Reproductive Terrorism

a really great conversation. You know that usually when she comes on, we're talking about abortion, We're talking about reproductive rights and access, and she gives us, you know, through her columns that she does at today dot com, she gives us an insight into moving beyond the statistics and the headlines into the lives of women and people with uteruses that have been harmed by the Supreme Courts overting

of Roby Wade. And in today's discussion, we also talk about the effects that climate change is going to have

on reproductive health and care. And something that was alarming to me that Danielle will bring our attention to is this that when people who are pregnant are in heat that exceeds ninety five degrees, which if you look at a heat map right now, the United States is pretty much a majority of the fucking country that excessive heat on pregnant people induces labor, meaning that people will go into labor earlier, have babies premature, which could in fact

then result in a number of issues that those premature babies face. And so again, just wanting to connect the dots to all of these issues that are spoken about in silos like, oh, well, we're talking about climate change, we're talking about the heat over there, but we're not really talking about how it's going to affect our work or food, or our transportation or our livelihood. So this is a conversation I think is very illuminating with Danielle.

So I hope that you guys enjoy it, folks. I am very excited to welcome back to WOK at the Daily a friend of the show and friend of mine, Danielle Campemore, who is a columnist at Today Family for

today dot Com. And I'm sure you have read her writing, you have seen her on MSNBC and in other places talking about the weight, the burden, the despair that has been placed on families across this country as they are dealing with the horrendous ripple effects from the overturning of Ruby Wade, And I mean, there are just so many pieces, Danielle outside of I feel like basic bodily autonomy and

reproductive freedom. But you know, what you and I often talk about, I feel is something that I want to lift up again, which is that a majority of people, women and people with uteruses that seek abortions are already parents, are already mothers. And so I just want you to be able to kind of like, let's bring some light to that statistic and reality to push back against the rights you know, imaginary figure that women and people with uteruses somehow use abortion as birth control.

be the antithesis of families, the antithesis of parenthood. When the majority of people who access abortion care already have at least one child at home, they know exactly what it's like to carry a pregnancy to term, to give birth in whatever way that look like for them, and then the trials, tribulations, and of course also the joys that come along with raising that child, from postpartum care to financial stability, the difficulties in trying to navigate the

education system in this country, what it's like to parent during finance troubling times. They know exactly what that is like. So these decisions aren't taken as a rebuke of motherhood or of parenthood. It's often in celebration of parenthood, and it's often to sustain parenthood. It's to allow them to continue to parent the children that they already have. And studies have shown that when people don't have access to abortion care, it is mothers and it is their children,

and it is their families who suffer the most. They're more likely to live in poverty, their children are more likely to meet milestones at a later date than their peers.

They're more likely to not have access to adequate food their mothers and their parents aren't able to access the workforce the same capacity as their peers who are able to access abortion care, and so it has rippling effects, not just for the person whose autonomy wasn't honored in a moment of personal planning and family planning, but it impacts their children and impacts their whole families, and as a result, impacts entire communities who are then forced to

step up and to help support these parents who could have otherwise perhaps done that themselves if given the freedom to access abortion care.

has it changed over the last eight years?

hospital privileges for example. There was this push to both sides it and to really keep this as a political discussion in where we have a nation divided, and that's never been the case. But I think mainstream media in particular were able to kind of or at least felt perhaps okay with letting that go to a certain extent until we really saw the ramifications of what happens to people who aren't able to access abortion care. The Turnaway

Study was a huge part of that. For ten years, they studied what happens to people, to families when they can't access care, and it's devastating. And so I think that there was a laxadaisical coverage in it. And then as we saw that not changing as quickly as the abortion landscape was changing, the urgency in which to center people just was born out of that same desperation that

so many people were feeling. And I have to tell you, Danielle, I mean, the story that's really kind of hitting me in this moment is just last week I spoke to a mother in Texas, she gave birth to a stillborn baby girl thirty seven weeks. She was devastating. This was months ago and she was still in tears crying to

me sharing her story. She was denied maternity leave in the state of Texas because FMLA does not cover stillborn babies, so she was told she had to come back to work while she was still reeling from the mental, emotional, and certainly physical. You know, just toll it takes to give birth to any child, alive or dead, and she

was in labor for fifteen hours. But also because she lives in the state of Texas, there's an anti abortion law that that requires all fetal remains to be handled by a funeral home, so she didn't get to leave the hospital with her daughter's ashes. Instead, she had the additional burden of pain for services at a funeral home. She didn't receive her daughter's remains for a month, and she was told to return to work before then harm that these laws cause women family. She was also again

caring for a toddler at this time. It is profound and whether it's intended or not, whether she was the target audience of this anti abortion law because she was a mom who was very excited about the prospect of having a daughter. She was harm nonetheless, and so that is what's really kind of changed for me is this urgency. This not to romanticize my calling, but this profound sense

of it. It's a need, it's it's a duty, an obligation, and an honor, and one that without these stories, again, the only noise we hear is the political talking points of those who are not in acted by these laws. We have to elevate the people ahead of the politician in order for people to truly understand what's going on across the country.

terrorism and trauma. Because to put a person through what that woman was put through, I cannot imagine already the emotional toll, and that is just too light of a word. To carry a baby that you know is not viable inside of your body, to labor for fifteen hours, and to then not even leave the hospital with the ashes of that baby so that you can begin your mourning process, and not even being given the fucking time to begin your mourning process before you have to go back to

work to grind for capitalism. I mean, I don't know where to begin, and I just but I want to say this real quick before you continue, because for those people that are thinking to themselves, that are listening to this and saying, well, this is why people need to lead the state, know that when you say these things, and I have said them myself and have begun to roll back those thoughts because it comes from a place

of privilege. It comes from a place of privilege to say that people just need to lead their state as if it is that fucking easy to do, and as if everybody that is living inside of that state is somehow aligned with the monstrous administration of Greg Abbott. Because that is also false. But Denielle, please continue.

those euphemisms. As you so eloquently stated, they're saying it themselves. I mean, this mother said, I have PTSD. I had to try and find, you know, a therapist. But I was also having a piece together, all my sick leave, all my vacation leave, I had to try to get on disability. So she has a toddler. She goes. Now I'm trying to get myself back to neutral, where I can sleep, where I'm not seeing images of my daughter.

And I also have to pray my my son doesn't get sick for the rest of the year because I don't have any more paid time off and I have to pay my bills. If you just listen to them, the euphemism's pale in comparison to what the real people who are experiencing these the ramifications of these laws are

actually dealing with on a day to day basis. And to your point, then, to then tell this mother who's trying to keep her family together and afloat while she's navigating the trauma of a loss, by the way, just pick up and leave is extremely not only just woefully ignorant of the realities of all families really right now, but especially those who are trying to navigate these cross these crossings, these multiple levels of harm being caused in

all areas of their lives. And that's one of the things that you've you've talked about so frequently is that it's not like these these issues are are siphoned off to this group is just being harmed by this thing, and this group group is just being harmed by this thing. It's no this group that's being harmed by a lack of mandatory paid family leave is also being harmed by

a lack of access to to abortion care. That's also being harmed by other anti abortion laws that make it more difficult for people to move forward and grieve in whatever way they see fit. These just a it's it's compounded, and so of course people aren't going to leave their homes. They're fighting to keep their homes. And that's the reality.

Just say, very clearly, if I'm a Democrat running for office and I don't care where I'm running for office, Republicans don't care about family, and here are the bulleted reasons as to why. Right So, if they want you to have a child, then where are all of their votes on healthcare? Where are all of their votes on maternal leave? Where are all of their votes on ourn

child tax credits? Where are all their votes on public education? Right? Like, where are all of their votes on how you would protect and grow this family that they are forcing people

to have? Because when you look at all of those pieces and then you have these people talking now to the other side of their fucking mouths, telling you like, oh no, where about detecting family and you're about killing babies, will tell me how, because what Democrats don't do is put this vile, anti family political party on the defense and make them explain all of the ways in which they care about quote unquote families.

away from them. And while it's very easy to say, well, you know, reap what she sewed, what I really hear beyond all of that is both no matter which political party anyone is falling on, what they really want is to stop the talking points that just become so regurgitated to the point that the words are meaningless and they're in one ear and not the other. And what they want to hear is what are you really just going

to do for my family? Because you know, again, I spoke to a mom in Arkansas, and she said, you know, I used to think that those words meant something. Now I realize that they don't. And there isn't really anybody who's who's wanting to look at all the problems that we're facing holistically and talk to us as the complicated

people that we are. And I think, regardless of political leanings, oftentimes when a midterm comes around, or definitely as we get to a presidential election, the talking points become dumber and dumber and dumber, and people, look, anyone, anyone in the US right now are at any one time dealing with seventeen different issues and problems, right from finances to healthcare, to mental health care, to their children, to their spouse, to their ability to access care, to work life, back

to all of these things. And they want people to talk to them as if they're you know, as if that is their reality, because it is, and that never happens again. It's all siloed and here's a dumbed down version of the issue that you're dealing with, and people that I speak to or saying, no, that's not my reality. My reality is I'm having to try to pay for childcare that's out of my reach. I can't take time off work because I have a baby. If I'm forced to have a baby in a state that doesn't provide

any kind of funding for someone who's in poverty. Who tells me my Medicaid can't cover services that I need. Who's trying to take away my ability to pay for baby food formula, anything with food stamps. I'm dealing with a million issues and they're all intersecting. Please tell me how you're going to deal with all these issues that are intersecting to And unfortunately, again, the closer we get to that voting day, it doesn't seem like those talking

points are as complicated. And honor the complication of people's lives, as.

and put spotlights where they belong right. We force them right to look into the light and not be able to hide their schemes and their lies in darkness. Before I let you go, I do again because I am very much about trying to connect these dots. You know

you are a mother of two small boys. I am concerned about the environment and the world and the planet that we are leaving for your boys and my nieces and nephews, and so I want you to speak to how you understand the issue of climate change as also a family issue.

the health of my year old, extremely seriously. So on top of these record setting heat waves across the country that's kept my sons inside just because it's simply too hot for them to go outside. On days when we could send them outside, I kept them indoors because they can't breathe the air. We have wild fires going on in Canada, and even for sensitive groups you know that include my young youngest child, they can't go out outside. So now I'm working from home trying to keep them

safe indoors. I can't pay for childcare during the summer. It costs a ridiculous amount of money. And so just from that kind of standpoint, I see the ways in which climate change has an adverse effect on not only the mental health of my children. They need to be going outside, they should be able to go outside and enjoy their time, but their mother's mental health as well. Because I can tell you that it's been a difficult

couple of months. But that's I'm very privileged and I'm very very lucky I have the ability to keep my son safe. What about the individuals who don't have access to air conditioning, the individuals who are living in states with rolling blackouts, who can't turn on their air conditioning,

who can't keep the food in their home cold. I mean, we've seen not only studies show that climate change is a big concern for people who were once considering families and now they don't want to start a family, not to mention that in plenty of states, those same people don't want to potentially get pregnant, suffer a pregnancy complication, and be denied care that could take them away from

a potential future child. But then we're also seeing the ways that climate events, particularly catastrophic ones hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, earthquakes, can actually cause health issues in pregnancy. The adverse health when it comes to anemia, preclampsia, low birthrate, preterm birth. They can cause miscarriages even and this isn't anything new, by the way. In twenty thirteen, there was a multinational study that showed that air pollution increases the risks of

a low birth rate. And for anyone who doesn't know, if a child is born with a low birth rate, they have a higher risk of premature death, heart problems, they get breathing issues for the rest of their lives. It's estimated that in temperatures that go above ninety degrees very quickly, they responsible for twenty five thus early births in this country each year. Wow, that's twenty five thousand premature births each year as a result of increased heat

ninety degrees and above. There are some states in this country. You have been at one eight one point fifteen for weeks. So again, those are the same states, unfortunately that also limit access to abortion care, that are keeping doctors from caring for their patients that are having complications because they're

afraid they're going to go to jail. So climate change is impacting families at the same time that reproductive healthcare, that reproductive justice, inability to access unnecessary care is harming families. These are, without a doubt linked, inexplicably linked, because we never actually talk about it enough, and unfortunately, unless we do something, then yeah, my son's, your nieces, nephews are going to have an even larger problem than the one we're facing right now.