expand reproductive rights and justice course offerings in legal academia. Mariko has served on the Advisory Board of TEACH (Training in Early Abortion for Comprehensive Healthcare) and the Board of Directors for Exhale Pro-Voice, and was a 2019 Rockwood Leadership Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Fellow. Mariko graduated from Brown University and Harvard Law School.

Relevant episodes:

• Ep. 190: Why abortion became political

• Ep. 92: Real talk about abortions, with Dr. Jenn

• Ep. 198: Everything adoption – and we mean EVERYTHING – with Patrick Armstrong

• Ep. 46: Our conversation with abortion provider Dr Jenn.

• Ep. 47: The bridge between reproductive rights and health care.

• Ep. 13: Racial disparities in the U.S. healthcare system when it comes to Black moms.

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