0:10

Welcome to reprots fight back a

0:12

podcast on all things RevPro . I'm

0:15

your host Jenny wetter. In each

0:17

episode I'll be taking you to the front

0:19

lines of the escalating fight over our

0:21

sexual and reproductive health and rights

0:23

at home and abroad. Each episode

0:26

I will be speaking with leaders who are fighting to protect

0:28

our reproductive health and rights to ensure

0:30

that no one's reproductive health depends

0:32

on where they live. It's time for reprots

0:35

to fight that.

0:39

[inaudible] .

0:42

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's episode

0:45

of reprots fight back. Before

0:47

we get started, just a little bit of

0:49

housekeeping. We are excited

0:52

to announce that we have recently added to our

0:54

website transcripts of all

0:56

of our episodes. So if you go to

0:58

the specific episode pages, you will see

1:00

transcripts available on those pages

1:03

and we want to make sure that the podcast is as

1:05

accessible as possible for everyone.

1:07

So we thought it was really important to add

1:10

a transcript so that people who are not

1:12

able to listen are able to to get the information.

1:16

So hopefully you all enjoy this

1:18

new edition. Okay. So

1:20

this week on reprots fight back, we

1:23

are going to talk about contraceptive deserts,

1:25

what they are and why the title 10

1:27

gag rule is making them worse.

1:30

Helping me talk about that today. I'm excited

1:32

to have Rachel Fe with power to decide

1:35

here with me. Hi Rachel. Thank you

1:37

so much for doing this. Thank you so

1:39

much for having me. I'm excited to talk to you.

1:42

It's so much fun. I feel

1:44

like I'm always like, I'm so excited to talk

1:46

about really horrible things. I

1:48

know we sometimes in our, in our field

1:51

we're happy when a number comes out bad enough that at

1:53

least we think we can get policy makers

1:55

to care about it. But at the same time we

1:57

have to be real. That number is bad because people don't

1:59

have what they need when it comes to their reproductive

2:01

health care . And that's just a really

2:03

frustrating thing to come up against a lot. So

2:05

I hear you. Yeah. Okay, so

2:08

we're going to talk about contraceptive

2:10

deserts. Yeah. So

2:13

maybe we should start at the very beginning. What

2:16

is the contraceptive desert? So I'm really

2:18

glad you asked. I think of

2:20

contraceptive deserts really

2:22

simply as when somebody does not

2:24

have reasonable access to

2:26

a clinic that offers the full range of birth control methods

2:29

and the way power to decide the looks at this

2:32

is a ratio of one provider

2:34

or clinic to 1000 people.

2:37

And we focus on low income

2:39

people because it's really important

2:41

to look at who would

2:43

face inordinate barriers if they have

2:45

to travel further to a clinic if

2:47

a requires more time off or if the clinic doesn't

2:49

have the method that they want. So

2:52

there are 19.5

2:54

million women who have low incomes

2:57

and in this case, unfortunately we're only able to

2:59

give you a number of women. We

3:01

know that it's not just people who identify as women,

3:04

but when you hear me use that phrase, it's cause that's the

3:06

data we have. There's 19.5

3:08

million women who lack

3:11

reasonable access to a clinic in their County

3:13

that offers the full range of contraceptive

3:15

methods. These women make less than

3:17

250% of the federal poverty level,

3:20

which to give you a sense is a little

3:22

over $30,000 for an individual.

3:24

So not a lot of money. These

3:26

are people who often struggle

3:28

to find enough gas money

3:30

to make it to and from work. They

3:33

may live in real rural areas or

3:35

they may live in urban areas and have to take four buses

3:37

to get to another part of their city

3:39

in order to access the care they need. So

3:41

these are really serious problems. Sometimes

3:44

there may be lots of clinics in the city. When you look at

3:46

how many women need those clinics, it's not

3:48

reasonable access. Within

3:50

that 19.5 million women

3:53

are 1.6 million women who

3:55

live in counties without a single clinic

3:58

that offers the full range of methods. I'm

4:00

sorry, what was that number again? 1.6 million.

4:02

So of that 19.5 million,

4:05

1.6 million women are really,

4:07

really up a Creek. There's not a single clinic. It's not

4:09

a matter of whether they have reasonable access and

4:11

their wait times might be longer or

4:13

the hours are limited. It's really

4:15

about them not having any clinic

4:17

they can go to in their County that offers the full range

4:20

of methods. So a lot of times the power

4:22

to decide where you hear things like, well, what's the big

4:24

deal? You could just go to Walmart and get some pills.

4:27

It's really a big deal to have the

4:29

full range of methods. And I think if you talk to anyone

4:32

with reproductive organs about what

4:34

they need, they will tell you

4:36

that everybody's body is different and what

4:38

works for one person does not work for another.

4:40

And so finding that method that works for you,

4:43

that meets your healthcare needs, that meets your lifestyle

4:46

needs, that meets your goals for family

4:48

planning is really critical.

4:50

And you and I are privileged

4:52

enough to have that kind of access. It

4:55

shouldn't just be us, it should be everybody that has that

4:57

kind of access. Absolutely. So

4:59

you've already started to touch on it. Like what

5:02

do we mean when we say a full range of

5:04

method ? Yeah. I want to talk about why it's so important,

5:07

like what that means and why it's so

5:09

important. I remember a few years ago at

5:11

power to decide, we did some research

5:13

with focus groups of young women and asked about their birth

5:15

control journeys. We asked them to actually

5:17

draw them out and almost

5:20

no young woman , and we're talking about women mostly in their

5:22

twenties had been on just one method their entire

5:24

life. Some of them had been on a pill and

5:27

moved to the ring. Some had tried a patch

5:29

and then gone to an IUD. Some were

5:31

using condoms now, but in the past

5:33

had wanted to use something else. It's

5:37

really, really different for everyone and

5:39

I can tell you as a 40 year old

5:41

woman, my journey has been really different and

5:43

so not everything is right for every person

5:46

and not everything's right for every person at every time.

5:50

I always tell this story because I think it helps more

5:52

privileged women to identify with this, but

5:54

I have a friend who was doing her medical

5:57

in psychiatry and she worked crazy

5:59

hours and she told me, she was like, I didn't know sometimes

6:02

when I walked out the door of the hospital, whether it was day

6:04

or night outside, if I had had to

6:06

remember to take a pill at the same time every day, I

6:09

would probably be pregnant while I was even doing my residency.

6:11

She said instead, she used an IUD

6:14

which was really cohesive to her

6:16

lifestyle at the time while she was trying to finish

6:18

this really intensive residency. Now

6:21

she and her husband don't want to use an IUD because they're ready

6:23

for baby number two pretty quickly and she's,

6:25

you know, good with that. But that's

6:27

just one example. Even

6:29

in privileged world where we really need

6:32

the full range of methods. Now imagine

6:34

working a shift job where again, you don't know if

6:36

it's day or night when you're leaving or you work

6:38

odd hours or imagine

6:40

that you struggle

6:42

to remember to take a pill every day. But

6:44

an IUD is an easy way

6:47

to not have to think about it. Imagine

6:50

that you need a non hormonal method

6:52

because your body has adverse reactions

6:54

to hormones. Well then there's non-hormonal barrier

6:56

methods and there's also non hormonal IUD.

6:59

So you know, everybody is different

7:02

and every woman, every person

7:04

deserves to go to a clinic and have

7:06

the full range of options available to them.

7:09

In our research, the way we defined

7:11

the full range of options was clinics that offered

7:14

onsite access to [inaudible]

7:16

and the implant. Those are typically

7:18

the hardest methods to stock

7:20

on site. So if they were able

7:23

to offer those onsite , we

7:25

would use that as a proxy for their ability to

7:27

offer the full range of methods. I

7:29

was just thinking that, so people often

7:32

are just like, what? It's like, you know, $2

7:34

to go get a condom or whatever. Right ? Like why

7:36

do we have to pay for your method?

7:38

But I think what people don't realize when we're talking about

7:41

a full range of methods, we're talking

7:43

about a huge range in cost.

7:45

Oh my God, yes. And one thing I always like to point out

7:47

to people is condoms are not actually cheap when you think about

7:49

it because you need one condom per sexual

7:52

act. And so that can

7:54

really add up. And PS there might be reproductive

7:56

health providers or like don't say sexual act. There must

7:58

be a better word. I am not a reproductive health

8:00

provider, but I think everybody knows what I mean. One

8:02

condom each time you're having sex, right? So

8:05

you know, given that fact, you know, yeah

8:08

it might only be a couple of dollars for a pack of condoms,

8:10

but if you're going through a month with you know,

8:12

a regular partner or you like to have a lot of

8:14

sex or you know, God bless you, but whatever,

8:16

that can add up to more than some pills costs

8:19

even out of pocket. So I think people

8:21

don't really think about this. You know, I applaud

8:23

any store that's offering some

8:25

generic pills at $4 but

8:27

again, that's not going to be right for everyone.

8:30

I happen to know cause I was curious what

8:32

pills were offered at Walmart for $4

8:35

and none of them are the one that I need just as

8:37

an example. So I think it's really

8:39

critical that everybody have those kinds of choices

8:41

because when people have those choices, they

8:43

can stick with a method because it's actually

8:45

working for them. And sticking with a method is the key

8:47

to helping people achieve their own reproductive health

8:50

goals, their own family size goals,

8:52

et cetera. So that's really critical.

8:55

The only other thing I would say is that

8:57

right now on our Bedsider

8:59

website, and if folks don't know bedsider.org

9:02

I invite you to go there and learn everything

9:05

you want to ever learn about any

9:07

method of birth control that's on the market right

9:09

now. We've got videos

9:11

of people talking about the method, why they like

9:13

that method, you know the pros and cons of

9:15

it. You can look up where the

9:17

nearest clinic is that offers that method on

9:20

site . You can also find where you can

9:22

find an abortion provider. We're here

9:24

for sort of all of your needs and to help you get

9:26

smart on whatever it is you need to get smart on before

9:28

you walk through the doors of a clinic. And

9:31

one of the things Bedsider now is offering

9:33

is something called BC benefits. BC

9:36

benefits is basically a birth control support

9:38

fund. So right now if

9:40

you make less than 250% of the federal

9:42

poverty level, we will get you a coupon

9:45

code for a delivered to your door service

9:47

that's operating in your state and you can have

9:49

birth control pills delivered to your door.

9:52

In the future. We will also have reimbursements

9:54

for things like the cost

9:56

of gas to get to and from the clinic or

9:59

ride share services, things like that. That'll be

10:01

rolling out as well as for the cost of other methods

10:03

that you receive at a clinic. Right now

10:05

we're just doing delivered to your door as we roll this

10:08

out, but we invite anybody who

10:10

is struggling right now with the cost of their birth control

10:12

to at least explore if that can help them. And

10:14

for those of you for whom cost is not an issue,

10:17

we would really love it if you consider making a donation

10:19

to BC benefits and helping other women

10:22

get the access they need to the birth control they want.

10:24

Yeah. And we'll make sure to include all

10:27

of that information in the show notes that

10:29

people have easy access to. Awesome. It's

10:31

one of those things we shouldn't have to build, but

10:33

we do. Yeah.

10:36

So, well I think BC benefits

10:38

sounds amazing, but also amazing is the

10:40

information on the Bedsider or talking

10:43

about what the different forms of birth

10:45

control are and what they mean. Because I

10:47

mean, I know sex ed around the country

10:50

is not always the best obviously

10:53

and very localized. I mean, I've met people,

10:55

I grew up in New York city and I had what

10:57

people would call comprehensive sex ed, but it certainly

10:59

wasn't good sex ed. It was a lot of here's

11:02

a picture of an STI and I don't have sex. And if

11:04

you do, here's how to put a condom on a banana. You

11:06

know, it was, I guess it was sex positive,

11:08

but I don't think that it made much of a difference.

11:11

And I think no matter what kind of sex ed you

11:13

get, we can all be lifelong

11:15

learners so to speak. And sometimes the things

11:18

that you learn in high school are not the things you're thinking

11:20

about or need to know about later on

11:22

when a particular issue presents itself and Bedsider

11:24

is sort of here to be that, that place

11:27

where you can go with for reliable,

11:29

safe and accurate information and

11:31

new methods come out. They do.

11:33

We constantly get outreach from

11:36

pharmaceutical companies and others that have methods and development

11:38

to give us a heads up when they're near the end of the process.

11:41

I don't want to tease too much, but I think you know,

11:43

in the future you may see another patch on the market.

11:46

I hear rumors about another ring. Yes.

11:48

I'm so not up on all this, but Bedsider is

11:50

so you don't have to worry about that. And if you

11:52

look back, Oh, we had an episode the summer

11:55

where I talked to Julia bunting at population

11:57

council and she talked about some

11:59

of the new methods that they are developing,

12:01

including some multipurpose prevention

12:03

technologies. That's so cool

12:06

are not just pregnancy prevention

12:08

but STI and HIV. I love that.

12:10

So yeah, so all of that information

12:12

is on Bedsider and a whole heck of a lot more.

12:15

For example, as we enter

12:17

open enrollment for ACA

12:19

marketplace plans, you can learn about

12:21

what the deadline is in your state, things

12:23

to be aware of to make sure you're not just buying a junk

12:25

plan, but a real plan that's going to get you good coverage,

12:28

including no copay coverage of birth control.

12:30

Which by the way is still the law of the

12:32

land though. For all of you

12:34

out there with employer health plans or plans you

12:36

bought on the marketplace. You know, if you're having

12:38

any trouble getting birth control coverage tactic

12:40

Bedsider or you know, talk to our colleagues at the

12:42

law center who have covered her hotline.

12:46

Yeah , I'm going to plug my friends over there, but yeah. Yes,

12:48

you should know that that's still out there. And

12:50

we provide a lot of information like that to help

12:52

you not just learn about birth control

12:54

but get the birth control you need, which

12:57

is so important because you

12:59

know, the desert is not just

13:01

not being able to get it. Like there's different

13:04

things that are impacted . Your ability to access

13:07

birth compactly are deserts,

13:09

which by the way is an interactive map. So I'm going

13:11

to make sure that you have this Jenny for the show

13:13

notes, but you can literally hover over

13:16

your County and pull up information

13:18

about how many low income women there

13:20

are, who need reproductive healthcare , how many

13:23

are living in deserts , um

13:25

, sort of where your County is on the spectrum of good

13:27

or bad in terms of access. You can also

13:29

look at statewide data. So it's, it's really

13:32

cool. I'm a nerd and I love a good heat

13:34

map. I mean, data visualization

13:36

is so sexy.

13:38

How sexy is data visualization? So

13:41

I really, I really encourage you to check it out.

13:43

Our maps are only showing the access

13:46

problem so they don't even cover the coverage

13:49

problem. Right? So it's all

13:51

well and good if you have great access,

13:54

but if you can't afford it, then it's like having your

13:56

face pressed up against the glass at the store.

13:58

That must be nice, but I can't get it. So

14:01

these are parallel problems

14:03

and ensuring that everyone

14:05

really has the power to decide if when

14:08

and under what circumstances they get pregnant and have a

14:10

child. You need to solve both problems.

14:12

Absolutely. The deserts are a way of

14:15

visualizing what kinds

14:17

of barriers above and beyond coverage people

14:19

face when they're trying to get their care. But

14:21

there's a lot of other things that they face. For example,

14:24

if you're parenting and you

14:26

need to arrange childcare just to get to your visit,

14:28

well that's a cost. If you

14:30

need to take time off from an hourly job,

14:33

that doesn't pay you for your time off, that's

14:35

a cost. If you barely

14:37

can fit enough gas in your tank to get

14:39

to and from work and now you've got a deviate, you

14:41

know, several miles because

14:44

there isn't anything in your County that offers the method

14:46

you need, that's a cost. So

14:48

I think sometimes we forget that it's not just,

14:50

Oh, do have health insurance and does the health insurance

14:52

cover the method. But all those other

14:54

things that go into getting care that

14:56

really pile up as barriers, particularly

14:59

on people who are struggling to make ends meet. Yeah.

15:02

And you know also we talked about

15:04

like a County where it's a problem, but

15:06

it's not just your County. It could be the

15:08

one next to you and the one next to that.

15:10

Absolutely. In fact, I'm just staring at

15:13

the map right now and looking at counties in Montana

15:15

and you know, my geography isn't perfect

15:18

having grown up in Manhattan. But

15:20

I can tell you that I'm pretty sure that Montana

15:22

is huge.

15:25

And so these counties are very large. But if

15:27

you live in, let's hover over this

15:29

for a sec. Bear with me. I'm going to

15:31

click on the state of Montana. So if you live in

15:33

Phillips County, Montana, which borders

15:35

Canada, then you live

15:37

in a contraceptive desert. There are no

15:40

clinics in your County and over 4,000

15:42

women who need access.

15:44

That County is going to be from a mileage standpoint,

15:46

large right next door, there's a

15:48

County with one clinic but there's over

15:51

6,400 women who need services

15:53

in that clinic. Plus probably a lot of the women

15:55

in the neighboring counties, everything

15:58

to the East of Blaine County, Montana

16:00

that has good access has next

16:02

to no access. So again, if you

16:04

look at States and you see, you know on our

16:06

map, you know super dark purple is as good

16:08

as it gets and bright red is

16:10

like the absolute worst, but there's a lot in

16:13

between where it's still not reasonable access

16:15

and that's why we get that number of 19.5

16:17

million, which seems like how is that possible?

16:20

Well it's possible because a lot of people

16:22

might be relying on that one clinic, which

16:25

kind of leads me to my next point. We've

16:27

seen a lot of attacks on

16:30

the birth control safety net. And when I say the safety

16:32

net, I mean a network of clinics

16:34

that take public insurance like Medicaid

16:37

that receive federal and state funds to

16:39

help provide low income people with

16:41

birth control access, but not just low

16:44

income people. I can tell you as a college student, I

16:46

went to a clinic that received a lot of these funds

16:48

that was part of that safety net. Millions

16:50

of women rely on this safety net every

16:52

year and I don't know how

16:54

familiar your listeners are, so I'll do sort of a quick

16:57

overview, but it's helpful. There's

16:59

this thing called the domestic gag rule.

17:01

It sounds really bad or maybe like a really kinky

17:03

sex act, but it's not just

17:07

introducing some reproductive health humor here. The

17:09

domestic gag rule has a long

17:12

history, but this is actually the first time it's been

17:14

put into place and

17:17

what the Trump administration has done is

17:19

say to any provider that's getting federal

17:21

family planning funding through a program called

17:24

title 10 you'll see it written as

17:26

title X that they cannot

17:29

refer their patients for abortion. They

17:31

cannot provide abortions even with other

17:33

funds at the same site. That they're providing

17:35

family planning services and

17:38

that they cannot even be required

17:40

to counsel women who present

17:42

as pregnant about the full range of

17:44

their options, which we call non-directive counseling.

17:46

I'm sorry, but if 16 year old me got pregnant,

17:49

showed up at a clinic, I want someone to tell me all my

17:51

options, not just the one that that person thought was right

17:53

for me. So the GAD rule

17:55

has sort of forced safety net family

17:57

planning providers into an impossible choice.

18:00

And I just want to say whichever way they go on

18:03

this, we understand. Yeah. And just

18:05

be, and those that decide to

18:07

take the money does not mean they agree with

18:09

it. No, that is one

18:11

misconception that I think sometimes

18:13

you hear, but it's like Rachel said,

18:15

it's an impossible choice. It's an impossible

18:17

choice. I mean, I just think of a lot of

18:19

States where there are a lot of fake clinics out

18:21

there and I think we know that if

18:24

the current title 10 grantee who

18:26

provides great birth control coverage, decided

18:28

not to take the title 10 money,

18:30

then it's just going to go to a fake clinic. And how

18:32

are women any better off that way so they're making these

18:34

horrible impossible choices between

18:37

trying to find a way to sort of

18:39

maintain services in a way that they feel is

18:41

ethical when you've got this really

18:43

medically unethical rule in place.

18:46

When I say medically unethical, the American medical

18:48

association, which in political terms is not

18:50

an organization that weighs in on reproductive health

18:52

or rights much at all, they

18:55

oppose this, they've signed on to

18:57

court priests about this because in their

18:59

mind it should not be the government telling

19:01

providers what they do and do not tell their patients.

19:03

That's a violation of medical ethics to withhold

19:05

information from a patient. This whole

19:07

regulation is awful and it's currently

19:10

being challenged in court and

19:12

I continue to pray to

19:14

the legal gods that there is

19:16

a legal resolution of this, but in the meantime

19:19

it is in effect and the impact

19:21

of that began rolling out in late

19:23

August and to date we've seen

19:25

basically nearly 900 clinics

19:29

and that's just the ones we can track. My guess

19:31

is it's probably more than 900 clinics, but

19:33

nearly 900 clinics that

19:35

are no longer able to use title

19:37

10 funding. So what does that mean?

19:39

Well, if you're a clinic that's serving people

19:42

who are low income, you

19:44

rely on title 10 funding

19:46

to help you purchase contraceptive methods

19:48

at below market value so that you can then provide

19:50

them inexpensively to your patients.

19:53

You rely on title 10 funding to do simple

19:55

things like pay the rent or keep the

19:57

doors open. So it's not just the women

19:59

who get, or people who get title 10

20:01

services from these clinics, it's also

20:04

the Medicaid patient who has coverage

20:06

but needs a place to go with that Medicaid card.

20:08

So the impact is really great that

20:10

nearly 900 clinics as spread over

20:12

an additional 390 counties

20:14

that were not complete contraceptive deserts

20:17

before that, but are now, there

20:19

are 8.7 million women living

20:21

in those counties. So that's

20:23

8.7 million low income women, some of

20:25

whom have covered, some of whom don't, but all of whom rely

20:28

on the doors to that clinic staying open that

20:30

are impacted. Now it's important to know

20:32

that right now we are not aware

20:35

of, I think maybe only two out

20:37

of those 900 clinics that have

20:39

actually closed their doors as a result of this.

20:41

But some clinics are able

20:44

to maintain the same low costs for their patients

20:46

for the short term, but don't know how they're going to make it in

20:48

the longterm . Some clinics are already

20:50

reducing hours or the number of providers

20:53

that they have at their clinic. Other clinics

20:55

are charging larger copays or just

20:57

aren't able to stock certain methods that they were

21:00

able to stock before. So

21:02

the effect is real and it's happening right now.

21:04

So I want to be clear, I don't want women

21:06

to feel like they can't go to these clinics to get

21:09

their care. They can and those doors are open,

21:12

but the whole safety net is struggling and

21:14

they're struggling because they've been forced with this impossible

21:17

choice. So one thing that I think is really

21:19

important for your listeners to

21:21

know is that the gag rule has

21:23

widespread impacts on anyone

21:27

who has ever struggled to make ends meet. And I

21:29

think all of us, even if we're not there right now,

21:31

have been in that place at some point in

21:33

our reproductive lives. And it's critical

21:36

that we not leave people up a Creek at

21:38

that time. That is, that is how people

21:41

lose their reproductive autonomy. So

21:44

there's a couple of things you can do cause there's always

21:46

things you can do, right? I love having things

21:48

people can do. So the first

21:50

one, and probably not the first guest on

21:52

your podcast to say this, but contact

21:55

your members of Congress. It turns out

21:57

they've got some power here. So

21:59

if you go to power to the side

22:01

and at the top, click on the tab, get

22:04

involved, it'll route you to

22:06

our action center where you can

22:08

contact your members directly about title 10

22:10

we make it super easy for you to do it. I,

22:12

I would be shocked if it takes you more than two minutes.

22:15

So definitely include

22:17

that in the tape . We'll make sure you got

22:19

our direct link right to that. So

22:22

that is a simple, easy thing you can do. It'll

22:24

go to your Congressman and to your two senators.

22:26

And then secondarily we would encourage

22:28

you to share it with your friends and family, post it on

22:31

social, get people contacting

22:33

their members. The other thing you can do

22:35

is give to BC benefits. It's

22:37

really important as we go into

22:39

this new world, even if the

22:41

courts resolve this, there's some damage that's been

22:43

done to this network and we don't know exactly

22:45

when it's going to get resolved. And in the meantime

22:48

there's people out there who need birth control right now

22:50

and don't have the means to afford it.

22:52

So BC benefits is how

22:55

we are providing that service right now and trying

22:57

to fill some of the gaps. So

22:59

you know, we hit a limit every month with BC benefits.

23:02

If we don't have enough money in the pot, we have

23:04

to tell people, we'll email you as soon

23:06

as money becomes available the

23:08

following month. So the more that we get to BC benefits,

23:10

the less we have to do that. So

23:12

we really encourage people to donate. And

23:14

then also if you know someone who's struggling to get birth control

23:17

to see if VC benefits might help them. So

23:19

that's what you can do to help. I

23:21

also think, don't you have something

23:23

fun coming up that people can take part in ? I

23:26

do. It's a lot of fun. So

23:28

on November 13th it is.

23:30

Thanks. Birth control day. This is an annual

23:33

day where we get to shout out everything that's awesome

23:35

about birth control. And I mean everything.

23:37

People talk about how

23:39

much they love their method to what birth control

23:41

has made possible for them. You

23:43

know, policy makers tend to be policy ish

23:46

about their tweets, but I've seen some

23:48

awesome influencers talk about you

23:50

guys. You don't even know how much I love my IUD.

23:52

I love my IUD more than you

23:54

know , almost anything else in my wife . So

23:57

you know, it's your chance to help

23:59

us make the point loudly

24:02

and in a concentrated way that birth control

24:04

is beloved, that almost all

24:06

women in America have used it at some point in their lives.

24:09

We all love it. We all need it. We love what it makes

24:11

possible for us and our families. And

24:14

so if you go to power

24:16

to decide.org, you will find

24:18

a whole digital toolkit for ways you can participate

24:21

in. Thanks. Birth control you can get thanks. Birth control

24:23

T shirts with a [inaudible] called very fun.

24:25

They're all super fun. Um, I

24:27

think my favorite was when my friend was eight

24:29

months pregnant wearing a tee shirt that said in nine

24:32

months, the only thing I'm going to be is more awesome. Thanks.

24:34

Birth control. I do love that one. I also

24:36

love, let's not make a baby.

24:38

That one's awesome. Um, Oh

24:41

God, there's a few. There's , there's one

24:43

that's uh, like a Ron burgundy from

24:45

anchorman and I can't remember exactly what it says,

24:48

but it's something like, you know, it's kind of

24:50

a big deal. Like

24:52

there's so many good ones. We have digital postcards you

24:54

can post and share. I think one

24:56

year we even had a birth things, birth control, like animated song.

24:59

Anyway, there's check it all out yet related

25:01

there's an hour birth control I shoved [inaudible]

25:04

. Yeah, one of those. Yes,

25:06

true story. Actually our CEO

25:09

has a dog who's adorable

25:11

and the first year that

25:13

she was our CEO, she's been here

25:15

a while now, so we can't call her new, but

25:17

at the time she was new, which is like, well, do

25:19

we have any dog shirts? And our

25:21

digital team was like, no we don't,

25:23

but we can make that happen. And then

25:26

everybody loved the picture. She posted so much, we

25:28

started stocking them in the store. So now

25:30

you can get dog shirts and lots of fun stuff

25:32

and buttons. They have different methods of birth

25:34

control on them. I'm not kidding.

25:36

It's all kinds of fun swag. But the ideas

25:39

are really serious one, which is to shout out birth control

25:41

because this just shouldn't be controversial.

25:43

The fact that it is is just, pardon

25:45

me, but BS. So there's my pitch.

25:48

November 13th thanks. Birth control,

25:50

go to power to decide.org to get

25:52

involved. Well that

25:54

feels like the perfect place to

25:56

stop. I guess so. I hope

25:58

I wasn't too quick for your podcast but you know

26:01

I can, I can wax on about birth control

26:03

access for as long as as

26:05

the day is. But I think

26:07

you guys know the important things. So to

26:09

review contraceptive deserts bad

26:12

that there are so many women in them. Gag

26:15

role , super bad cause it makes it even worse.

26:17

So contact your members of Congress and give to

26:19

BC benefits and then shout

26:21

out birth control on thanks. Birth control day which

26:23

is November 13 November

26:26

13th Mark your calendars to

26:28

people. Mark calendars anymore. I don't know my I

26:30

do fashion

26:33

and I really, I use paper.

26:35

Me too. Don't you get just a sense of satisfaction

26:38

when you physically check something off in a to do list

26:40

and I just, it helps me remember

26:42

it like if I write it versus type

26:44

it, I don't know. Like you can write, remember

26:46

to call your member of Congress or remember

26:48

to email your member of Congress cause power to decide.

26:51

Has made it super easy to do [inaudible]

26:53

and tell them how much the gag rule sucks. [inaudible]

26:56

exactly, but try not to

26:58

use foul language when you do that. Guys, like

27:00

seriously, we've had a few where we're like, guys,

27:02

you can't write that. They're not going to read it. Yeah,

27:05

so you know, avoid the death threats and foul

27:07

language. Just be passionate. Exactly.

27:11

Thank you so much for having me on. Thanks

27:13

Rachel. Thanks. Bye. Thanks

27:15

for listening everybody to get the

27:18

links that Rachel mentioned, including

27:20

all the information for thanks, birth control

27:22

day. Make sure to check out our show

27:24

notes, which have not only the new

27:26

transcripts, but we'll have all the links we talked

27:28

about. Thanks for listening and we'll see you

27:30

next episode. For

27:41

more information, including show notes

27:43

from this episode and previous episodes,

27:46

please visit our [email protected].

27:49

You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter

27:52

at reprots. Fight back. If you

27:54

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27:56

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28:01

Thanks for listening.

28:12

[inaudible] .