Immediately after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade, shock, sadness, and anger were predominant. But even still, abortion providers, abortion fund workers, and other advocates and leaders in the field provided, facilitated, and fought for access to care. Carole Joffe , professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco and professor emerita of sociology at UC Davis, and David C...
Jun 24, 2025•46 min•Ep. 269
We’re dropping in with an episode from Sex Ed with DB , a podcast all about inclusive, pleasure-focused sex ed. In this episode, host Danielle Bezalel sits down with Dr. Emily Nagoski — bestselling author of Come As You Are — to talk about what it really takes to keep sex fun and fulfilling in long-term relationships. They cover desire myths, polyamory, and the science behind sexual connection. Plus, Emily shares her top three tips for great sex with a long-term partner, and there’s a hilarious ...
Jun 18, 2025•51 min•Ep. 268
2/3 of Massachusetts voters support expanding access to abortion later in pregnancy, according to recent polling. Massachusetts still has on the books a 24-week abortion ban, with additional exceptions later added. Jeanette Kincaid , Associate Director of Care Coordination at DuPont Clinic and Kate Dineen , abortion later in pregnancy patient and advocate and Board Member of Reproductive Equity Now, sit down to talk with us about Massachusetts’ abortion access status and the reality of exception...
Jun 17, 2025•45 min•Ep. 267
The One Big Beautiful Bill is a reconciliation bill which passed the House and has moved on to the Senate. Included in this bill are provisions that would defund Planned Parenthood, threaten health insurance access, undermine access to abortion and gender-affirming-care nationwide, and raise costs on working families. Ianthe Metzger , Senior Director, Advocacy Communications at Planned Parenthood, sits down to talk with us about this insidious bill and how it, among other things, threatens the c...
Jun 10, 2025•28 min•Ep. 266
Mifepristone is the first (and extremely safe) in two medications that people will take during a medication abortion—and access to it is under blatant attack in the courts. Dr. Ushma Upadhyay , Public Health Scientist based at University of California San Francisco, and Julia Kaye , Senior Staff Attorney with the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, sit down to talk with us about recent anti-abortion propaganda and how it could be used to shape the FDA’s regulations of medication abortion. A pas...
Jun 03, 2025•39 min•Ep. 265
There are many reasons why someone may require a third-trimester abortion, including both fetal implications and maternal implications (such as health diagnoses and difficult life circumstances). Dr. Shelley Sella , retired OB-GYN, first woman to openly provide third-trimester abortion care in the U.S., and author of Beyond Limits: Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care , sits down to share her expertise, discuss the multitude of reasons why someone seeks a third-trimester abortion, and touch ...
May 27, 2025•45 min•Ep. 264
Global reproductive rights and investment in the agencies and organizations that support reproductive rights have often been used as a political football. The bodies of women, girls, and LGBTQI+ persons have been used to push and pull power for decades—and this anti-rights, anti-choice framework has become increasingly exported around the world. Beth Schlachter , Senior Director for U.S. and External Engagement for MSI Reproductive Choices, talks to us about how attacks to human rights framework...
May 20, 2025•47 min•Ep. 263
Title X, under the Public Health Services Act, allows for a family planning and reproductive health-based pool of funding that government agencies and nonprofits can apply for and use to support patients. Providers who receive Title X funding see all patients regardless of insurance status and income level. Clare Coleman , President and CEO of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA), sits down to talk with us about the recent and extremely harmful changes to Tit...
May 13, 2025•46 min•Ep. 262
T/W: Discussions of suicide in the last 1/3 of this conversation The health, rights, and wellbeing of the LGBTQI+ community are under increasingly distressing strain, with a collection of new court cases only cementing the burden. Preston Mitchum , writer, policy analyst, consultant, star of Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard, and Senior Fellow with rePROs Fight Back, sits down to talk with us about a host of Supreme Court cases that have broad and damaging implications for the health and rights of...
May 06, 2025•40 min•Ep. 261
The majority of people in the U.S. support abortion, yet access has been decimated around the country. That kind of disparity deserves evidence-based, practiced commentary, and we can think of no better doctors to share their experiences than Dr. Beverly Gray and Dr. Jonas Swartz , OBGYNs and co-hosts of the podcast Outlawed. They sit down to talk with us about being on the frontlines of abortion care in the U.S. at the moment and how their experience contributed to the desire to pursue their po...
May 01, 2025•36 min•Ep. 260
After personal experience with severe pregnancy complications and requiring a later abortion among a labyrinth of state abortion bans, Erika Christensen and Garin Marschall co-founded Patient Forward, a national strategy and advocacy organization. Erika and Garin sit down with us to talk about why people need abortions later in pregnancy, what barriers exist to accessing that care, and why government interference in pregnancy outcomes is overwhelmingly unpopular. Further into pregnancy, the cost...
Apr 29, 2025•52 min•Ep. 259
There’s a grab bag of sexual and reproductive health news from around the U.S. From the wins to celebrate to the updates to keep an eye on, Garnet Henderson , investigative reporter specializing in sexual and reproductive health and disinformation, sits down to talk with us about a host of SRHR issues that are moving through the political and judicial landscape. Issues discussed include: Nevada’s parental notification law, blocked since 1985 and made permanent in 1991, was overturned recently by...
Apr 22, 2025•35 min•Ep. 258
Within hours of the new administration’s return-to-office, disorder took over. A foreign aid freeze, a stop-work order, and the dismantling of key foreign aid institutions commenced almost immediately. Gayatri Patel , Senior Fellow with rePROs Fight Back, sits down to talk with us about glimmers of hope for protecting this foreign assistance funding and relevant agencies, as well as how we can prepare for the realistic, long-term impacts of these attacks. The assault on foreign assistance fundin...
Apr 15, 2025•29 min•Ep. 257
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, right...
Apr 08, 2025•35 min•Ep. 256
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 B...
Apr 01, 2025•36 min•Ep. 255
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 cultu...
Mar 27, 2025•14 min
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...
Mar 25, 2025•43 min•Ep. 254
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 co...
Mar 18, 2025•29 min•Ep. 253
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 wou...
Mar 11, 2025•36 min•Ep. 252
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 aborti...
Mar 04, 2025•40 min•Ep. 251
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 Governme...
Feb 25, 2025•38 min•Ep. 250
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 a...
Feb 18, 2025•39 min•Ep. 249
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 definition...
Feb 11, 2025•53 min•Ep. 248
The global gag rule, which prevents non-governmental organizations who receive U.S. global health funding from providing, counseling on, referring for, or advocating for abortion in their own country and using their own, private resources, has been reinstated by President Trump. Lori Adelman , Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Global, and Caitlin Horrigan , Senior Director of Global Advocacy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, sits down to talk with us about what the expanded glo...
Feb 04, 2025•36 min•Ep. 247
The Helms Amendment stipulates that “no foreign assistance funds may be used to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning” abroad and has been in effect since 1973. But the amendment is often overinterpreted as a complete and total ban on U.S. funding for abortion care, even in the most extreme cases and in countries where abortion is legal. Rachel Marchand , Public Policy Manager with rePROs Fight Back, sits down to talk with us about the direct harm of Helms and why it...
Jan 28, 2025•36 min•Ep. 246
2024 marked the 30th anniversary of a host of significant moments for sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice. Dázon Dixon Diallo , Founder and President of SisterLove, Inc. and SisterLove International South Africa, sits down to talk with us about this momentous occasion, the timeline of reproductive justice, and a hopeful look into the future. In 1994, an array of geopolitical events set the context for women’s leadership and representation. 1994 was also the year that a group of B...
Jan 21, 2025•47 min•Ep. 245
All faith traditions have diverse opinions and practices on reproductive health, rights, and justice. In fact, the majority of people of faith in the U.S. support access to abortion care. Rev. Katey Zeh , ordained Baptist minister and CEO for the Religious Community for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), sits down to talk with us about the organization’s recent blessings and spiritual support provided at abortion clinics. The movement and infrastructure of Christian nationalism coopts Christian languag...
Jan 14, 2025•36 min•Ep. 244
Sexual and reproductive health faced unrelenting attacks this year, and the assault will likely only increase in 2025 under the Trump administration. Susan Rinkunas with the Cut, Jezebel, and Vice, and an independent journalist covering abortion and politics, sits down to look back with us on sexual and reproductive health and rights in 2024 and what we can expect in the coming year. 2024 was marked by the attempted redefinition of abortion bans by incoming President Donald Trump and Vice Presid...
Jan 07, 2025•56 min•Ep. 243
Human rights are born out of the belief that every individual is equal and deserving of life, dignity, respect, and freedom. States must then deliver on those obligations. But through nominations, harmful policy, and mass confusion, the returning administration has a broad ability to dissolve human rights. Rori Kramer , Director of U.S. Advocacy at the American Jewish World Service, sits down to talk with us about the foundations of human rights and what we can expect from the coming administrat...
Dec 17, 2024•40 min•Ep. 242
The incoming Trump administration won’t just devastate sexual and reproductive health in the United States—the harm will absolutely ripple abroad. Rachel Clement , Senior Director of Government Strategy at PAI, sits down to talk with us about the prospect of global human rights under the incoming administration and potential harmful policy to come. Already, less than 1% of the U.S. budget goes to foreign assistance. And, under the Trump administration, it’s incredibly likely that UNFPA will be d...
Dec 10, 2024•44 min•Ep. 241
