The Network: Déjà vu

Hey, Latino USA listener, It's Marieno Hossa. We're back again with our new series The Network, a co production of Latino USA and NPR's Embedded Podcast. Now, if you haven't listened to the first two episodes, you're definitely going to want to do that before you keep listening. Remember you can find the rest of this series here on our feed or on the embedded feed. Now, just to recap,

For decades, while people all over the world were embracing self managed abortion with MISA prostel, most Americans had never even heard of it, and many of those who had dismissed it for being a foreign concept.

It was always like, oh, well, yeah, but those are other countries.

That doesn't apply here.

For being irrelevant because for decades Americans had a legal right to abortion.

There was a lot of disbelief that something like this was needed in the United States. A big part of our narrative is that we have abortion access right.

Or they dismissed it for sounding dangerous.

I didn't think it was safe, you know, as doctors were risk at first, and we like control.

This is doctor Maya Bass, a family doctor who also provides abortions, either by performing the procedure or prescribing pills. In the US, patients usually take two pills, misoprostol or miso, the pill we've been hearing about, and another drug called me for Pristo, which makes the process go a little smoother. Early in her career, Maya learned a strict protocol around the pills, with multiple appointments and tests designed to keep patients safe.

Of course, I'm going to confirm exactly how big this pregnancy is. Of course I'm going to confirm that my patient has enough blood to handle this. And yeah, I want to make sure that this worked for them.

T Maya and many doctors. When she first heard about self managing, getting abortion pills without a prescription and taking them without a doctor's oversight, she thought it introduced a ton of risks.

Gosh, what if people are dropping like flies because they're taking meds that are actually rat poison and hurting themselves.

She imagined people only turned to self managing as a last resort.

If somebody really doesn't want a pregnancy and can't get to a clinic, maybe this is an option.

But after Roe was overturned in twenty twenty two for lots of women, the last resort became the only resort.

Please help me, How am I able to receive the pill asap?

Please?

These are emails American women sent to activists who share them with us.

I'm inquiring about abortion pills and how to get them sent to me.

I'm in no way, shape or form financially ready to have a child.

I'm desperate.

In recent years, American women have been reaching out to the network by the hundreds of thousands.

The network in the US is trying to meet this demand, but like we've seen in previous episodes, when the network starts to grow, it's not clear what will happen next.

In Argentina, the network led to cultural and policy changes. In Brazil, it based backlash and restrictions. So in this episode we look at how the network in the US has expanded in the last few years and what a fact that's having on this country.

How will the network adapt in the face of mounting abortion restrictions. From MPRS Embedded and Futuro Media's Latino USA, This is the Network, a series about the DIY method that took safe abortions out of the clinic.

And the women who made it happen.

I'm Victoria Estrada, I'm Marta Martinez and this is episode three deja Vu. For decades in the US, the network was almost entirely absent, but not completely. There were a few places It began showing up in the mid nineties.

We just started hearing that patients were taking some pills.

This is doctor Mark Rosing and OBGYN who works at a hospital in the bronx. Back then, he saw patients from immigrant and Spanish speaking communities taking me, so.

In Spanish they called it the star pill because it's a hexagonal pill.

According to Mark, the women he was seeing in his hospital could have gone to a clinic, but he says many didn't know that in New York insurance or medicaid would cover it, so instead they relied on the network.

They would say I got it from my aunt, I got it from my cousin, and I got it from someone who knows amba. And then sometimes they would also say that they got it in some of the bodegas and the pharmacies around in Washington Heights.

For decades, the network stayed like this, small underground, mostly tied to immigrant communities, but in the late twenty tens, the demand for the network began to grow. American women started to lose access to doctors who could give them an abortion. During this time, states passed hundreds of new restrictions that closed clinics and shortened the timeframe women had to get an abortion.

And then in twenty twenty one, one state passed law that foreshadowed where the entire country was heading.

The Texas Heartbeat Bill is now in effect.

A year before Robosa returned, Texas made national headlines for this new law, Senate Bill eight or SB eight.

Senate Bill eight prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six.

Weeks, barely enough time to know you're pregnant.

The new anti abortion law in Texas has generated an unprecedented level of fear and anxiety for both providers and abortion seekers the state.

The demand for self managed abortion in Texas exploded overnight.

For US, it was de jabu, de jabu. Vera como. It was like going back twenty years.

This is Vera Cruz, the founder of Las Liveres, who we met earlier in the series. Veto heard about SPA from friends in the US. It reminded her of the severe restrictions Mexico had an abortion when she started the group in two thousand. With two decades of experience supporting people through self managed abortions, Veto knew how to help, and she wanted to. She floated an idea to some other collectives in the Mexican.

Networks, why don't we build a network to help people in Texas?

Tod Himosi. We all said yes.

In January twenty twenty two, Veto helped organize a meeting to strategize how to do this. They met in a hotel conference room in Mexico. There were almost fifty activists there from different Mexican accompaniment collectives, and a handful of people video calling in from Texas.

Principal our main idea was that Mexican networks would train networks in Texas and the Texas networks would.

Do the work.

But there was a problem Mido.

The people in Texas were really really scared. People were like, no, no, that's illegal. They can put us in jail.

SB eight made it illegal to quote aid and a bed a woman having an abortion, but the lot didn't define what that meant, so it put pretty much everything the network does into a legal gray area.

Veto says.

The activists on the US side of the call said they weren't ready to get involved in the way she was suggesting, so Veto when the Mexican collectives decided to step in, they would directly provide women in Texas with pills and help them self manage their abortions, and they were going to be very public about it. Veto held a press conference and posted Lasivre's phone number on social media. She wasn't sure it would reach anyone, but that day ten Americans contacted her.

So they only wrote the word help.

In response.

The Mexican collectives carried pill packages across the border and mailed them to the people in the US who had asked for them, free of charge, just like they'd been doing in Mexico for more than two decades. And as work got out, Americans from around the country started contacting VEO. Some sent money, others asked how they could join the network.

Decades people wrote and said I want to help.

How do I help?

Mela Pasenes I spent every day having a lot of video conferences, giving workshops, explaining to all the volunteers how it was done, how it worked, why it was safe for mandoles companies, training them to do a companiamento.

Accompaniment being there during the whole abortion process, regardless of the legal risks.

Yeahtoria, and from those people, we formed a lot of groups throughout the US.

Self managed abortion wasn't only getting support from across the border. There were other notes simultaneously developing around the US.

This is new abortion pills by mail is really really new. In the United States.

This is Elisa Wells, one of the founders of an organization called plan C, which focuses on getting people bills without having to go to a clinic in person.

A lot of people still don't even know about it, and when they find out about it, they think, whoa you know that is? That's insane.

Plancy's website links people to a variety of places where they can order abortion pills online, in many cases both MIFA pristone and Misoprosto. The website lists international clinics and pharmacies abroad that sell the pills, and also US based groups that mail free pills to people living in states with abortion restrictions. Plan C tests the pills from all these sources to make sure they're real.

These are viable ways for people to access pills, especially if they live in a place where there are so many restrictions that they could be forced to carry a pregnancy to term.

Other groups in the network focused on raising awareness about self managing with pills. They put up billboards through parties, slapstickers advertising abortion pills on bathroom doors, and they also pulled publicity stunts.

Jack, So I want to start with you, you seem to be promoting abortion pills.

Like activists Jex Blackmore. They're part of the organization Shout Your Abortion. In twenty twenty two, they went live on a Detroit Fox affiliate to talk about the pills and do an impromptu demonstration.

Charlie, I just really I want to show you how easy it is and save if it is by taking it myself.

You're taking it, are you are?

You're not pregnant?

Are you?

I would say that this is going to end a pregnancy?

And then some groups focused on providing support. Activists answer questions on Reddit and US based hotlines, including a hotline run by doctors like Maya Bass, the doctor we heard from earlier.

I was taught that you need to have an ultrasound, and you need to have this, and you need to have all this.

So like I didn't think it was safe. She thought this until she read research to the contrary, research that showed women around the world were taking MISA on their own and doing it safely.

Maya was shocked, like wait, what, Like seriously, I never knew about any of this.

Studies Maya read showed that the protocol she used, the multiple appointments, the ultrasound wasn't always needed, and she felt.

That realizing that I was unnecessarily putting people through hoops that's hard. And then I felt also excited slash maybe release like this means that I can be less scared for people who are doing this.

After Maya's realization, she wanted to offer women support.

So it really became like, Okay, how can I help? Right at that point, it's like what can we do next?

She decided to become part of the network by volunteering for the support hotline set up by doctors. It's called the Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline. Maya news self managed abortions couldn't replace all abortions. Some people need medical intervention or just preferred to go to the clinic. But to Maya, the hotline and the immediate access it gave women to doctors felt innovative. No longer wait times, no expensive or unnecessary tests.

It feels like I'm just on the cutting edge of medicine. I'm practicing evidence based medicine that is the leading edge of what repairted of health care might look like.

In recent years, American doctors on the whole have gotten more comfortable with self managed abortion The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has publicly supported it. In a statement, they called on doctors to educate themselves and provide assistance for patients who self manage. Other doctors have acted more directly, prescribing pills from states with abortion protections to people in states with restrictions. This wasn't the network of the nineties

And then, on June twenty fourth, twenty twenty two.

The Supreme Court upended nearly a half century of legal precedent.

The day the network had been preparing for arrived.

It's a moment advocates for abortion rights have feared and that opponents have been working toward for decades.

In the case Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization, the Court overturned Roversus Wade. It left the legality of abortion up to the states, thirteen of which immediately criminalized or nearly banned abortion. On the day role was overturned, the number of women reaching out to the network grew exponentially.

Our website traffic went from about three thy eight hundred a day to three hundred and eighty two thousand.

And it didn't stop once Rowe fell. We reached about two thousand people a day in our first month.

We have days now where the phone is kind of ringing all day.

This waterfall of call coming in groups that male people pills were inundated.

They got so many requests that it crashed their system. It just shows you how big the demand is for this service.

Over the past few years, the network's role has expanded in the US, and self managed abortion has become more mainstream. Cosmopolitan magazine even published a handful of articles about self managed abortion, including a complete how to guide.

But it's not just.

Women who want abortions who are paying attention.

We've certainly been called drug dealers. We've been called murderers, abortionists, you name it.

The anti abortion movement is too.

People who are working in their communities to help other people access abortions. They are increasingly coming under the crosshairs.

That's after the break.

The legal landscape around abortion has been constantly shifting since Rowe was overturned, with dozens of new state laws restricting abortion going into effect. It can be hard to keep track and for people seeking abortions. All the changes have created a lot of uncertainty, confusion, and fear.

People are just absolutely terrified. They are experiencing spiraling anxiety.

This is Elizabeth Lying, a lawyer at ifwen how, a reproductive justice organization. She helps run their legal helpline. She says they've been getting a lot of calls in the past few years with people asking questions about the safety of self managing their abortion or helping someone else. Not medical safety, but legal safety. If they do it, will they end up in jail?

Is my Internet history being watched? Is my mail going to be searched? A lot of what of this happens? What if this happens? What if this happens?

She says. The fear has made some people too scared to act.

The chilling effect makes people afraid to even ask the question of what are my options because they are worried that if I ask the question of what are my options, that is now somehow going to get me into legal trouble.

The people who call into the legal helpline are not being paranoid. Seeking an abortion can put you at legal risk. It didn't used to be this way. Historically, abortion seekers have not been the target of restrictions doctors have and they still are. Some state attorneys general have sued the doctors who are doing the work we mentioned earlier mailing pills from states with abortion protections to people in states with restrictions.

But a self managed abortion with pills has taken off, abortion opponents have broaden their strategy.

They have realized that banning abortions after sixpeaks of pregnancy is not sufficient to stop people from ending unwanted pregnancies.

Parad Estello is a lawyer and colleague of elizabeths at if When how She's watched how abortion opponents have begun to target women the network and its method self managing with pills. But bringing charges against women at least has been challenging because for the most part, there aren't specific laws that criminalize ending your own pregnancy. With the exception of Nevada, it is not illegal for a person to

Laws that prohibit concealing a birth that were intended to punish people for hiding out of wedlock births, laws against abuse of a corpse, which are really about desecration of human remains and brave robbing.

And on the most extreme end of the spectrum in.

Some seats, we're talking about homicide charges.

That happened to a woman in Texas after the state passed its six week abortion ban. She was arrested for murder after taking abortion pills.

Charged with murder because of a quote self induced abortion.

She's been arrested and will be arranged Wednesday.

Abortion opponents are also going after the people women are turning two for support, people who.

Are working in their communities to help other people access abortions. They are increasingly coming under the crosshairs.

In some cases, mothers who've helped their daughters self managed have been arrested. Cases like these have made news in Louisiana and Nebraska.

A teenage girl and her mom in Nebraska are facing criminal charges following the teen's abortion. Alice got their Facebook messages about it through a search warrant.

The pills themselves have also become a political target. For example, Robert F. Kennedy Junior brought them up at his confirmation hearing to become US Secretary of Health and Human Services.

President Trump has made it clear to me that he wants me to look at safety issues.

He recently ordered the Food and Drug Administration to review federal regulations for one of the abortion pills, mifa priston. He referred to a paper from a conservative think tank that questioned the safety of mifa pristone and called for more restrictions on the drug, but it wasn't peer reviewed, and medical experts have criticized it for flaws in its analysis. More than one hundred peer reviewed studies have found the

That person's name comes up again in Google searches, and that creates this indelible, inescapable record. I've had former clients who have been unable to get work. I've had clients had to change their names because of the harassment they faced in their Communities.

Far's organization if when How has been keeping track of the ways people get caught up in the legal system. About half of all criminal cases for self managing start in a medical setting. According to the organization's data, the vast majority of self managed abortions with bills do not result in any complications, but if a woman feels like something might be wrong and goes to the hospital, she increases her chances of coming into contact with law enforcement.

Hospital personnel, whether that was nurses, doctors, social workers reported them to law enforcement because they were suspicious of them. Once it happens, it is like a train going down a track.

If healthcare workers think someone may have committed a crime, they're allowed to share information with the police that would otherwise be private. As we've said, except in Nevada, self managing is not a crime, so there's no reason for doctors and nurses to call the police, but sometimes they do.

Anyway, FARA has noticed that some people are more likely than others to end up in legal trouble.

In the cases that we've worked on, it is mostly people who are trying to figure things out on their own. It has never been either somebody who was supported by an accompaniment network or somebody who was involved with an accompaniment network.

The network has developed strategies to try to protect women who are having abortions. We spoke to a woman named Elle who does this work. She's an abortion to that's what many Americans who do accompaniamento call themselves. We're not using Elle's full name because she fears potential violence against her. We're also using a voice actor. From the moment that women reach out, Elle coaches them on how to keep their communications secure. If they contact her on Gmail, she'll tell them.

This is not safe for you or us, and I can't interact with you until you download an encrypted app.

Once they're in touch, Elle explains that the pills are safe, but the side effects like vomiting and heavy bleeding can be alarming. She walks them through how to help prepare so they don't seek medical help unnecessarily.

You should have plenty and plenty and plenty of maxi pads. You should have your IBET profile, and you should have plenty of fluids.

Elle also advises women on how to take the pills. Elle tells them to not insert them me so vaginally where it can leave a residue, but to dissolve it in their cheeks or under the tongue. That way, if they go to the hospital, there's no evidence they've done something to cause an abortion.

The symptoms of an incomplete abortion and the symptoms of a miscarriage are igentical. They can't tell.

Once the abortion starts. Elle checks in often, and if a woman needs or wants to see a doctor, El tells them to call the miscarriage an abortion hotline, the one runs specifically by doctors, or she points them towards doctor's offices that the network trusts.

In some places, we have friendlies, you know, we have clinics where we know we can safely send someone if.

They need to get care outside the network's connections. LL runs through what to say to medical staff.

We role play what would you say if they're said, what's going on? What did you do? What did you take?

Well?

What's going on is I don't know. I think I might be having a miscarriage. I started bleeding all of a sudden.

The network is also taking measures to protect itself when speaking in public. Volunteers have learned how to use language that isn't incriminating. They talk in a code of hypotheticals even in social media videos.

I figured I.

Would let you know what I would do if I were to find out I was pregnant and I wanted to have an abortion.

Now, please note this is not medical advice whatsoever or at all, just one person sharing resources with another.

I would take four of the mesa prostel.

Have you ever seen a more iconic pill.

So far, the growing legal restrictions have not stopped the network in the US from helping women self manage their abortions. But there's another challenge. The network is struggling with a much broader invisible force. That's after the break.

The network is global, stretching all around the world, but in each place it shows up it's different. It adapts to the specific culture it lands in and faces specific barriers.

In the US, one of the largest barriers is awareness. For so long, access to abortion in the States was centered around clinics. As a result, many Americans don't know there's a way to have a safe abortion without a doctor's help.

Research published in twenty twenty four found that most Americans who have attempted to self manage their abortion in the past few years have done dangerous things like kid themselves in the stomach or drink alcohol. Only about a quarter of the women in the study use pills.

When Americans do find the network, they're very American about the way they interact with it. They treat it like a service. Veto, who studied Las Libts in Mexico, noticed this as she began supporting women in the States.

I would take some time to reply to them and it was like, hey, answer me. I wrote to you five minutes ago, and it was.

Like hey wait.

No.

Verto explained that Last Divides was not a service or a business. It was just a bunch of volunteers sharing pills and offering support.

The bio basencia, the bo respect.

So I'm going to ask for your patients and I'm going to ask for your respect. And people were like, oh sorry, I'm just very nervous.

And just like a purchase. After women in the US got what they needed, that was it.

It's very American in some ways to say, oh, look there's a pill, let me get the pill.

One sociologists. We spoke to Naomi Brain, who studied the self managed abortion movement across the world. She's noticed that Americans generally think that the pills alone can overcome abortion restrictions, but Naomi wants them to think bigger.

This pill only comes to life in some way within a network. It only comes to life in the presence of solidarity. Otherwise you're alone with cramps in a bathroom and nobody knows, and that's really not a very liberatory experience.

L the abortion Doula is a bit more pragmatic. She thinks the pills in and of themselves are powerful, but like Naomi, she wants Americans to focus more on supporting each other.

I wish there were more We need more people.

But she doesn't see that happening anytime soon.

I think that people are really heads down, trying to survive a lot, and not necessarily thinking about linging arms and marching forward in solidarity. Whereas in Mexico, I have the sense that the circle keeps growing. The people who've been helped directly turn around and help others.

But in our reporting, we have seen the circle widening in the US in ways that remind us a lot of how the network took shape decades ago. In Latin America, we heard stories of older sisters who had self managed before helping their little sister through it. People getting pills and advice from their hairdresser, and several examples of people who had been supported by dulas getting trained to become dullahs themselves.

Yeah, I just wanted to be a part of it too. You know, this is H.

We're using her initial because she fears harassment for what she did. In twenty nineteen, H, a mom of four kids, decided she wanted an abortion. She could have gone to clinic, but she'd heard about protesters lining the sidewalks with bullhorns and signs. She didn't think she could handle walking through all of that.

I didn't feel shame, but I felt like I could have been persuaded to be shamed of what I was about to do.

H worked in the reproductive health space and a friend in the same field told her about the network. ACH's friend was part of it and said she could get H pills for free. H was pretty surprised something like it existed, with aliases and everything.

Like, Oh, there's a whole group of you, and you're all like underground and secret squirrel and using different names and all this stuff. It was just mind blowing.

Her friend, who's an abortion doula, offered to support H through a self managed abortion. H hadn't realized it was possible to do it this way, but she was.

In I wanted some autonomy and control over the situation.

Her abortion. Doulah friend helped think through where she wanted to have her abortion and what she needed to be comfortable. When the day came, that friend, along with another Dulah friend, and H gathered in a hotel room with plenty of comfort food. H started by lighting a kendle and taking time to reflect.

I wrote out some negative feelings or anxieties that I was having, and I ripped them up and we threw them away as like a released ceremony.

And then she took the bills. When she started bleeding and cramping badly, the women accompanying H reassured her.

Like is this normal? Is this okay?

You know?

And they're like yes, yes, yes.

To help her manage the pain, H's friend prepared the bath for her and four cups of hot water down her back. They stayed with her all night through the next morning.

When it was finished, H says she felt relieved, a feeling that stayed with her, and she also felt grateful to have had the experience outside of a clinic.

I just wish that there was more of a focus on creating spaces for people that are going through this experience. That's my desire is that everybody gets to experience being supported through their abortion and that it's not just the sterile thing that you have to go through.

After her abortion, H wanted to create those spaces for others, and so she trained to become an abortion dueler. She remembers supporting one woman as she managed her abortion.

At home.

They were eating food and watching an episode of the sitcom mod where the main character had an abortion. Worlded, don't pat me there, that's what started this whole thing.

We were just joking and laughing, and then her cramping got a little bit harder.

When the woman started cramping, H told her to get into a hot bath to help manage the pain, just as their Jula friends told her to do during her own abortion.

She got out of the tub eventually and walked over to go open the sliding glass door and turned around, and the pregnancy expelled as she was like taking the step, and she realized what happened and instantly dropped to her knees.

H says the moment suddenly became still and quiet, and then the woman went out onto her deck where she had plants.

She was crying.

She buried it in a pot of wildflowers that her other children had potted, and then we tucked her into bed, like right before her husband brought her children home.

When age got involved with the network, she didn't know the history she was stepping into, how Brazilian women discovered me so how Latin American activists built entire communities to support women using this bill. She didn't realize that her experience was part of such a large scale shift. The pills and the communities growing around them are already changing how people have abortions across the world.

In twenty twenty two, the World Health Organization published guidelines for self managed abortion that said it's safe and effective in the first trimester. In our reporting, we found that parts of the network safely support people later.

Into their pregnancies.

The guidelines even mentioned accompaniment and say that when men who self manage benefit from access to support, which doesn't necessarily have to come from a doctor.

In places with abortion restrictions, like the country where we started the series, Brazil, self managed abortion may be the only option for most people who want to end their pregnancies. But the who encouraged doctors to not look at self managed abortion as just a last resort but a quote

Will the network do the same for the US too?

There's no putting that Genie back in the bottle.

This is the red wine. She's American, but for thirty years she worked for Planned Parented Global in Latin America. She watched as the pill and the network swept across the continent, and now she's seen signs that something similar is happening in the US.

That wave is coming.

It's here.

It's like crashing over the shores of the United States, and it is going to change entirely the landscape of abortion, just like it did globally.

The entire ecosystem around abortion pills. In the US, activists, doulas, and doctors has contributed to a surprising statistic. Since Roe fell, Americans are having more abortions, even in states with bands.

The irony of this post Dobbs World is that if it goes the way that I think it will, which is what I saw in Latin America, in some ways, abortion ironically will become more accessible but less legal.

In the minds of many Americans, access and legality are inextricably linked, but these two things are becoming untethered because of abortion pills and because of the network.

In the years to come, there's a question both abortion rights supporters and opponents will be asking themselves. The government can make abortion illegal, but can it end safe abortion as long as the network is around.

This was the final episode of the network. If you want to learn more about the network, like how doctor Maya Bass and other doctors changed their minds about self managed abortion, go to NPR dot org slash Embedded Network. That's NPR dot org slash embedded network.

The network from Embedded is a collaboration with Latino USA, a production of Futuro Media.

This episode was reported by Abbi Wendel and Me Victoria.

Strada and me Marta Martinez. This episode was produced by Arianna Garrett, Lee, Adelina Lenzianie and Abbi Wendel, with production support from Monica Morales Garcia. Reyna Cohen edited the series.

Fact checking by Donia Suleiman.

Robert Rodriguez mastered the episode.

Leanna Simpstrom is our supervising Senior producer, Katie Simon is our supervising senior editor, Irena Gucci is our executive producer, and Colin Campbell is the Senior Vice President for Podcasting at MPR.

The embedded team also includes Ristreis and Dan Germa.

From Latino USA. Our executive producers are Merlin Bishop and Pennilee Ramidez, and our production managers are Jessica Ellis and Nancy Truchigo.

Thanks to our Managing editor of Standards and Practices, Tony Kevin, and to Johannes Urghy and Micah Ratner for legal support and Tommy Evans, MPR's managing editor Editorial Review.

And thanks to NPR correspondents Selena Simons Stephen and Alissa Nett Warney.

Our Visuals editor is Emily Vogel. Original tail art by Luke Medina.

Voiceovers by Andrea de Alva, Alvaris, Barbara Trehar, Justine jan Leanna Simpstrom and Abby Wendel, and thanks.

To Matthew Alstrom for the engineering assist. This is our final episode of the network and we want to thank the many people that we've talked to who didn't appear or weren't mentioned in the series, including Phoebe Jane, Amelia Bono.

Simone, Denice Angel Foster, Jesse Hill, Jenkarlin, Vania Maya, Ariela Messing, Maureen Paul, Jamila Parrott, Mariana Brandini.

Catherine Romanos, Ruge Doulas, Lupita Sanchez, Carrie Sistra, and Susan Yano.

Your knowledge and experience helped us shape the series, and we're grateful for the time you gave us, and a big thanks to our Embedded Plus supporters. Embedded is MPR's home for ambitious journalism, and Embedded Plus helps us keep that work going. These supporters get early access to every Embedded series and they get to listen, sponsor free. Find out more at Plus dot NPR dot org, slash Embedded.

I'm Marta Martinez.

I'm Victoria Strada.

This is embedded from MPR.

Thanks for listening for the scutar.

Latino USA is brought to you in part by the Levi Strauss Foundation, outfitting movements and leaders fighting for a more just and abundant world, with the support from the International Women's Media Foundation as

Part of its Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice in the America's initiative, and the v Day Foundation.