Welcome to Take It Happened Here, a podcast that now more than ever, is about things falling apart. It's been roughly one year since the dab's decision has annihilated what was left of the protection for legal abortions in this country, and things have gotten enormously worse in ways that most people are essentially attempting to ignore or hide from. There are, however, a lot of people who cannot essentially run from the
absolute horror that has been unleashed in this country. And yeah, I'm going to be talking today and tomorrow with one of those people, who.
Is Crystal has has the triple crown.
Of abortion work of being an abortion worker, a union organizer, and on the board of an abortion fund. Yeah, welcome to the show, Crystal. And I'm sorry, You're.
Sorry, Thank you, Thank you so much. Mea, it's really nice to be here again. I had a lot of fun last time, and it's nice to be talking to you again, even though I only have really horrible Yeah, it's to say, for the most part though, there are some good things, but it's mostly really awful.
Yeah.
So I guess I guess that's where I want to start, is it's well Okay, I think I'm pretty sure that So the day this is coming out, it's going to be I think two days before the anniversary of Dobbs, and I wanted to, I guess first just ask what it's been like emotionally before we get to the sort of like more material consequences of it, if that's all right.
Yeah, So, as an abortion worker, this has been an incredibly difficult year, and that's that's with the context that things were not good before. Yeah, last June twenty fourth, twenty twenty two, things were not good before then, so you know, we were we were really running up against this, this this impending decision that we knew was going to happen, and then it ended up happening, and then it was really horrible, And honestly, it's been horrible every single day since,
and it's just gets more horrible every single week. And that's you know, I sound so negative saying that, I know, but I just know that I'm saying that knowing that there's so many amazing people who are doing like abortion advocacy and abortion care work and offering abortion services and practical support for abortion, and it has just been a incredibly heavy year for us. We've we've seen, we've all witnessed a lot in the last year, and we're all carrying a lot and it's.
It's just hard.
And I'm really grateful for everyone that I work with and that I'm in community with, but it's it's been traumatizing.
I know that.
You know, it's really easy to say. I think like, oh, you know, this is traumatic, and that's traumatic, But I don't know what else, what other word to use to having had witnessed everything that we've witnessed in the last year and to know that there's no end in sight. It is incredibly traumatic. It's like a national trauma. We're all sharing it together.
Yeah, Okay, I guess we should get into sort of what the things that you've been seeing have looked like. And I think one of the best ways to do this, I think, is by just talking about like what the process is like of trying to get someone in abortion, because it's gotten so much harder and so much more dangerous, very rapidly.
Yeah.
Absolutely, things have changed a lot in the last year. Because you know, if we're if we're starting from when
things really hit the fan. June twenty fourth, twenty twenty two, even though things were getting worse before that, because you know, for example, there was the ban in Texas that started on September first and in twenty twenty one, so that you know, things I saw a lot in my head if I can point, like when did I really know that we were we were fucked and we were going to like we were going to see the worst outcome.
I would say on September first, twenty twenty one. But we saw the initial trigger bands go into effect immediately after the Dobbs decision. Uh, So you know, like for example, Texas, the bands went into effect immediately. There were other states that it was a little bit more delayed, like for example Ohio. And then there's also been a lot of back and forth because some states in which they're having bands now those are currently paused and they're being worked
through the legal system. And other new bands. There's pretty much been a new band, it feels like pretty much every week, to the point where I know that I just named a couple of states just now, and just to be cautious, I just want to say that, you know, look, you can go to like abortionfinder dot org or I need an a dot com and like look up your state to see you know, if you have access in your state, it changes so frequently that you really do
have to kind of rely on those reliable websites like Abortion Finder and I need an a to really make sure that you're up to date. So you know, don't like if I mentioned a state, you know, just it might have been there might have been something in effect months ago and I'm just like alluding to it. So just definitely rely on those resources that exist to see
what's up to date now. But yeah, things have been incredibly back and forth for a lot of states in the last year, and it's it's just there are holes in access, there are deserts and access that just keep widening and widening and widening. The most devastating being recently.
This was just this was a really bad day for me and a lot of my coworkers when there was the vote in Florida and the Florida Band is not yet an effect, but we'll eventually be going into effect, and and that was really like one of the last places that you could access an abortion in the Southeast. So now when you look at a map, which I do a lot, I now have to look at a map every single day for work and look at like you know, individual state maps and like I'm on Google
Maps constantly. But there's there are places where you have no choice but to travel to get an abortion or access abortion services online if that is possible for.
You, and.
You know there there are resources available where if you as an individual need an abortion and you keep looking and you search and you reach out to people, those resources are out there, you know. So practical support groups exist, funding exists, Clinics and service providers will bend over backwards to get you to your appointment and help you access these services. So you know there is help out there, but it is it's really difficult, and it's it takes
a lot of work to access an appointment. So everything's it takes longer to get to an appointment, it takes you have to travel further. You end up paying so much more money, Like everything is just so much more expensive than it was a year ago, because now you're not just paying, you know, for the procedure cost and then maybe like a little bit of gas money to the appointment. You're having to figure out plane tickets, hotels,
gas money for whatever, like really long distances. I've seen patients driving twelve hours to get to an appointment.
Yeah.
And I can talk more about like what that process looks like too, but I guess I just wanted to give like a general overview of it's just getting harder to access, longer distances traveling, and and and more expensive. And luckily there is people. There are people there to help, and there is support, but it requires a ton of work, a ton a ton of work in order to make sure that people are getting the health care that they need.
Yeah.
And I guess, well, okay, two things.
One I want to I want to start the abortion fund plug like right here, because you know, yeahs as the cost of this increases, that means, you know, like abortion funds need more money in order to be able to keep doing this because every dollar that they don't have is you know, potentially is like I'm not even touched, Like, is another person who's not gonna be able to get an abortion?
Yeah, every every dollar matters. Yeah, And and I know that I feel like a lot of leftists sometimes get a little tired of hearing about oh, donate to your abortion foot donating to an abortion fund, because like they're like, oh, this this is not radical, but abortion funds are the only way in which abortions are happening right now, because it costs, like you might have to spend like two thousand to three thousand dollars on a person sometimes in
order to make sure that they get healthcare. And that's just one person. So the only reason that abortions are still happening is because one people are putting that work in and make sure that they happen. And like, you know, those people are amazing, and also like people seeking healthcare
are amazing. They're incredibly brave to be doing what they're doing, to be working so hard to get health care, to be navigating all of these obstacles that you have to be, Like, that's what you have to be strong.
To do that.
That's an incredibly brave thing to do, having to fly in an airplane if you've never flown before to access health care that you know you need. Like you're you're being really strong and you're being amazing, but you don't you shouldn't have to do that. And so it's a lot of money. So thank god that the money is there, because if the money wasn't there, then people would not
be able to be helped. So I know, that like, you know, oh, donate to abortion fund, don't it to an abortion pun But really, like, if you want people to continue to get abortions now, not just waiting until like November in an election, then you need to make sure that the money.
Is there for people to do that because it is expensive.
Yeah, we're talking to something like two or three thousand dollars, right, Like, can you person listening to this, could you right now spend three thousand dollars or something and be fine?
Right? And the answer is probably not.
But and you know, and there's a there are like a lot of people in this country who need abortions, who are like way less well off than you are, Like that is a shit tone of like that that is a lot of money for me, like podcaster, that is, you know, a crippling amount of money for a lot of the people who need this. And I don't know, I mean, I think there's something really bleak about the where society is structured, where your freedom and your bodily
autonomy are dependent on having money. But that's basically where we're at, right, Like that's yeah, that's that's the way the system works right now.
And yeah, there's a part of me that like doesn't want to lean in and like I mean, like you know, I'm I'm a socialist.
I don't want to be like, oh, you know, money, money, money.
But like that is the only reason people are getting healthcare is because there is money available, and people are banding together to pool that money to make it available to people who need it. So I'm just like, thank god, I'm so glad because otherwise I would not be able to get people to their appointments.
And I can like.
Talk out that process too, like you know, what does it.
Look like now?
Yeah, yeah, let's yeah, let's actually go through this.
Yeah.
I want to start off with like, but it what I was when I started. So I've been working in abortion care for six years now, and when I started, I was working in a call center and I would schedule appointments. So I would get a call and I'd collect information and I would book the appointment and i'd say, you know, thank you for as you know, for reaching out to us for your services, and we will see you.
At your appointment. And you know, the calls were.
Long because you know, we'd have to work out financial assistance. And then also abortion care is often just like a really intimate type of healthcare to be accessing. So there's a lot of factors sometimes to discuss with the person that was accessing services, and it could be really complicated
with all of those factors. So, you know, like it's always been pretty labor intensive to schedule someone sometimes, but it was it was fairly you know, fairly short phone call for the most part most of the time, and then you just get somebody scheduled and then you move on and you schedule someone else. And that was six
years ago for me. And I'm not saying that more difficult situations didn't come up, because of course abortion access was not good six years ago either, but the way in which it's changed is so marked, and I feel like there's so many people have witnesses where it went from from that to it taking weeks to work with one individual to get them to an appointment because there is no clinic within eight hours driving distance to them, and so the whole intake process and the whole just
like getting the funds together, I guess I'll just walk you through it because I just I don't even know how else to relate.
So let's say, just like hypothetically.
You know, you're an individual who is living in a band state and they're the closest actual brick and mortar abortion clinic to is nine hours away, which is the situation for so many people that I talk to and that are living in the United States.
And let's say you don't.
Have a car, and you have children, and you don't want everybody to know your business, so you like, you don't want everybody in your family knowing that you need an abortion and that you're looking for that type of health care. So you're trying to do what you can by yourself, and you're googling, and you're looking at different resources. And what I witness a lot as a healthcare worker helping someone through this process is there's a lot of dead ends when people are trying to find someone that
can provide them with those abortion services. They you know, they're looking at the clinics that are close to them, and they're seeing that they're nine hours away and they can't get to them. They're looking up fight tickets and they're seeing it's like eight hundred dollars for their and back and they can't afford that on top of the
procedure cost. And let's just say hypothetically they're early in the pregnancy, and the procedure might cost maybe four hundred, five hundred and six hundred dollars, which is still a
lot of money. That's still a lot of money, So I don't want to pretend like that's not But on top of that, then there's also the plane tickets, trying to find a way to the airport and all of that, and they're just reaching a lot of dead ends like I can't possibly go here, and I can't possibly go here, and okay, like maybe I can go online and order some medication, but it might not arrive for several weeks,
and what if it doesn't arrive. I mean, that's like a really scary thing to be doing, like knowing you need healthcare and knowing that you're relying on the mail and like hoping that you get your packet and that
you can trust wherever you're purchasing the medication from. And if you can't even really like let's say that you're you're further along and you may be are like twenty weeks and your options are incredibly more limited, and you're paying a lot more if you don't have insurance coverage with most people don't, So you're paying like maybe up to I like it, two thousand and three thousand, four thousand for a procedure, and you just need help, and you need to ask for help, which is already like
a not a good spot to be in because you're accessing health care and you have no choice but to ask for help, and you shouldn't have to.
That's really fucking hard, right, Like I mean, I think on an intellectual level, I think everyone has an experience, which is how hard it is to ask for help for stuff that's like incredibly minor. And then you're doing this for a really intimate like healthcare decision, and yeah.
Like super personal, like your decision might be based on like a bunch of factors that are just like really personal for you. And you wish you didn't have to tell people, or you wish you didn't have to talk to so many people about an appointment because you know, for most healthcare appointments, even though healthcare in general is not easy to access, you just call and you schedule the appointment, and maybe you have to pay a copay
and that's annoying. And then maybe the appointm is four months out and that's awful too, but you know, it's this just makes everything worse for the individual. So let's just say, like, you know, they keep trying, and they keep trying, and they keep looking, and you know, let's say they get to me, and I'm somebody who I do. I do scheduling now for patients who need to travel, and I help them get financial assistance for the cost
of travel and for their appointment. So a lot of times when I get in touch with someone, they've already encountered so many dead ends, and when I am not the dead end, they're filled with so much relief that a lot of times this happens almost every day now, someone will get in touch with me and they'll just start crying when I tell them that I can help them.
And that is not a good feeling, because I feel like maybe in like other types of work, or maybe even like before, like maybe years ago, like when somebody was like grateful, it might feel good, like, oh, I'm so glad I can help them.
But when someone who is like a caregiver, a worker.
Somebody who needs health care and they're scared and they're crying out of relief, it does not feel good. It makes me feel really horrible because they have already been robbed of their dignity by the time that I talk to them, and I hate that. It's just it's disgusting that they've already been put in this situation that is dehumanizing, and I just it doesn't feel good when they cry in relief. It just does not feel good. So, just continuing this the tale of you know, this patient accessing
an appointment. So so let's say, you know, they can get an appointment in a clinic. It's not in their state because there's no it's not legal to provide an abortion in their state, so they have to travel two
states away and get to the clinic. So the flight tickets are eight hundred dollars and the cost of the appointment is four hundred, So already that's twelve hundred dollars, which luckily, I am so grateful and glad that I have the ability to arrange financial assistance for that, and I can work with individuals.
To do that.
Thank Thank the Lord, like they honestly, I shouldn't know, not thank the Lord, thank the people the Lord. Yeah, yeah, Like, thank these people so much. I'm just like so glad they exist and they're there and that they're such hard workers.
Oh my god.
But yeah, so that's twelve hundred dollars that we can that we can look into covering. So that way the person pays whatever they are capable of paying, even if that's nothing, because you know, some of these people like like they're living paycheck to paycheck because they're taking care of their children and like their family is coming first. That is what is happening, is they are taking care of their family and they are being a good caregiver. So the you know, the money is going to food
on the tabe. So that's that's like twelve hundred dollars. But then there's a couple other things you have to factor in, is like does this person need a hotel because that can be an additional what like one hundred and two hundred depending And does this person have a car? Can they pay for the gas money, especially if they're driving, because like let's say they can get to an airport, but the airport is still two hours away. You still need gas money, You still have to park at the airport,
you gotta pay for airport parking. And then you get on the air You get on the airplane and you fly over to the state where your appointment is. You get off the airplane, and then there is surge pricing for lyft and Uber and let's say the Uber, it can be anywhere from like maybe fifty dollars or one hundred dollars depending on what's going on, And that is just more money that needs to be spent.
The fact, the fact that they're going to hit by fucking Uber surge process is so monstrous.
Yeah, and like airports in general, like like getting out of an airport using a ride shair is pretty terrible. But yeah, you got to pay the surge pricing, so and then you get to the clinic and then you have your services, which is just really like when you're accessing healthcare.
I mean we're all we all access healthcare.
We're all human beings who need health care. Like, you really want to be able to focus on that appointment and the care you're getting. But at this point, they've
already traveled, like they've been on a journey. So they arrived to the appointment and get the health care that really should have been what they should have been able to focus on, and then they got to go back, so then they got to do the whole thing they got through, go through airport security, get back, get the uber from the airport, and then let's say they have a two hour flight back, and that's I mean, that could be done in all than one day, but sometimes it can't.
Be.
Like sometimes it's just not possible to do all that in one day. And that's like another obstacle that I come across is that a lot a lot. I would say most of the patients I talk to are already parents, So they're like, I have to be back that evening because I don't have childcare overnight, Like I don't have
overnight childcare. So then I'm like trying to get them back the same evening because because they're a parent, And then like, can you imagine just like you know, just like imagine your own parents, like your own like mom, just like zipping away for one day to go get like a really simple health care procedure and then they have to like rush back and you're already in bed, and.
It's just so stressful. It's so stressful for the for the.
Parent, for any any family members that might be like kind of like sharing this whole stressful experience with them, Any friends, any loved ones, and it's just you have.
To find time off too.
Oh yeah, I didn't even get into that.
Yeah, so I don't know, Like I just I said a lot of numbers just now, so I know, I started off with twelve hundred and then I tacked on about a bunch of extra things.
Oh and I didn't mention that you're gonna.
Have to eat that day, you know, like, yeah, you're in another state and you have to get food. So like it easily for one person starts racking up until like over two thousand, and that's why abortion ones are really important. But that's also that's a lot. That's a lot, and that's a lot on top of like an intimate
healthcare appointment. And you know, just just outlining how much someone has to do to get to an appointment, there's even a couple other factors to consider too, because a lot of these people who are having to fly or drive these long distances to their appointment, they would have never been in that situation otherwise. So you know, these are individuals who have never flown on a plane before, maybe because like they've just never been in a.
Situation in which they needed to fly on a plane.
They've always been able to drive to like vacations and everything, like you know, like, oh, family vacation, you drive maybe like four hours, and you know, you have fun, and you just don't want to go on a plane.
It makes you nervous. That's a lot of people live like that.
So all of a sudden, these people have no choice, like, oh, you have to get on a plane and otherwise you're gonna have to drive twelve thirteen hours. So they get on a plane and they're scared because they've never done it before, because they're already stressed out that they're going
to a doctor's appointment. They're already stressed out that they're relying on basically strangers to get them there, which is that's like a whole other topic is like you have to rely on strangers, and that's you know, people shouldn't have to do that. And then also you have to navigate an airport. So a lot of my job has become looking at maps, Like I'm looking at a map like how far away is this someone from a clinic? How far away are they from an airport? You know,
can they go here? Can they go here? But I'm also on the phone with people kind of describing how airports work, like here's what airport security looks like. People are afraid of TSA, and I don't blame them. I fucking hate TSA. They're always passholes.
Fuck them. They make everything worse.
You got to go through TSA and you gotta yeah, I gotta know how to get your tickets, and you got to know how to where, you know, to get to a terminal. A lot of people don't, like if you've never flown before, they might not know that they're supposed to get on that little training you know, you know what I'm talking about, Like you will train, you go to your terminal, and like a lot of people don't know that, and all of a sudden they have to find out really fast and I have to explain it.
And that's part of their abortion care. Part of people's abortion care is now talking them through an airport, and.
That that has sucks.
That's become like the daily experience. That's become the daily experience where it's like, yeah, six years ago, these used to be like Okay, I'm gonna bookr appointment. You're going to come in. Your appointment's going to be maybe like I don't know, five hours and then you and then you leave and you drive home, and maybe you're only driving like thirty minutes, maybe an hour, maybe two hours.
And now we're having people who, you know, flights or it's a twelve hour drive, who are a flight there, who are a flight back. The flight lands at like midnight, you know, like and then your kids are in bed, and.
It's like it's so.
Much, and you can see why people give up, and people are giving up. In fact, the numbers are the numbers are hard to hear. I know that there was a study that showed that in the first six months after the DABS decision, thirty six thousand people who wanted an abortion couldn't get one. And that is only in the first six months, So I'm sure that that number is much I'm like dreading seeing new numbers, but I'm
sure the number is much higher now. So when you're faced with all of this, people do give up because it is too much, which is the whole point of all of the bands and everything that's happened. The point was to make people give up. And I think that a lot of leftists maybe don't want to acknowledge that
people are giving up. They want to believe that people will keep trying and they'll find those resources and they will get to the appointments because help is available, but not everyone finds the help that is out there, and not everyone can make it work. Like there's a lot of reasons why people can't do this ridiculous thing I just described. And then as abortion care workers, we see
them give up. And I think that's kind of been the biggest one of the biggest changes for me is just how often I see people give up and just having to witness that because it's like, well, what does it mean when someone gives up? What does it mean when someone stops trying to get the healthcare that they're
looking for? They're changing their entire plans, like, you know, because like everyone, not everyone, but a lot of people have like ideas of what they're doing with their life, and they're like, I want to have this many kids, I want to have them at these times, and I want to be with this person, or I don't want to be with anyone, and I want to work this job and go to the school or whatever. You know, You're making plans and then all of a sudden, because
of this situation, you have to change your plans. And there's even worse things happening than that, But I think that that's bad enough, is that you can't get what you need and you just have to just change your life and accept defeat and take a path that you did not want to take. And it's fucking sad, and it's more than sad sad as an understatement, I don't
know what word it is. It's horrible because this has been taken from them, The choice has been taken from them completely, and that's that is going to have effects that we are going to see for decades to come.
And that's kind of.
Hard to wrap your brain around, Like what does it mean for that ten and tens of thousands of people to not have had the health care that they need. It means that we're going to see like the negative health effects for years to come because that is a lot of people. That is a lot of that's a lot of people, and that's going to impact people in really long term ways for a really long time. And knowing that is really I don't know, words are kind
of failing me. Yeah, it's like it's like beyond traumatic, beyond Yeah, I'm sure there will be studies in years from now I'm sure, but like it's been a year and I can say, like it's those it's gonna the data is going to be really bad. The data is going to be really bad based on everything that I've already seen.
So suffering is not something you can quantify.
And you know, the amount of human suffering that's been unleashed by this is, yeah, like one of the worst crimes that's happened in the century, full of like unspeakable crimes.
And the suffering looks different for each individual, you know, like because it's just the whole, the whole, it's autonomy. You're losing control over your life and your body, and your family and your and there's just so many things, and it looks different for each person. So for some people it's like you have to just fucking change everything that you're fucking doing. You can't control your life or your body. And then for other people it can be even worse than that.
Where where you are you're.
Risking death because pregnancy is incredibly dangerous. So there are people who who are putting themselves in really dangerous situations with their pregnancies and they're being denied the care that
they need. So you see people who are being forced to risk their life because they can't get the care they need, and people are losing their body parts, and they're for tis because recently I read a story and then there's these horror stories every day, which I like, I read them because I want to know everything that's happening, but I also am so resentful that like every day there's like a new like horror story about these services.
But recently there was someone there was somebody who wasn't able to get timely abortion care it had to continue pregnancy, ended up losing her uterus, even though she did not she wanted to have more kids. She like wanted to continue having children, so all of a sudden, because she couldn't get an abortion, she couldn't continue to expand her
family in the way that she wanted. Sterilized effectively, Yeah, exactly, Like yeah, so it's the suffering is so different for each individual and so intimate to them there, and it's it's going all the way up to like just like state mandated, just like body horror basically, and and it's deadly.
It's really deadly, which is hard to talk about.
Yeah, I mean, you know, just having said that, should we talk a little bit about Gabriela Gonzalez and how you know, the other thing about abortion care is that it's not just that pregnancy is dangerous physically, it's that pregnancy like pregnancy is really dangerous socially because you know, we live in an incredibly patriarchal society and that means patriarchal violence is a real threat.
Yeah, and this is always this Unfortunately one component of abortion care is it often involves interpersonal violence or more you know a lot of people say domestic violence, and it's because a lot of partners will try to control someone through through pregnancy and it's a tactic of abuse that that does come up. And if somebody does get pregnant while they are in that kind of relationship, and.
That's that's a big thing.
You know, a lot of times they it makes sense that if they're trying to get away from someone that you know, they don't want to continue the pregnancy. So and then that might be something that the partner might be intimately involved in where either they know about it or they don't know about it, and if they know about it, they could be pressuring the individual. It's unfortunately something that is often a component of this healthcare is that that is a factor that the person seeking healthcare
is dealing with. So in terms of and all of this is I'm like, this is all really really triggering stuff too, and so trigger warning. But with Gabrielle A Gonzalez, that was something that happened. I think it was in it was in May. I remember it was in mid May.
Because the news hit. It hit hard for us for like a lot of abortion care workers and practical support you know, advocates, because it's the thing that we we try so hard to keep our patients safe when they disclose things to us, you know, they we the patient safety is the number one priority. And the fact of the matter is these bands make it harder for people to access the services safely. So in the case of Gabriella Gonzalez, I just want to say her name. She
was a mother of three children. She was twenty six years old when she was murdered by her ex partner after she accessed an abortion in another state. So she was located in Texas, she had to travel to Colorado to get an abortion and when she came back, unfortunately, she was murdered by her ex and just like a couple,
just like a couple of things on that is. It's just if you are trying to be discreet and you're trying to you know, take care of your healthcare, it's hard to keep things private if you have to fly to another or drive to another state.
It's just this situation is is just so.
Much more complicated than it would be if you could access those services at home or near where you are. It's easier to keep that information private, it's easier to handle that situation in a timely way.
So I feel like, I mean, our.
Country is failing everyone pretty much, but I am torn apart and devastated, and this news hit so hard to learn about Gabriella Gonzalez and what happened to her, and knowing that, you know, we try so hard to keep our patients safe and being careful about communications, being careful about what we hand patients, even like there are some times like it's like, well, I cannot give you any handouts, So here's how we're going to provide you the information,
because it's you know, people can't even have that information on their phone or or in their purse on their person, and trying so hard and then just having like the state defy you in every way, and and it's just really it's trapping people in the in this these violent situations that you say, I mean, these situations have always existed, but ever since these abortion bands went into effect, it is made them even even more dangerous.
Yeah, And I mean, you know, and I think in terms of just sort of getting at what the people who support this stuff believe, like they know about this, like this is this is what they want to happen, right, like this is you know, this is this is what this is what this is what it actually means to have an ideology that's based on patriarchal control.
Is this ship yep?
It's this like this is this this violence and that like this kind of coercion is what they want. These are all so you know, like again these are there's a reason. These are also people who want to end out fall divorce, right like they like their entire ideology is based on men being able to inflict violence, yep.
And and you know, and these are what pro life people. And you know, gabriel A Gonzalez was a mother of three children. She was a mother and her children needed her. And now she's gone, And and I feel like the abortion bands and the like the the demolition of abortion services in the United States has led to this situation and will continue to lead to more situations like this, and they're all devastating and and I hate it. I
just it's fucking awful. It's so fucking bad. And I know that, like, like where do I go from there?
After saying like the in the world, and then yeah,
I don't know, I mean, I guess, I guess. The thing I can say after that, right, is like, if you want to live in a world that is not just utterly controlled by the most evil people who've ever lived by, you know, that is defined by enormous entries of human suffering, like these people their politics, to logistical support networks, their parties, like the entire political apparatus that is doing it needs to be completely destroyed, like like raised to the ground in a way that it like
literally can never recover. And that is the thing that is possible, right, It is possible to completely destroy political movements. It is possible to just drive them so far underground that people forget they even existed. And you know, and then that has happened to movements before that were you know, as powerful.
As this one. So it can be done.
It's just it requires, you know it, it requires a level of political will that most that you know, politicians don't give a shit about because this is not something that affects them.
And speaking of politicians not giving a shit, going back to like, you know, the initial reflection on like you know, it's it's been a year since Roe v Way was overturned in the Dobbs decision, and what has happened, Like what have the politicians done to alleviate all of this suffering that you know, I've been talking about, And it's
it's very little. Like the biggest win that we've had is mif A pristone not being banned, which is horrible because like, oh and then that was that whole yeah, than that whole step, but that's like a whole other thing. But that is such a blique win, especially since it's not even gone and we're going to see this issue
come back with mif A pristone. And and that's another thing too, because if that does happen, like missapriostal is amazing, and MISA pristal is very effective, and taking these prostile
only for abortion is effective. But it's also more symptomatic and given just like you know, like we were talking about people like just people being exposed to violence, people having to act doing just like moving mountains and having to cross mountains and go on a journey to get these abortion services and literally what can be often a thirty minute to an hour appointment if you're you know, lucky,
it's not always like that. But anyways, like these services aren't complicated, like you know, like it's not like a like these y, yeah, we have the technology, like like to get medication, you just go and you get the medication. They tall you how to take the medication, and they make sure they can prescribe you the medication you get it. It's not like that can be like a fifteen minute appointment.
And then if you're if you're like under a certain gestational age, a first time master abortion can be only like five minutes. Like this this is not complicated healthcare. This is very simple healthcare. And you're adding all these extra factors in so when you're when you have to prescribe someone in medication that is more symptomatic, which is just adding like it's just one more complication and.
The attack on abortion services.
Has always been death by a thousand cuts, and this is just like one more cut that we really really do not need.
So but that was a win.
And and and it's like that is such a shitty win. And then you have some states that are becoming like sanctuary states where they're like, you know where I hate I hate saying that word.
I'm so sorry.
I didn't mean to say sanctuary states because it's really not that. But they're saying like, we're a safe place for you to get an abortion and we're never we're always going to have abortion services. And it's like, what does that mean if you have so many patients traveling from other states that you're booking five weeks A.
Yeah, well they won't And it's like they won't fucking fund it, right, Like, yes, this is the thing that like I'm just like unbelievably fucking angry about, right, is it, like you know, dobbs In in terms of just the raw sort of politics of it, Right, in terms of pure getting votes, this is the best thing that's ever fucking happened in the Democratic Party.
Right.
They have been reaping the fucking electoral rewards for this, and what have they been fucking doing for fifty goddamn years, like nothing, right, and this and this is the thing that like, Okay, you know, if if if you look at the way the right has been like fucking dealing with this, right, it's at every single step, right, you know,
they they're constantly involved in lawsuits. They they're they're constantly pushing the boundaries and doing literally whatever they can within the within and without the bounds.
Of the law.
Right.
I mean, we've talked about the sort of vigilante campaigns, right, but like you know, like doing things like like like you know, I mean the one of the classic ones is requiring like facilities that do abortions to have like a specific length of hallway or like like with a different Yeah, and like they've been doing all this fucking legal bullshit to make it as hard as as humanly possible.
Right, is there a democratic version of this?
No? No, they fucking they came to the height of min like even even the states to have the ship like they're they're not fucking funding it, right, They're not fucking paying like they they're ship that they could be doing and they just they don't care because this is this is a you know, this is a very nice thing.
They can trot out in their fucking fundraising meetings and they can get people to vote for them, but they're not gonna they're not gonna wage this kind of campaign that the Republicans have been like, they're not gonna wage a pro access campaign on the scale at all, right, but they're not gonna not gonna wage we on the scale the Republicans have been doing to like make sure that you fuck can't get these services.
Yeah, it's like these blue states they're not safe. And there's like the ridiculous that there was like stockpiling mesapostal or whatever some states were saying they were doing. And it's like, if you're really looking out for people and you're really trying to defy these awful human rights violating laws, then send the medication to band states.
Yeah, I mean I help patients.
In band states, like don't abandon Texas, don't abandon Louisiana and Mississippi, like help them, and because like where are they going? They're going to blue states. Like there's like there's like a ripple effect. And I feel like I talked about this last time when I was on talking to you Where Okay, you can't get these healthcare services near you, so you go somewhere else, and the people locally can't get those services, so then they have to
travel further. And there's like this ripple effect to the point where like I'm sure that like blue states are seeing more appointments than ever, and I know for a fact, like here in Pennsylvania, here in Pittsburgh, where literally we're seeing we're always seeing people in Ohio just because they'll even though abortion is legal in Ohio, it's just there's a lot of restrictions there, so it's a little tricky.
But then there's like West Virginia and like Kentucky and Tennessee, and you're seeing so many more patients, so you're booking out further. And it's like if you're let's say you're eight weeks and you find out, so if you're eight weeks pregnant, then you're you've only missed your.
Period like for like a couple of weeks.
It's really like, you know, you can find out you're a weeks running.
You're like, you just found out, really.
And you call somewhere near you to get an appointment, but the appointment is five weeks away, so all of a sudden, you go from eight weeks to thirteen weeks, It's like what the heck? Yeah, like it's totally different options, Like and that's happening in blue states, and it's like, so this is impacting literally everyone, but no politicians or even like big talking heads are really doing anything about it because it just gets worse. There's just more bands constantly.
And I want to talk a bit about this the sanctuary bullshit too, because I like this is like the third fucking issue that we've seen politicians be like, oh, we're a sanctuary state. It's like, yeah, okay, Like I remember when I was doing fucking anti ice raids stuff, right, do you know how much time we fucking spent trying to stop raids like ice raids in saying in quote unquote sanctuary states, Like it's bullshit.
It's always been fucking bullshit. They don't mean it, and you.
Know, like all of the fucking like this is the sanctuary state thing is just like a thing that they fucking say so that they can you know, just sort of like like rally their based support and like build towards whatever presidential run they're going to do in twenty Like thirty two whatever, and it doesn't. It's not it's not helping people, and it's just not going to Yeah.
It's not.
It's it's not a strategy that works. And I mean, it's just entirely selfish. It's it's it's it's rage inducing because it's you know, how do I feel as an abortion worker. You know, it's been a year since Roe v Way was overturned, and I have to witness all of this needless suffering and trauma and people's safety being compromised and people being hurt and people giving up, and
and then these politicians are not doing anything. I am so I'm full of so much anger that it's it's sometimes numbing, Like sometimes I'm so angry that I kind of feel nothing like it kind of like it's like it's so far down the spectrum that I like just it just turns into like a non emotion basically, like so much anger that it's blinding and feels like nothing.
And I don't even know what.
I don't even know what to do with it other than focus into just like continuing to provide healthcare. Where it's like, oh, I'm so angry and I'm so mad, and I feel so terrible. I am going to make sure that this person gets an abortion. Like that's what I can do. I can, I can get people to an appointment, and I don't I want to do more. I want to go and and just like raise everything to the ground and be like like you were saying, but I can't be the only one doing.
That, like we all have to do ye, Like we all have to raise.
Everything in the ground because this is so untenable and so unfair and and is creating such a huge ripple of suffering that we're all going to be experiencing for decades.
And I'm really bitter about it.
I'm super angry and super bitter, and and it's not going to get better too. It's it's not I have to be honest about that, because if I'm not, then I'm not going to be prepared. But we're going to continue to see these bands, they're not going away right now.
Then if a person issue is going to come back and and we're going to keep seeing it and it's spreading, and you know, I know that that's like a whole other topic too, but the ripple effects are really immense, and every time someone is hurt, well, every individual.
Like when I heard that thirty six thousand number, that really hurt.
Yeah, because you know, I know how many patients I've seen in the last year, and it is it's less than thirty six thousand. So like, I'm happy every time I help someone, I'm so happy, and I'm like, yes, you know, I helped this person get healthcare.
I'm really happy.
And then I look at that thirty six I was a number, and I'm like, oh my god, there are so many other people who were not able to find help, and I'm and I don't like, like I said, like I don't even feel good when someone is like thanking me and they oftentimes people will say people will say to me, I hear this almost every day. You have no idea how grateful and thankful I am. And it's like,
I really don't. I don't know because I'm not in your shoes, and I feel I'm and I'm sorry that I that you had to come to me like this,
Like I'm sorry. I feel I'm so sad in like such a deep visceral way that when someone is saying like you'll never know know how thankful I am that they just weren't able to go to their local doctor's office or even have the medication mail to them and and have it like come in like two days and just take it and follow up with the doctor on the phone if needed, you know, something super simple which would make sense.
And I'm just I'm I just I hate it. I fucking hate it. I just keep coming to that. I'm like, this is so bad, this is so bad. I want to keep doing it, but it sucks.
Yeah, we're gonna talk more about this next episode, and also how the things that we're seeing in abortion care have been spiraling out and spreading to other sectors of the healthcare system, including trends healthcare. But in the meantime, we have an enormous number of links to different abortion funds and various abortioned worker groups who also need your support.
So yeah, please support them. And yeah, so that that's going to be the next episode is because again again like this this isn't a you know, once you have like an evil like this has been unleash into the world, it doesn't just stay in one place, right, keeps moving, It keeps going after different people, it keeps expanding, and it keeps just rippling through the world. And so when we're talking about that, we're gonna be talking about yeah, like you know, I mean the fights that abortioned workers
have been having. And then we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna give you a brief bit of hope at the end of what you can do, because like, fuck it, the world does not need to be like this, Like this is not you know, I mean, there's there's the old David Graber lines like that is the ultimate hidden truth of this world, is that it is something that we make and could just as easily make differently.
Let's do it. Let's make it different.
Yeah, let's fucking do that. It's not let's not let's not make a fucking immense engine of human suffering. Yeah, before we go for this episode, Uh, do you have stuff that you want to plug in terms of like abortion fund links, in terms of resources.
Yeah, absolutely, So I know that I was talking about just abortion funds in general. So find your local abortion fund, go to abortion funds dot org and you know whatever your local abortion fun support it.
And if you feel like you.
You know, your local abortion fund, like you've been supporting them or they get a lot of support and you want to support maybe like funds elsewhere that are doing doing the good work. Then I would recommend the Texas Equal Access Fund, the T Fund in Texas. They are being so amazing and I love them. And also I know that the Chicago Abortion Fund is a huge fund, but I just I love them so much, so I just they can't have enough money.
Just go donate to people. They're so amazing.
So Texas Equal Access Fund, the T Fund, the Chicago Abortion Fund, They're doing such important work. So you know, if you if you're looking for someone outside of your local abortion fund which you should be supporting, then also check them out as well.
Yeah, so, Crystal, thank you so much for joining us. We will be back tomorrow. We will be talking more about this. We'll be talking about what you can do, and yeah, until then, donate to your abortion funds and yeah, make make make the lives of the people who did this fucking miserable and destroy their political power. Yes, it could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool Zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can find sources for it. Could happen here.
Updated monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources.
Thanks for listening.