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of being in the zone. By yours at Walmart today, Good morning, peepson, and welcome to wikay f Daily with me your girl Danielle Moody recording from the Bunker. By now you have no doubt heard the horrendous story of the ten year old girl, Ohio girl who was raped and was found to be six weeks and three days pregnant and had to travel to Indiana in order to
receive an abortion. The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and other Republicans had the audacity to say that her story her trauma was quote unquote too good to be true. The President of the United States used her story while enacting an executive order that just frankly and I take my queue from abortion Rights activists on the ground just
doesn't go far enough. They can go further. And I sit here as we are heading into the first full month of people with uterus is not having bodily autonomy in this country, and we are hearing horrendous story after horrendous story, and you have the Texas Attorney General suing the Biden administration to ensure that Texas has the right to kill people right. HHS has released guidelines that say that when the life of the pregnant person is at risk, that an abortion can in fact be used as a
life saving procedure. Texas says, nah let him die. Indiana, which has abortion, their attorney general, who is a Republican, has decided to go after the doctor who gave life saving medical treatment to this ten year old so that she wouldn't have to be a mother at ten to her fucking rapist. This country is so fucking sick and distorted, and by the day I become increasingly disgusted. Today I'm once again joined on wogay f by the founder and CEO of We Testify, Renee Bracy Sherman, who you know.
I will tell you, folks that there are times when doing interviews for me, really hit me in the moment right where, you know, I become overwhelmed with the despair, with the anguish, with the pain that people are so willing to share, that are on the ground doing the necessary work to help people, particularly in this case, help people get the treatment that they need, the healthcare that they need in order to have a say over their
own goddamn lives. And Renee started off the conversation, you know, emotional, and how could she not be She is still going to airports and picking people up and taking them on long journeys to go and receive the care that they should be able to get in their own fucking communities, right that they shouldn't need to reach out to an abortion fund to be able to get the funding that they need in order to fly, drive, go to different
states to get their care. One of the things that Renee brings up in our interview is that, you know, nothing was mentioned in the executive order that would allow funds to be given to people that need to travel in order to get an abortion. And I say something that I'm going to say at the beginning of the show that you will hear me say later on, which is that I don't believe that Joe Biden actually is
pro choice. I believe that abortion runs in complete and total conflict with his religion, and it is why he has been pulled, kicking and screaming to do the least with regard to protecting the right to bodily autonomy. It took him weeks to even come out and say anything for full He still doesn't utter the word abortion, and he still is not using the full force of the federal government in order to protect women and people with uterus is. And the question that I keep asking is why.
And the only thing that keeps floating up to my mind is because he's a Catholic right and he's only going to do but so much and he believes oh well, and I said, you know the reason why, I don't believe that this is a political move, because his poll numbers are in the fucking trash and the poll numbers for abortion are still in the seventy and probably now high seventy, low eighty percentile now that the right is gone, And so what is stopping Joe Biden and this administration
from taking the urgent action that is necessary. And frankly, you know what you will hear from Renee is her feeling about the decisions that are being made and the executive orders that are being pushed out as like milktoast. All it is is asking for more research and reports and she goes. Movement leaders put together those reports before Biden even put his hand on the fucking Bible, Right, So you don't need an EO to say that we need more research. You know, we've had fifty fucking years
of research that's been done. Also, you've had a considerable amount of fucking lead time given the fact that we had saw that leaked draft weeks prior to the decision being final, and there was no action that was taken. If anything, there should have been action that had been taken once Biden was sworn in, and we saw that Amy Coney Barrett was yet the second seat that was stolen from Democrats, they should have come in solidifying, right. So, you know, people ask why do you go so hard
against Democrats? Because Democrats are the one out here promising people shit and not delivering. And frankly, for many people who have dedicated their lives to the advancement of equity, bodily autonomy, and justice for all people in this country.
Their fucking slow walking is getting a little tired. Coming up next, my full conversation with our friend, Renee Bracy Sherman, Folks, I am happy to welcome back to Woke f Daily, Renee Bracy Sherman, who is the founder and an executive director of We Testify, an organization dedicated to the leadership and representation of people who have abortions, focusing on the intersection of race, class, and gender identity, and centering those
who've experienced financial and logistical barriers to abortion. Renee, it's been a hell of a last three weeks. When we had you on last it was the conversation around the leak draft, what if, what if? What if? Well, the what if is here? All of the things that we thought that we feared that you have spent your life
working to ensure the protection thereof is now gone. And so before we dive into any specifics on what your organization and you as an advocate and leader, have been experiencing and how quickly things have devolved, how are you doing. I'm a little more emotional today than I am most days. I'm tired. I'm really tired, and I'm not even as tired as the folks who are in the clinics on the ground, the abortion funds, As the clinics are closing
abortion funds, they have to stop operations. We're just all really tired, and it's really exhausting, not only because of everything that's going on that you know, we've warned about it for ten years and no one listened to us. And even now it's still with the ideas where we're like, here's what we need to be able to move forward. The response is, well, we can't do that, and here's why. Even though we know that you can, we're just choosing not to. And so I think that's adding to the
disappointment and the frustration. Like many activists across the country, I still do what's called practical support, so I picked people up from the airport and drive them to their hotel or to their abortion appointment. And so I'm still very much seeing the impact of what's happening on the ground with people who are traveling from states where abortion is now a crime, and they're feeling really defeated and frustrated and upset because they were so close and yet
you know, just missed it. Though, everyone is just really really tired, and I don't I don't know how we keep this up. I really don't, you know, no, dope,
please do not apologize. Emotions are extraordinarily raw and for you and the people like you who are in this work every single day have been on my mind since the leak draft and the stories that are floating up that we are seeing in the headlines are so disturbing, are so heartbreaking, are so alarming as of you know, just a few days ago, Texas Attorney General, who by the way, is under his own indictment charges, has decided to file suit against the Biden administration stopping HHS from
enforcing guidelines that say that in the matter of a pregnancy affecting the life of said pregnant person, that abortion can and should be used as a procedure in order to save their lives Texas, says Jenna. And so when we recognize that there is no common ground with these people, there is no exception, right, there is no carve out it is. I don't care if you're ten years old and you have been traumatized multiple times, We're going to
traumatize you again and again and again. And now we're gonna disrupt and maybe put the doctor who lawfully treated you out of business right for saving essentially saving the life of a ten year old, because that's what that doctor did. Um, I just I guess I will. I will ask you this. Biden has been underwhelming in this area. He has been underwhelming, and I am and I am
being nice response. I'm being very nice. I'm choosing my words, and I want to get your reaction to uh the executive order UH that was put into effect, and what you felt about the content of that executive order and what should if you think it was not enough, which I'm assuming you do not, what should have been in there, and what still can be done. Well, First, I want to go back to the original point you were saying
about the little girl. Yes, all of the folks in Texas and we have always known that our lives did not matter to them. That is why they could not just say black lives matter. They have actually never cared about our lives, our health, our safety. It's always been about control. But I do think it's really scary for
people to see that in real life. And they have been hearings all week this week on Capitol Hill where now the anti abortion movement knows that they're so out of step, and it looks really bad that you are denying this this young girl her autonomy and with her parents' support that they're they're now changing it and saying, well, that's not an abortion. If it's happening on a ten year old survivor, it's quote not an abortion. It's what the head of AUELL said yesterday. What is it now?
It was changing. They're changing the definition of an abortion. And also when you terminate a pregnancy that's an ectopic pregnancy, they're now saying that's also not an abortion. So again, what they're doing is they're changing the definition of what an abortion is. But actually, to me, it's always been the same thing because what to them, abortion is not a medical procedure. It is about controlling people, both freedom
and atom. And so to them, they're making the definition of an abortion anything that someone freely chooses to terminate a pregnancy that they that they did not want, and that is actually about the control. And I think people really really need to see that. That's why they can't say abortionist healthcare because then they'd have to say, yes, we believe in healthcare, right, but it is the what abortion symbolizes is our freedom and our own decisions to
make our own futures in our own lives. To get to the Biden EO. I am so tired of fighting pro choice politician. I'm so tired of it. And people keep asking me, why don't you yell at the Republicans, Because you know what, the Republicans never promised freedom and autonomy and access to abortion. They never promised us that. They have not gone back on any of their promises. They told us exactly what they were going to do. They never said they were going to save us. They
said they were going to save the babies. Yep, that is it. Democrats are the ones who said that they would save us, that they would be there for us, that they would make sure Row didn't fall. They are the ones that are are really being frustrating. I was in a meeting where someone described I think a Republican who's quite ultra right as as as a moderate and who's really trying to bring the party back, and I think they're so out of touchage with what is actually happening. Hey,
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Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. New episodes every Tuesday, and yet they tell you right there was It was just the other day with the outgoing White House communications director who said that you'll are the ones that are out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party that it's the activists, right, those that are on the fucking ground doing the work shuttling the people, trying to
keep these funds going, trying to protect people's autonomy. But you're the ones that are the problem for identifying the fact that they sold us a bag of bullshit that they had no intention of backing up, right right, And I'll I'll say to her on that, Kate, your president, your boss's approval ratings are in the thirties. Abortion has been seventy and higher, come on since nineteen seventy three. So you can say whatever you want to, excuse your
milk toast response, but the facts are the facts. Just because we're being sold, as you rightfully put it, a bag of bullshit, doesn't mean we have to accept it. And we are not out of step for telling you what is the solution and you batting it away as if we don't know what we're talking about, and then giving us this executive order that does very little. Most of the executive order is ordering more reporters from HS that'll be due in thirty days. It's a delayed response.
You know what they have, the reports you and I know why because our movement has put them together for the last eighteen months. We have reports put together way before Biden even was inaugurated. So spare me that you're doing something. We've asked for a public health emergency? Where is it? We have asked for protections for providers so they don't become criminalized. Exactly what has happened as what's
happening with the doctor with doctor Bernard in Indiana. I will also say what has been really painful and on my heart when President Biden announced that executive order, which I want to be clear, the timing of it was announced that it was going to happen overnight. The other thing was that they had been notified that Bloomberg News was doing an article. They had a scoop that the White House, they had talked to White House sources and sources at HHS that the President had considered a public
health emergency and said yep. So the timing of that executive order seems like it is to cover up the fact that they had are not doing what we had specific pacifying, So I want to I want to be clear about what that was. And then the Saturday after when we did not accept their executive order and we said this is not what we asked for and sent it back. That's when we got called out of steps.
So I want to be clear, you don't seem to have the time to go after Joe Mansion and Kurson Cinema, who were holding up the racist philibuster, but you got time for me who. I want to be clear. When I heard about that out of step comment, I was in the middle of helping someone get an abortion, so
excuse me that I don't time for them. But with this speech, Biden spoke about that ten year old who needed an She's been on my mind and my heart for so long, right since the story came out, because I don't know if she is going on the internet or parents are going on the internet trying to use the Internet and seeing their daughter's story being debated, where she has almost been dehumanized by all sides because she's she's a talking point, or she's a fake story or
whatever it is. She's a human being. And as someone who has shared my abortion story, I know what that's like to see people talk about you like that, and it's extremely dehumanizing, and I don't know what it's going to be like for her as she continues to grow up and then looks at the history books of that time and sees herself talked about in this way. I hope she is being surrounded by love and support, and
I hope that she has they. But also, as Biden was using that story to just by his executive order, he talked about the freedom to travel, and yet he did not announce any financial support for someone like her or anyone who has to travel for an abortion. He could do that with a stroke of his pen. That's not covered by the High Amendment, and yet he's choosing
not to. So how is it that you're willing to use this little girl's experience, her trauma, or her story, but not do anything to help her and her family get from Ohio to Indiana for that abortion. I will also say that those of us who had abortions have been asking for months to meet with the president so he could hear our stories, and he has refused. His staff continues to not respond to us. And this is not unheard of Clinton met with people who had abortions
ahead of vetoing a later abortion. And so my question is, is President Biden, at what point will you actually meet with us and listen to our stories. Our stories are not props for you to justify your milk toast response. We are real people. Several week testify storytellers have been testifying before Congress, including one who testified just earlier this weekend on Wednesday. Right, they put themselves up, share their stories,
make their voices heard. They get called murderers, they get harassed by Fox News and all the conservative outlets for weeks on end. And yet our pro choice president can't be bothered to meet with us and to thank us for what we are doing in service of our nation. He meets with every other impacted group when they're being harmed. He meets with all the union organizers as they're trying to get workplace rights right. You know who else is
doing that? People have abortion because part of those union contracts are access to abortion care. So it's so frustrating that he will meet with everyone else but us. And my question is, what are you afraid of? Because I'm pretty sure, I'm just I'm gonna say it. I'm pretty sure that this president is actually not pro choice. I'm pretty sure that his religious beliefs absolutely supersed where he is willing to go. I do not think that this
is a political maneuver. I don't and I never have because, to your point, the poles are on our side. The poles are on the side of people who believe that bodily autonomy should be a part of our constitutional rights. Right. So this isn't about oh, well, how will Republicans use it? It's that he doesn't believe in it, so he will do the bare minimum. What can I What can I do that will allow me to seem as if I'm making moves towards protection without actually doing the heavy lifting.
That's where that's that's where this administration is. And so you know when when we when we listen to or read the quote from the outgoing White House Communications director and saying that we're out of step, it's like, this is what this is My problem with Democrats, the democratic establishment and leadership altogether, is that you all are out of step. Right, that this is why nine of the people who are thirty and below don't want to fuck
with you. This is why they are not engaged with wanting to vote for you, because they see the bare minimum that you're doing. Right. They are tokens and they are stories, but they are not right. Policy measures that need to actually be put in place to protect those very people that you say that you're a courting into your party. Renee tell us a few minutes. Oh yeah, please have been real quick there, because what is so frustrating is that for them to call us out of step.
I didn't have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty twenty primary campaign to support the High Amendment. He did. The Democratic Party removed supporting the High Amendment from the platform the party platform in twenty sixteen. It wasn't until activists pushed and pushed and pushed that Biden
finally reversed his stance. He was out of step with his own party for four years, and it basically wasn't until he was already going to be the nominee that he changed his position to be in line with the party and in line with everyone else. With the exceptional Telsea Gabert, who was on that stage, who is out of step, It is not. I am ahead of step.
My colleagues and I we saw what was happening. So you want to call us out of step, we're out of step because we're ahead of you and we're come on, we are not out of step as in we're being dragged kicking and strength, screaming behind, asking to being left behind. Yes, our ideas are new, but Paul, so that they support them. We're not behind the times. And if that's what you mean by out of step, being ahead, yes, yes we are.
But actually no, you're out of step. And that is exactly why we now have senators and we had a whole letter from black representatives congresswoman calling on him to do the public health emergency. He is officially out of step with his party even right now, with something that activists have been asking for for weeks. I will also say on that comment, there's the comment that kind of
flies under the radar. There was UM advisor Jennifer Palmieri's comment where she said, you know, these activists, what is Biden supposed to do in two weeks? Honey, it hasn't been Come on, it's been nearly fi It's been fifty years and two weeks. How about that. Biden has been in office only I think three months longer than Roe had been the law of the land. So it has not been two weeks. It has been fifty years. But you know what, let's let's start it he was inaugurated.
So it's been eighteen months. You want to go to when the league happened. It's been six weeks and no calculation has been been two weeks. To stop acting like this is a tornado. Nobody saw it coming get out of here. But that I mean, but that's it, that's what That's what pisses. But that's what gets people so
pissed off. And then when you have the audacity to come out and talk and speak against this administration, and I love what you said earlier, Renee, which is like when people say, well, why don't you go I get the same bullshit. Why don't you go hard on Republicans? I go hard on Republicans all day long. But Republicans didn't promise us shit right. Republicans have contented continually and
consistently shown us who they are. It is the party who tells us that they are better, that they have the shared the shared values with us, that continue to lie to us. Right. So like, I can't I can't go after the person that is telling me to my face, you ain't shit right and I don't even see your humanity. And then I'm gonna allow the person who tells me no, no, no rainbows, black fists, all of these things. We're with you, but we're with you for a slogan and then go away.
Then after that you become a problem. And that's where that's where my other point, right, kind of one other point. The two who were speaking, who said this in the article, calling us out of step, I want to be clear that they's are white women. Those are white women speaking, two women of color who have been the backbone of not only this party but the abortion rights movement for
so long. Come on, how do you call yourself an ally to folks of color and to black folks when we ask you for something and you shut us down, calling us activists as if that's some sort of derogatory word. Who's out of step? Activists are the only ones that I've ever gotten anything done in this country. I like the levels to how disrespectful those comments were. On a race level and on this like a cilevel, Yes, on a race level, on a class level, yep, yep. Anyway,
we're in the right. Yes, on the ground. Yes, and at some point, at some point, those decision makers in the Democratic Party will follow along. And I want to be clear there are some super badasses in the Democratic Party who are doing the work. And that is happens to actually be a whole bunch of the representatives who've
had abortions, right, Representative Corey Bush, Representative Barbara League. Right, then we've got Representative Iada Presley, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Representative alc Right, Like, we've got folks who are doing the work. And I think that's huge and important, and so I don't want to paint them all day, call them out
and not paint people with a bribe brush. But the reality is is how often in every other issue, not just proportion, they are also told they're out of step when it comes to immigration, when it comes to racial justice, when it comes to voting rights. You know, and it marked my words when in November they don't get the turnout that they want because historically that's what happens in
mid terms. But also because you didn't do anything about erasing student debt, you didn't do anything to make it easier for people to vote, You didn't do anything on pay leaves. You got none of it because John Mansion and Kirsen Cinemas did in the way, not activists. I didn't even really like the build back better. I thought it was milktoast, but you know what was helping on it made the phone calls. I don't even have to
senators because I live in DC. I feel like I don't even have representation, and I'm still doing the work of it because you don't do anything about sayhood, I would love it, but you don't do anything about stayhood. So they don't do anything about all these things, right, and then when they get, as historically happens, the low turnout in the midtterm, they're going to blame the board
because they've always done that. And I even there's an article that came out in Vice this morning where Barbara Boxer said that people were it's because you know, people sat at home and didn't vote. And I'm so glad that the reporter, Paul Blessed, he's real good. Um the piece of advice. He pointed out that she's actually wrong in that some of the highest voting numbers have happened in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty. So don't sit here and blame the voter turnout. Yeah, actually, you all not
actually doing anything with the power that you have. People are voting and you are not making it easier for more people to vote. So I'm not going to accept it because the numbers. The numbers don't lie people politicians do. We're in Bracey Sherman. Let me tell you something. I know that you are tired, but let me tell you something. By the end of this interview, you were clearly not
You clearly have much fire. I'm tired and angry. Then you know, use that as the call that you need the wood, that you need to keep going because you have me fired up, and it takes a lot to fire me up because I stay on ten. I appreciate you so damn much, and and please continue to come back to woke a f continue to keep us up to date, continue to wake us the hell up, and
get more people. Engage folks head to we testify. You know, support this organization, Support RENEE, support local abortion funds, support people that are on the ground putting their lives, their lives, and their livelihood at risk in order to secure bodily autonomy for all people. RENEE. I thank you so much, Thank you, and donate to keep our clinic so we can keep our clinics in our communities. Thank you, thank you.
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