rePROs Fight Back

It’s important to know if your hospital has a religious affiliation because it can possibly impact the care you receive. Catholic hospitals make up a huge swath of the U.S. healthcare system; in fact, 1 in 6 acute-care hospital beds are located in a Catholic health facility. Amy Littlefield , an investigative reporter with Rewire. News, sits down with us to talk about the ways Catholic hospitals w...

You can’t talk about providing reproductive and sexual health care without talking about gender inequality, and you can’t talk about gender inequality without talking about sexual and reproductive health. In Mozambique, 20,000 + women and girls have received gender-based violence services from facilities supported by Pathfinder International, and the organization is on the ground providing access...

The State Department has recently set up a “Commission on Inalienable Rights” that worries reproductive rights advocates, LGBTQ+ advocates, and human rights advocates. Amanda Klasing , acting Co-Director of the Women’s Rights Division with the Human Rights Watch, and Tarah Demant , Director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Identity program with Amnesty International USA sit down to talk with us about...

Humanitarian settings refer to a place where there has been a man-made or natural disaster. When these disasters strike, populations are often forced to leave their communities or country, and are forced to resettle. While people indeed need food, shelter, and water in humanitarian settings, there are also special reproductive health needs that women and adolescent girls face. Julianne Deitch with...

Being a teenager can be scary and confusing, especially when it comes to your sexual and reproductive health. Teenagers in Zambia feel like they can’t approach their families or health clinics for information and services, especially when it comes to pregnancy and HIV prevention. Inonge Wina-Chinyama , an advocate with Marie Stopes International (MSI) Zambia, talks to us about how MSI is integrati...

The global gag rule, also known as the ‘Mexico City Policy,’ is a U.S. foreign policy that prohibits non-U.S., non-governmental organizations from using their own private funds to provide comprehensive abortion care, counseling for abortion, referral for abortion, or organizing/lobbying/conducting public campaigns in support of abortion on the condition of receiving global health funding. The rule...

Since the day President Trump took office, there have been countless attacks on the health, rights, and well-being of transgender people. Katelyn Burns , a freelance journalist covering LGBTQ and reproductive health issues and the first openly transgender reporter on Capitol Hill joins us to talk about all the ways in which the current administration has undermined the health and rights of transge...

It’s no secret that there are a wealth of contraceptive methods that exist today, including methods like the birth control pill, the hormonal or non-hormonal IUD, the implant, the patch, and many more! Still, there are people around the world whose contraception needs are simply not being met. Julia Bunting with the Population Council sits down with us to discuss the need to continue the developme...

Abortion funds are grassroots organizations that are locally rooted and predominately volunteer-powered. They aid in removing financial and logistical barriers that people face when trying to access abortion care, while simultaneously advocating against the political and cultural barriers that make their work necessary. Abortion funds pay for abortions, pay for and organize transportation to appoi...

Often when we have conversations that feature both reproductive health and rights and faith, it seems the two subjects are diametrically opposed. But thanks to the large amount of diversity in the faith community, many individuals, communities, and organizations are supportive of bridging the gap between faith and reproductive health and rights! Reverend Katey Zeh , Executive Director for the Reli...

In Malawi, 2 in 5 sexually active unmarried women have an unmet need for contraception. In Zimbabwe, fewer than half of adolescents have comprehensive knowledge about HIV/AIDS. And each year, one million Tanzanian women have an unintended pregnancy. Thandie Msukuma from Malawi, Dr. Lilian Benjamin Mwakyosi from Tanzania, and Hilda Zenda from Zimbabwe, advocates from the Center for Health and Gende...

Over the past couple of weeks, state legislatures around the U.S. have been passing six week bans, otherwise known as “heartbeat bans”. These extreme and unconstitutional abortion laws seek to ban the legal procedure once a fetal heart tone in an embryo is detected, which can be as early as six weeks in pregnancy. Jessica Pieklo , Vice President of Law and Courts at Rewire.news and co-host of the...

The language and the words we use to describe essential sexual and reproductive health services and issues is extremely important. For women of color, the ability to realize and control their reproductive health and autonomy is often impacted by other factors like race, poverty, sexism, and more. Jessica Pinckney , Vice President of Government Affairs at In Our Own Voice: the National Black Women’...

The law in Nigeria only allows abortion in the case of a woman’s life being in danger. Studies in Nigeria have shown that this restrictive law actually increases rates of abortion rather than lowering them. Hauwa Shekarau , the country director with Ipas Nigeria, talks to us about the current and major task of working to reduce maternal deaths due to unsafe abortions, reduce complications from uns...

Everybody who is of voting age has the right to register to vote, vote in an election, and have their votes accurately tallied. It might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about it, but voting rights are an important part of reproductive health, rights, and justice. Marcela Howell , President and CEO of In Our Own Voice: the National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda,...

Criminalization drives stigma, harms public health, and violates human rights. The imposition of criminal penalties exist across the U.S. and around the world, and it creates barriers to adequate and comprehensive health care for many populations . Beirne Roose-Snyder from the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) and Preston Mitchum from Advocates for Youth sit down with us to discuss how...

We have previously talked about how the Trump administration is working to reshape the federal judiciary by implementing anti-choice and anti-science judges throughout the judiciary system in the U.S. Today, Brigitte Amiri with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) talks to us about important abortion-related cases that are currently working their way through the court system, and how these ca...

Last year, the Trump-Pence administration removed information on reproductive health and rights from the State Department’s annual Human Rights Reports, effectively communicating that reproductive rights are not human rights. Stephanie Schmid with the Center for Reproductive Rights talks to us about the removal of reproductive health and rights information from the annual Human Rights Reports and...

It’s no secret that abortion access and reproductive healthcare have been under attack in the U.S. recently. Some states, like New York, are currently counteracting these attacks on healthcare, while some states are leaning in and using anti-abortion legislation to their advantage. Elizabeth Nash and Megan Donovan from the Guttmacher Institute sit down with us to discuss what abortion access curre...

Sexual and reproductive health and rights discussions, especially in today’s world, can often be depressing, bleak, or just a bit of a downer. But on January 22nd, the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, New York recently passed proactive legislation called the Reproductive Health Act (RHA), which modernizes a state law that previously limited when people could access legal abortion care. Laura McQua...

Any conversation we have about reproductive health, reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy, or abortion should include detailed discussions of all of the available options on how abortion care can be accessed-- and that includes self-managed abortion. Self-managed abortion is not a new concept, but it has been historically accessed in unsafe and secretive ways. With the current administration’s con...

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...

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 S...

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!  Suppo...

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.  Th...