- They will not stop with Texas.
They will not stop with half the country.
It will come everywhere.
It is about abortion,
it's about contraception,
it's about the right to marry
and form families how you want.
The right to have relationships
with whom you want.
But it is also, functionally,
their campaign. (chuckles)
- Oh yes.
- To control our lives
and futures.
So, my freedom
has always depended on your freedom,
and someone else's freedom.
We're about to see that fight and project
play out in real time.
- [Protesters] My body, my choice!
Legal abortion!
(light music)
- One of the things people ask me
all the time,
is why do people have abortions?
As if there's one reason.
As if there's one single story.
And so I often start with,
"Well, the first reason
people have an abortion is,
that they no longer want to be pregnant."
- Right.
- And then, I would like to just be able to
end it with a period,
but there is so much misinformation
and such a history of shaming.
- There's so many types of people
who get abortions.
In my office,
I literally see people
from all walks of life,
all ages, all backgrounds,
all monetary backgrounds,
all of that, seeking this care.
You see everyone.
I think we need to normalize that-
- We know that one in four women
of reproductive age
have had abortions.
- Right.
- Except it's not talked about it,
it's this- - [Heather] Right.
- It's this thing that has been
so steeped in the shadows,
and what that means in practice
is that people feel alone,
they feel isolated, they feel disconnected,
and they don't realize
that the majority of people in this country,
the vast majority of people in this country
support access to abortion-
- [Heather] Right.
(tense music)
- Everyone should be concerned
about the Dobbs decision
and abortion access,
because access to abortion
is so fundamentally tied
to your ability to be equal,
your ability to participate fully in our economy,
in our politics, in our society.
To be able to decide,
you determine for yourself
whether you have a family,
or how you have a family.
It is core and fundamental.
- We already were in a fragile place
in a lot of these states,
with access to reproductive healthcare,
and now it's just gonna get worse.
Kids going back to school,
especially colleges in states where it's banned,
it's rough because they will not be able
to get access to abortion care,
like on campus, close to campus,
anywhere around them.
Young people will have less reproductive rights
than definitely, their parents,
but even a lot of cases, their grandparents.
Especially when Roe was instated, right?
That people would say,
"Oh, my grandkids are gonna have less rights
than I do, while they go to school."
I think it's just mind blowing
to think about it in the arc of history.
- There's a minority in this country
that has a really narrow vision,
for women and for family structures,
in particular. - Right.
- And they would like to control
our lives and bodies,
to have that come in to play.
- All of this stuff is tied around control,
and it's so unfortunate that it is.
And they wanna control people
who don't have a lot of power politically,
or don't have a lot of money-
- Because that's always been the plan.
- Yeah. - I mean, I just have to-
- It's true. - Be really clear.
They're now articulating
a long vision out loud.
- [Heather] Oh yes.
- And it is not going to be begin or end with abortion.
- Yep.
- It will affect contraception,
it will affect in vitro fertilization.
It will affect who you partner with,
and how you form your families.
They are coming
for all of our rights.
(light music)
- [Protesters] We're under attack, we won't hold back,
No rights, no freedom!
- The SCOTUS ruling was super scary for me,
as an OB-GYN
because I can't work
to the full scope of my license,
to my training,
in a large swath of this country.
It is criminalized.
I can go to jail in Texas
for the rest of my life
if I perform an abortion.
These abortion restrictions
totally impacts like every part
of reproductive healthcare.
Because first off,
if you are not training people
to be able to do one aspect
of reproductive healthcare,
then it can impact their ability
to manage other things.
Like for example,
some of the same medications,
some of the same procedures
we use to end a pregnancy
for abortion care,
are used for miscarriages.
And so, you may now have people
who may not be comfortable
doing other aspects of reproductive healthcare,
and it's going to affect whole communities.
'Cause then you're going to see
other issues rise,
so things like maternal mortality,
and as we know,
like black women are more likely to die
in pregnancy-related events, than others.
And so, you're just gonna see
that metric rise.
People who don't have money,
which tend to be people
who are of marginalized communities,
BIPOC, LGBTQ,
all kinds of folks,
going to affect them, exponentially.
(protesters chanting)
- I just wake up every day thinking about,
we are all in harm's way,
but I know who's gonna be so deeply harmed,
people who just in general
don't have good access to healthcare,
and don't feel secure in this time.
I know that they will be
the most in harm's way.
- You're so right,
because when you think about all those people
who are the most harmed,
like you have to keep going.
I think that's what keeps me going
is when you just know
that it's going to be so detrimental
to those communities.
There's no way that you can just sit by,
and watch it,
you have to do something.
(light music)
- I believe in us,
I know what we can do.
And I know that we can't afford to stay silent.
- This is not going to be a short fight, right?
And any movement
that has happened in this country,
really in the world, has taken time.
It's never been like,
"Okay, snap your fingers.
Two weeks later, it's all fixed!"
And we can't be discouraged
because we have to sit in it
for the long haul.
And if we stay on the right side of this,
we will prevail,
because it's the right thing to do.
- Hope and action go hand in hand.
And it is easy to become hopeless
if you aren't actually moving forward,
and moving in action.
So, the first thing I always tell people
is get involved,
it will absolutely make you more hopeful.
And that can be small things,
it could be having a circle
where you share information
and take action when you can.
It could be raising money for abortion funds
or being that person who calls Congress
and demands that they keep this front of mind.
What I most need people to do right now,
is recommit themselves to this work.
Recommit yourself to ensuring
that in your lifetime,
access to abortion will be something
that people can access in their communities.
This is our country too- (chuckles)
- Yes.
- And we are part of it.
And my ability to show up
in all the ways,
for myself and for my community,
is integral to it.
(music fades)