rePROs Fight Back

In Bangladesh, 52% of girls are married by their 18th birthday. In more rural communities, the numbers are even worse, where 71% of girls are married before the age of 18. Meghla Akter was almost forced into marrying a 30 year old man at 13, when her mother threatened to kill herself if she didn’t go through with the marriage. She managed to escape to a friend’s house, where she took refuge. Her m...

In Rajasthan, India, child marriage is a tradition. But, the practice isn’t limited only to the one northwestern state; while child marriage is a global issue, India has the highest number of child brides in the world. While over the last decade, India has witnessed one of the largest declines in child marriage rates, it is estimated that 27% (down from 50%) of girls in India are married before th...

Nearly 1 in 4 girls across Latin America and the Caribbean are married before the age of 18. Girls who are at the highest risk of getting married as a child are usually from poorer homes in rural areas, or from indigenous groups. Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region in the world where there has been no significant decline or change in rates of child marriage in the last 30 years. Per...

Every year 12 million girls are married before the age of 18, according to data from the UN. That breaks down to 23 girls getting married every minute. Child marriage is a violation of girls human rights and can have severe, lifelong physical, mental, emotional and financial consequences. It leaves young girls particularly vulnerable to rape, maternal and child mortality, and gender based violence...

Every person, no matter who they are and where they live, should be able to make basic health decisions about their lives. Reproductive health and rights are both a domestic and international issue; we cannot talk about one without the other. But, attempting to keep up-to-date on the global fight on reproductive health can often be overwhelming. Helping us bridge that gap is Chloe Cooney with Plan...

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a program that was born from bipartisan legislation in 2003 under George W. Bush’s administration. It was the biggest global health investment for a single disease by any country in the world, and still is today. We sit down with Caitlin Horrigan from Planned Parenthood Federation of America to discuss the evolution of PEPFAR, the ways in...

Reproductive health and the LGBTQ+ community are often talked about separately, but both groups intersect, and oftentimes fight the same battles for the same populations. Bodily autonomy, the ability to plan if and when you have children, the ability to plan your pregnancy and family without government intrusion, and avoiding societal oppression and discrimination are issues that intertwine the LG...

The sex work population is one of the most marginalized and stigmatized; sex workers face consistent human rights abuses, like lack of access to primary and reproductive health care and violence, on a daily basis. Preston Mitchum with Advocates for Youth sits down with us to explain this lack of access to health care and how it impacts an already extremely vulnerable population of people both in t...

A religious refusal is when a healthcare provider (such as a doctor, nurse, CEO, receptionist, or member of a hospital board) refuses to provide or facilitate healthcare because it goes against their personal religious beliefs. This most often impacts services like abortion, miscarriage management, contraception prescriptions/procedures, HIV/AIDS treatment, and hormone therapy that women and LGBTQ...

Women in the U.S. are more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth related causes than women in other developed countries. Unfortunately this is disproportionately felt by black women. Black women are more likely to die from childbirth or pregnancy related causes than white women by an outrageous 243 percent. Jamila Taylor, Senior Fellow with Center for American Progress sits down with us and e...

200 million girls in 30 countries have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and 13 million girls under the age of 15 are at risk of undergoing FGM/C. Dr. Jacinta Muteshi-Strachan, FGM researcher with Population Council, sits down with us to discuss FGM/C, (which occurs in 30 countries across Africa, Asia and possibly South America), and the impacts surrounding this severe violation...

Worldwide, 1 in 3 women will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Tarah Demant with Amnesty International talks to us about gender-based violence, its ties to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and what it looks like throughout the world. Gender-based violence (GBV) is committed against someone based on their actual or perceived gender or actual or perceived sex. Tradi...

When a person crosses a border, they still carry fundamental human rights- including the right to choose if, when, and how they have a family. Bethany Van Kampen from the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health discusses the reproductive health needs of migrants fleeing their home countries and how these needs are failing to be met in the United States.  Support the show Follow Us on Soc...

In 1994, the United Nation’s Population Fund (UNFPA) held the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt. The idea of population shifted from demographic trends and numbers to individuals that have a right to determine and plan their family size. Ensuring the empowerment of women and girls around the world became the resulting plan of action. Sarah Craven, the Washingto...

January 22, 2018 marked the 45th anniversary of the passage of the Supreme Court ruling Roe w. Wade. There’s no question that the landmark ruling is under attack; 401 abortion restrictions have passed since January of 2011. We sit down with Dr. Jamila Perritt, an OB-GYN and fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, to discuss the restrictive legislation that is gaining popularity with anti-c...

January 23, 2017 marks the one year anniversary of the reinstatement of one of the most pressing reproductive health issues today, the inhumane policy known as the Global Gag Rule, which undermines family planning efforts and threatens the health and lives of individuals and families abroad. Support the show Follow Us on Social : Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfb Facebook: rePROs Figh...

In this episode, Mara Gandal-Powers with the National Women’s Law Center talks to us about the Affordable Care Act’s momentous birth control benefit, which allows women to access contraception without a co-pay.  Support the show Follow Us on Social : Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfb Facebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @reprosfightback.bsky.social Buy rePROs Merch: Bonfire store Emai...

In this episode, we bring you up to speed on the current status of reproductive health and rights in the United States. Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Jacqueline Ayers talks to us about the good and the bad of reproductive and sexual health in the United States.  Support the show Follow Us on Social : Twitter: @rePROsFightBack Instagram: @reprosfb Facebook: rePROs Fight Back Bluesky: @...

Now that we know how the U.S. is advancing, we have to ask: what is the status of accessible reproductive and sexual healthcare throughout the rest of the world? In this episode, we set the scene. Jonathan Rucks from PAI discusses how women and girls in developing countries may achieve access to family planning initiatives while he also helps us tackle the international side of reproductive health...

There’s a radical idea that you are in charge of your own reproductive future, and that you have the right to choose if, when and how you have children, don’t have children, and choose to parent your children. In this episode, Heidi Williamson from In Our Own Voice, The National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, sits down with us to discuss the importance of reproductive justice and how i...