68: If/When/How: Because Reproductive Justice is Racial Justice

07/15/20 • 41 min

2 Listeners

When we think about abortion, we tend to imagine Planned Parenthood and/or providers who offer women’s healthcare in their doctor’s offices. We don’t really think about people who are choosing to self-manage the termination of their pregnancy.

(Side note: what comes to mind when you hear the term “self-managed abortion?” Our jaws dropped when we heard it because we hadn’t considered it outside of coat hangers and back alleys.)

Unfortunately, people who manage their own abortions fall into a legal grey zone, and often, because of the way systemic racism works in this country, they are BIPOC who have a higher chance of being criminally prosecuted for doing something that is, while legal according to Roe v. Wade, sometimes challenged outside of the expected medical setting.

Reproductive justice is racial justice. Listen in to learn more.

Have questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at [email protected]

What to listen for:

What is a self-managed abortion anyway?
What are some of the issues when it comes to criminalizing reproductive decision making? Sign a petition here.
How we need to destigmatize abortion and decriminalize women’s reproductive lives.
The groundbreaking work If/When/How is doing in spearheading a legal defense fund for reproductive justice.
Resources people can use, including:
- a Reproductive Legal Helpline for anybody thinking about a self-managed abortion,
- and the latest state-by-state information on what’s happening in the legal landscape of women’s reproductive rights (with a quick escape button if you need to close the browser immediately).

For this episode, we spoke with Mariko Miki, who is the Managing Director and General Counsel at If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, where she oversees the organization’s programs, people, and policies. Joining If/When/How in 2010, Mariko designed, launched, and directed the Reproductive Justice Fellowship Program, now in its 10th year, and worked to expand reproductive rights and justice course offerings in legal academia. Mariko has served on the Advisory Board of TEACH (Training in Early Abortion for Comprehensive Healthcare) and the Board of Directors for Exhale Pro-Voice, and was a 2019 Rockwood Leadership Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Fellow. Mariko graduated from Brown University and Harvard Law School.

Relevant episodes:

Ep. 46: Our conversation with abortion provider Dr Jenn.
Ep. 47: The bridge between reproductive rights and health care.
Ep. 13: Racial disparities in the U.S. healthcare system when it comes to Black moms.

Like what you hear? Support us through Patreon!

Don’t miss another episode and subscribe to the podcast!

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – and don’t miss our new anti-racism action calendar by joining our email list.

(Side note: what comes to mind when you hear the term “self-managed abortion?” Our jaws dropped when we heard it because we hadn’t considered it outside of coat hangers and back alleys.)

Reproductive justice is racial justice. Listen in to learn more.

Have questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at [email protected]

What to listen for:

What is a self-managed abortion anyway?
What are some of the issues when it comes to criminalizing reproductive decision making? Sign a petition here.
How we need to destigmatize abortion and decriminalize women’s reproductive lives.
The groundbreaking work If/When/How is doing in spearheading a legal defense fund for reproductive justice.
Resources people can use, including:
- a Reproductive Legal Helpline for anybody thinking about a self-managed abortion,
- and the latest state-by-state information on what’s happening in the legal landscape of women’s reproductive rights (with a quick escape button if you need to close the browser immediately).

Relevant episodes:

Ep. 46: Our conversation with abortion provider Dr Jenn.
Ep. 47: The bridge between reproductive rights and health care.
Ep. 13: Racial disparities in the U.S. healthcare system when it comes to Black moms.

Like what you hear? Support us through Patreon!

Don’t miss another episode and subscribe to the podcast!

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – and don’t miss our new anti-racism action calendar by joining our email list.

Previous Episode

67: How the U.S. Police System Has Failed Black People From Inception

We’ve been hearing a LOT about #DefundThePolice, which doesn’t mean exactly what it sounds like; we’re not here at this point to argue the pros or cons of defunding the police, but what we love to do is to unpack the why behind things, the history of things, so we can better understand what is really happening right NOW.

Today we’re looking at a big historical question that’s central to this whole argument about the police. Why were police formed in the United States? For some of us, we may assume that policing in the United States is as old as this country itself. And that’s not really the truth.

So what is the truth? Glad you asked...

Have questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at [email protected]

What to listen for:

The colonial form of policing, and how informal it was at the very beginning.
Who funded the police force in 19th century America - and what they wanted the police to focus on protecting. Hint: motivations split between Northern and Southern lines.
How the structure and funding of the police had to change as cities, and the country, grew, and yet how they served to reinforce hierarchies in society.
Given this, what do YOU think? Can an organization with roots like this be race-blind in its policies and actions? If not, what would it take to change?
We offer some personal histories as we reflect on policing, and how ordinary people can make a difference.

Relevant episodes:

If you want more, we mention this episode of NPR’s THROUGHLINE a lot here.
We put out a 3-episode arc on the history of domestic terrorism in the United States, including the different forms of the KKK. Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Like what you hear? Support us through Patreon!

Don’t miss another episode and subscribe!

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – and don’t miss our new anti-racism action calendar by joining our email list.

Next Episode

69: Ask Me Anything: Including, Why Are You Called the Dear White Women Podcast?

Since the influx of new listenership and followers ever since that awful weekend when Amy Cooper was exposed and George Floyd was murdered, we wanted to take this opportunity to re-introduce ourselves.

We are Sara & Misasha, co-hosts of the podcast Dear White Women - where we aim to make it easy to enter uncomfortable conversations about racial and social justice.

We’re both daughters of a Japanese immigrant and White American, and we met over 20 years ago walking out of a racial identity meeting when we were undergraduates at Harvard. We’ve been great friends ever since, though we’ve only lived in the same city for one year since college.

Where we differ is here: Misasha is married to a Black man from the South, and has two very mixed-race sons; Sara is married to a White Canadian man and has two White-presenting daughters. Misasha is a lawyer, fitness instructor, and amateur historian; Sara is a life coach, author, and facilitator who loves positive psychology.

All of these come together in our conversations that aim to expose the humanity and history of our country so that Misasha doesn’t have to worry that one day, her family might walk out the door and never come back, based purely on the color of their skin.

Huge thank you to humorist Debbie Scheer for taking the time to ask us all the questions on this episode!

Have questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at [email protected].

What to listen for: