It Could Happen Here - Government Small Enough to Fit in Your Bedroom feat. Steven Monacelli & Dr. Michael Phillips

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

In overturning the Roe v. Wade decision that had protected women’s bodily autonomy for a half-century, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito claimed that abortion rights were not “deeply rooted in this nation’s history.” In fact, Americans had accepted a woman’s right to an abortion, with limitations, dating back to the Puritan era, even in supposedly solidly anti-choice Texas where the Roe case originated. This episode explores the often-surprising history of abortion in the United States and the connections between anti-abortion politics, racism, and xenophobia.  Sources:   Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer, The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Roe-Rise-New-America-ebook/dp/B0CK72ZGL1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=LT8GCBOTWABV&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JQimtOEGy3PsNcHVXC_RzHb4-nla_0uFg_mcpTX1ogL7AlrpV8uIf5LJfxCuazgOHruVfjQvhOd-B27Yyr-vsv6Jz5Rw2iecYpzZ8X1fODwGfubBl94YbczW4lNK_68iuBj2ipBDR9JsmUFKduu54NOSAjT_zA0v4iBiASNqit03Aix2od9liGMi5jliDW7hqtT59N7-A-bQTtkL38pZeRP_lNIji1bosnq7UeWXmNM.NrfQX0Mt4qMsvR3L2hDj0RFB_7GXrOGbbHNFxP_dxm0&dib_tag=se&keywords=Fall+of+Roe&qid=1732370376&s=books&sprefix=fall+of+roe%2Cstripbooks%2C124&sr=1-1 James Mohr, Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy https://www.amazon.com/Abortion-America-Origins-Evolution-National/dp/0195026160/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TR1W25IRTLDR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ZBOxRJsGiXDvGWbf9K1MRx7h7sn4m4_IDKwbohsbDD0.w_NHhzr7kEEWE8yR4B1rh1cuOGR8of66ZlXAvTHzxgM&dib_tag=se&keywords=James+Mohr+Abortion&qid=1732370158&s=books&sprefix=james+mohr+abortion%2Cstripbooks%2C116&sr=1-1 Leslie J. Reagan, When Abortion was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867- 1973 https://www.amazon.com/When-Abortion-Was-Crime-1867-1973-ebook/dp/B0B8TNX2MW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2S9JMDTGAJQRN&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.GVgbRixhq1FpPKRp5yMnMOkGBck7LhL6KpbcZwznkVsd7LzGl_DPfKYBmem066YyaLnnRv1PlQP8Ysr75l695zDs8EZVD-oM42iCfuISV0g.1k8qK_S9Vp5KaliYGNYObwpmoQUvVOmVmxULkBK2JtM&dib_tag=se&keywords=When+Abortion+Was+Illegal&qid=1732370269&s=books&sprefix=when+abortion+was+illegal%2Cstripbooks%2C102&sr=1-1-catcorr James Risen, Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War https://www.amazon.com/Wrath-Angels-American-Abortion-War/dp/046509273XSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Decisions Decisions, the podcast where boundaries are pushed and conversations get candid. Join your favorite hosts, me, Weezy WTF, and me, Mandy B. As we dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. That's right. Every Monday and Wednesday, we both invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, we share our personal journeys navigating our 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engage in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that'll resonate with your experiences, Decisions Decisions is going to be your go-to source for the open dialogue about what it truly means

to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections. Tune in and join in the conversation. Listen to Decisions Decisions on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. podcast network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's John, also known as Dr. John Paul.

And I'm Jordan, or Joe Ho. And we are the BlackFatFilm Podcast. A podcast where all the intersections of identity are celebrated. Woo chat, this year we have had some of our favorite people on including Kid Fury, T.S. Madison, Amber Ruffin from the Amber and Lacey Show, Angelica Ross, and more.

Make sure you listen to the Black Fat Fam podcast on the iHeart Radio app, other podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast, girl. Ooh, I know that's right. It's hard to read the news these days without asking yourself, how did we get here? Fiasco is a history podcast for the co-creators of Slow Burn. In our first season, Bush v. Gore, we examined an unmistakable turning point in American

politics, the 2000 election, which resulted in a high-stakes stalemate, ended with one of the most controversial rulings in Supreme Court history. So if you're trying to make sense of the present moment, check out Fiasco Bush v Gore. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex positive and deeply entertaining podcast,

Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson-Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions,

sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Hey, I'm Gianna Prentiti. And I'm Jeme Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart podcasts. If you're early in your career, you probably have a lot of money

questions. So we're talking to finance expert Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it down. Looking at the numbers is one of the most honest reflections of what your financial picture actually is. The numbers won't lie to you. Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Cool Zone Media. This is Michael Phillips, an historian in Texas. I'm the author of A History of Racism in Dallas called White Metropolis, and an upcoming book on the history of eugenics in Texas called The Purifying Knife. And I'm Stephen Monticelli, an investigative reporter and columnist in Texas who covers extremism and far-right movements, as well as dark money and other fun things.

In 2022, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito authored the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision. Alito's majority opinion reversed the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade outcome that established a woman's constitutional right to an abortion through the first trimester, permitted states to impose limits to protect the health of the mother in the second trimester, and gave states leeway to ban abortions in the final trimester. The road decision, based on a Texas case, had survived with modification for almost half a century. In Dobbs, however, the Supreme Court denied that women held a constitutional right to an abortion and gave the individual states the power to determine whether such procedures were legal at any point

during a pregnancy. In the Dobbs case, Alito seemed to suggest that the concept of abortion rights was a modern aberration. MSNBC pundit Lawrence O'Donnell zeroed in on one key phrase in Alito's opinion. Samuel Alito says that a right to abortion services is not, quote, deeply rooted in this nation's history. Whatever one might think about Alito as a jurist, he fails as an historian.

In fact, for much of American history, abortion was quite accepted. When men first formed the American Medical Association in the 1840s, they had to wage a campaign against abortion in part to eliminate competition for patients from midwives who were the primary provider of such services. The 19th century anti-abortion laws focused on the health and safety of women primarily, and not the life of the fetus as the modern laws tend to do. And the anti-abortion campaign at the time itself had to do not just with limiting women's autonomy,

but also with racism and anxiety over immigration. Through it all, Texas became a central battlefront in the culture wars surrounding women's bodily autonomy. One group of Texans won women the right to an abortion in the Roe case, while another worked almost immediately to reverse Roe and to recriminalize choice. Meanwhile, a Dallas district attorney, Henry Wade, played an underappreciated and underexplored role

in the battle. The often dour Peartons who established the British colony of Massachusetts in the 1620s may have created an oppressive theocracy, but they proved surprisingly indifferent when it came to women's decisions when and if to have children. Based on British common law, the colonies in New England allowed abortion up to the quickening, which is when women can first feel fetal movement. In that era, it was the first clear sign of impregnation. This moment varies widely for women,

but it generally happens during the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy. Women typically endured seven to eight live births, and the experience was often grueling and life-threatening, particularly as they got older. Seeking relief and physical safety, women frequently terminated their pregnancy in a variety of ways. From Native Americans, white women learned which local herbs were considered abortifacents.

White and black women also sought advice from midwives who provided wisdom on how to relieve menstrual cramps, get pregnant, and breastfeed. Midwives provided abortion services as well. Women attempted to end pregnancy with varying degrees of success by consuming pennyroyal tea or savan juniper or a combination of iron and quinine. They took hot baths or rode horses bareback in order to cause a miscarriage before the 1840s Such actions provoked little or no controversy Even the Catholic Church adhered to the quickening standard until after the American Civil War by the 1840s Abortion had become so deeply rooted in American history and culture that abortionists advertise their services

Albeit in euphemistic but widely understood terms their services, albeit in euphemistic but widely understood terms. These advertisements were carried in popular newspapers such as the New York Sun and the Boston Daily Times. Abortionists told patients they could provide quote French cures for what was referred to as quote menstrual blockage. A dramatic shift happened after the 1847 founding of the American Medical Association. Established by men, the organization began lobbying states to ban abortions in an attempt to discredit midwives who represented major competition for female patients. Medical journalists began to dismiss midwives and male doctors who provided abortion services as dangerous, ill-informed quacks. AMA members were still unaware that germs existed,

and they didn't clean their hands or equipment when examining wounds or during surgeries, thus causing many of their patients to die of sepsis. So-called regular doctors often used dangerous treatments such as bleeding to treat illnesses. Yet, in spite of their high body count, AMA members persuaded major press outlets, such as the New York Times, to sensationally cover cases in which women died during abortions performed by midwives. This created momentum for the enactment by 1880 of laws banning and criminalizing abortion in every single state except Kentucky, where state courts had already rendered such procedures illegal.

The drive against abortion wasn't all that it seemed. Abortion opponents were worried that the wrong women, or in other words white wealthy women, were choosing to limit how many children they had. The fertility rate for white women fell by almost 55% between 1850 and 1930. Horatio Storer, the leading anti-abortion crusader at the time, railed against non-infantomania among upper-class white women, a trend that the sociologist Edward A. Ross would call quote, race suicide. President Theodore Roosevelt later argued that white women had a patriotic duty to bear at least four children. If biologically fit Anglo-Saxons, quote, have only one child or no child at all,

while the Irish, Italians, and Jews have, quote, eight or nine or ten, Theodore Roosevelt warned, it is simply a question of the multiplication table, he wrote. The future of American civilization, Roosevelt believed, depended on reproductive math. White women could not be allowed to become voluntary non-combatants in a racial demographic war. In the 1880s, Texas was still seen by much of the country as an unsophisticated frontier, but was home to a highly influential doctor with a national following, Ferdinand Eugene Daniel, who became editor of the Texas Medical Journal. A eugenicist with a national audience, the surgenets served in the Confederate Army and

argued that masturbation and homosexuality were dangerous indications that individual came from a family line that not fully evolved or was biologically regressing. Fully evolved individuals, he believed, had less of a sex drive and kept their minds on intellectual pursuits. Daniel argued that before the Civil War, Americans had endangered their future by bringing Africans into the country as slaves, and were compounding the error by allowing what he called, quote, the dregs of Europe—Jews, Greeks, Italians, and others—to immigrate to the United States. The only way to save America's biological future, he said, was by castrating not just

gay men and masturbators, who would cause the evolution of white America to swing in reverse, but also the sterilized, the sexually promiscuous, the mentally ill, those with disabilities, and the criminal element as well. Daniel could be surprisingly supportive of abortion rights under limited circumstances, however, if it ensured that well-off white women had long and fruitful careers as mothers. Daniel wrote approvingly of how electric currents might be used to end ectopic pregnancies, cases in which fertilized eggs attached to the fallopian tubes or elsewhere outside the uterus, which can be dangerous and can kill or leave a woman infertile. Both outcomes undesirable for a eugenicist like Daniel, who cared for fit white patients. In a 1887 issue, he published an account of a debate among doctors held by the Medical Society in Terrell, Texas.

The topic was whether saving the life of a mother was the only acceptable reason to allow an abortion. Some doctors in the debate argued that abortion was morally acceptable for, quote, an intelligent and chaste woman who had gotten pregnant after being deceived by a scoundrel into participating in premarital sex. Because of sexual double standards, several of these Texas doctors argued that such women would no longer be considered a socially acceptable mate by a high-status man and thus should be denied the chance to become an quote ornament and useful member of society regardless of Texas's abortion law a surprising number of doctors in the

state performed abortions not only to save women's lives but to save the reputations and to relieve them of the financial and physical hardships of unwanted pregnancies. In 1899, in Waco, Texas, Mary Wheat discovered she was pregnant and sought an abortion. The procedure had been illegal in Texas since 1856, a year before the recently formed American Medical Association began a campaign to prohibit abortion in every state. By 1880, the AMA had achieved its goal. In spite of the ubiquitous bands, abortions were frequent and there were a large number of doctors willing to provide the prohibited medical procedure. Wheat, called Maddie by friends and family, found such a physician, Dr. S.M. Jenkins.

Texas law at the time had not eliminated abortion, but instead had driven the practice underground. Because of this, doctors received little or no training in how to perform such procedures. That proved fatal for Maddie Wheat. Dr. Jenkins performed the abortion in the home of a woman identified by the local press only as Mrs. Smith, and he made a mistake.

She got increasingly and dangerously ill, and then after 10 days of this ordeal, Jenkins rushed Wheat into Waco's City Hospital. He claimed she was suffering a severe attack of dysentery. She then died, and an autopsy revealed a bowel perforation, which had been left during the botched abortion. Law enforcement arrested Jenkins on November 1st for the operation, charging him with murder. Jenkins' trial did not go as prosecutors planned. Jenkins testified that the fetus Wheat was carrying had died and that the abortion was an attempt to save her life. According to a reporter for the Houston Post, Jenkins and his attorney were pleased with

how the trial was unfolding. Quote, the defense seemed to be well satisfied with their showing so far, and public opinion had changed considerably in favor of the defendant, the newspaper told its readers. But then the trial came to an abrupt and shocking end. While the court was in session, Hugh Wheat, the brother of the deceased woman, stood, aimed a gun at Dr. Jenkins, and pulled the trigger. A bullet fatally struck the physician, just underneath the ribs. As the assassin fled, Jenkins' brother-in-law, John Halligan, shot back but missed.

That a murder trial ended in another homicide is not surprising in a place as violent as 19th century Texas. But because of the modern image of Texas as reliably and even harshly anti-abortion, it might be startling that the public 125 years ago actually sympathized with a doctor who faced prison after his patient died as a result of an incompetently performed abortion. Abortion politics were far more unpredictable in the American past than Samuel Alito had asserted.

In 1873, anti-vice activist Anthony Comstock of Connecticut successfully lobbied the Congress to pass legislation, known as the Comstock Act, that made distribution to the U.S. mail or common carriers of birth control devices or any information about birth control or how to obtain an abortion a federal crime. Social reformers noted that bearing multiple children often shorted women's lives and drove their families into poverty and they battled for women to gain control over their reproductive choices. One such reformer was Margaret Sanger of New York, the daughter of a radical Irish father

and mother who died at 50 after burying 11 children. Sanger coined the term birth control in 1915 and just before World War I, launched a movement that promoted contraception as sexual and political reform aimed to reduce human misery. She had to flee the country in 1914 because her publication, The Woman Rebel, intentionally defied the Comstock law and promoted the distribution of information about contraception through the United States Postal Service. When she returned to this country, she was an international celebrity for women's rights and free speech,

and she opened a family planning clinic, which faced continual police harassment. Lack of access to birth control, saying her complaint, led to abortion, as she has said in a 1957 interview with reporter Mike Wallace on CBS News. Why did you do it? I realized that you had an intellectual conviction that birth control was a boon to mankind, but I'm sure that others have that conviction too. And so what I'd like to know is this, what events, what emotions in your life

made Margaret Sanger a crusader for birth control? Well, Mr. Wallace, it's hard to say that any one thing has made one do this or that. I think from the very beginning I came with a large family. My mother died young, eleven children. It made an impression on me as a child. I was a trained nurse. I went among the people. I saw women who were asked to have some means whereby they wouldn't have to have another pregnancy too early after the last child, the last abortion, which many of them had. So there's a number of things that are one after the other that really made you feel that you had to do something.

It may surprise many today that the woman who founded the American Birth Control League, which later evolved into Planned Parenthood of America, actually opposed abortion and advocated easing access to birth control as a means of making it vanish. Meanwhile, around the time of Sanger's interview with Mike Wallace, Texas doctors became friendlier to abortion rights. But before we get into that, a quick ad break. break. Hey everyone, it's John also known as Dr. John Paul and I'm Jordan or Joe Ho and we are the black fat film podcast, a podcast where all the intersections of identity are

celebrated. This year we have had some of our favorite people on including Kid Fury, T.S. Madison, Amber Ruffin from the Amber and Lacey Show, Angelica Ross, and more. Make sure you listen to the Black Fat Fam podcast on the iHeartRadio app, other podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast, girl. Oh, I know that's right. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions.

Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson-Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. I'm Dr. Laurie Santos.

I'm a psychology professor at Yale, and I started to notice that a lot of my students weren't all that happy. So I created a new class. Welcome everybody to Psychology and the Good Life. It became the biggest class in the history of years. I'm a little bit surprised to see as many of you are here as are here, but that's great. But it's not just my students who need to understand the science of well-being.

And that's why we launched the Happiness Lab, so you can learn about it too. Are you ready to feel happier? Head to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. Brought to you by the 2024 Subaru Share the Love event, now through January 2nd. In 1963, the Houston Chronicle surveyed doctors about their views of abortion. About 18,000 abortions took place in Texas every year, the newspaper reported, and that, quote, an increasing number of doctors believed abortion should be legal

for reasons beyond saving the life of the mother. Texas women fought fiercely for the right to control their bodies. In North Texas, the Women's Alliance, the first Unitarian Universalist Church in Dallas, launched an education campaign about the need for the state to reform its abortion laws. Meanwhile, Dr. Hugh Savage of Fort Worth, the president of the State Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, lobbied the Texas Medical Association to draft a statement supporting abortion rights. The state's abortion ban was, he said, in conflict with actual

practice of reputable hospitals across the state. Doctors regularly provided abortion care when a woman's life was in danger and they interpreted that mandate broadly. In 1969, members of the Texas Medical Association who were surveyed approved liberalization of abortion laws by an overwhelming vote of 4,435 to 536. The Texas legislature even considered loosening abortion restrictions in its 1967 and 1968 sessions, although neither effort was successful in spite of support from conservative state Senator George Parkhouse and a growing number of churches and physicians.

In the end, activists carried the day. Two Texas lawyers, Linda Cofee and Sarah Weddington, took up the cause of Norma McOvie, who had sought an abortion in Dallas. Almost a century earlier, Texas doctors had argued whether to allow an abortion for unmarried upper-class women so they could contribute to the gene pool by bearing children with comparably privileged men. Those Victorian doctors did not have someone like McOvie in mind. Largely neglected by her parents, McOvie had suffered abuse at the hands of men throughout her life and was a frequent drug user.

After giving up one child for adoption and having another taken by her mother, in 1969 she was pregnant for a third time while she was living in Dallas. McCovey tried to end the pregnancy herself with a home remedy of peanuts and castor oil, but she only succeeded in making herself nauseous. She was eventually told about an illegal clinic, but when she got there,

Dallas police had already shut down the clinic. Qu but when she got there, Dallas police had already shut down the clinic. Quote, nobody was there, she said later. It was an old dentist's office. Then I saw dried blood everywhere and smelled this awful smell. She believed that she falsely claimed that she had been gang raped by African American men. A doctor might be willing to provide her an abortion.

She was unsuccessful, but a doctor referred her to an attorney who connected her with a pair of lawyers who were seeking to challenge the Texas anti-abortion law. These attorneys, Linda Coffey and Sarah Weddington, filed a class action suit against Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade, claiming that the Texas anti-abortion law, which allowed the procedure only to save the patient's life, violated the constitutional right of privacy. Before his name would forever be linked with the history of American abortion law, by the time of Norma McCovey's suit,

Henry Wade enjoyed a reputation as one of the most successful district attorneys in the country. His reputation in Dallas was built on ruthlessness, racism, and the advantages a brutally unfair criminal justice system in Texas gave him. Wade would claim a 90% conviction rate, but in many of those cases, he faced off against poor defendants that were bullied, lied to, and coerced into confessions by Dallas police officers.

In one infamous murder case, Tommy Lee Walker, an African American man with several alibi witnesses was threatened with a beating if he didn't sign a confession. He was misled about the consequences of signing and admission of guilt and later died in the electric chair in 1956. Wade reportedly joked, quote, any prosecutor could convict a guilty man, but it takes a real pro to convict an innocent man. Emanuel Wade provided prosecutors

after the civil rights era, provided tips for excluding African-Americans and Mexican-Americans from juries. Wade left the district attorney's office in January, 1988, and as of 2008, 19 criminal defendants convicted by his team had been exonerated through DNA evidence. During his time as district attorney, Wade directed police to raid gay bars and vigorously prosecuted violators of the state's sodomy laws that banned oral and anal sex, including a straight couple arrested in Dallas in 1961.

While Wade may have racked up wins against badly outmatched targets, before Roe, he bungled his most famous case, a murder covered by Dallas radio reporter Gary Dillon of KLIF-AM. And here he comes, Lee Oswald, the accused assassin. Captain Wilfret's leading the way. Being escorted by police officers and the sheriff. The shot's running out. The shot has run out. And Lee Oswald falls. Lee Oswald has fallen. A shot has run out here. A struggle has been in place. A shot has run out. And ladies and gentlemen, Lee Oswald, Lee Oswald has just been shot. On November 24th, 1963, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby had murdered Lee Harvey Oswald,

the accused assassin of John Kennedy, as he was being escorted by police in front of a nationwide TV audience. The case should have been open and shut. Wade's staff won a conviction in March 1964, but the verdict and death sentence Ruby received was unanimously overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on October 5th, 1966, in part because the judge should have granted a change of venue, but also because Wade's team

had introduced improperly obtained evidence at the trial. Ruby was awaiting a new trial when he died of pneumonia and cancer in 1967. The Wade team apparently did similarly sloppy work in the Roe v. Wade case. In abortion cases, Wade's office had generally prosecuted amateur abortion providers who had killed or badly injured their clients, and the Dallas DA's office and the city police had not focused on enforcement of abortion laws on the books. Legal experts would later characterize the Dallas DA's office filings and the Roe case as perfunctory,

especially compared to the exhaustive constitutional research done by Weddington and Coffey. Texas Assistant General J Floyd won no allies on the Supreme Court when he opened his argument with comments considered sexist and condescending even by the standards of 1973. When the Supreme Court rendered its verdict, Wade reportedly never bothered to read it. against two beautiful ladies like this. They're going to have the last word. No one laughed and a Texas legal team would win a landmark legal victory. On January 22nd, 1973, news anchor Walter Cronkite made the earth-shaking Roe v. Wade

decision, the lead story on the CBS Evening News. Good evening. In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court today legalized abortions. The majority in cases from Texas and Georgia said that the decision to end a pregnancy during the first three months belongs to the woman and her doctor, not the government. Thus, the anti-abortion laws of 46 states were rendered unconstitutional. Stay with us through this ad break to learn more. Hey everyone, it's John, also known as Dr. John Paul. And I'm Jordan or Joe Ho.

And we are the BlackFatFilm Podcast. A podcast where all the intersections of identity are celebrated. Oh, chat. This year we have had some of our favorite people on, including Kid Fury, T.S. Madison, Amber Ruffin from the Amber and Lacey show, Angela Carras and more. Make sure you listen to the Black Fat Fam podcast on the iHeart Radio app. Have a podcast or whatever you get your podcast girl. Oh, I know that's right. Curious about queer sexuality,

cruising and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts, Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds

and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeart radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. I'm Dr. Laurie Santos. I'm a psychology professor at Yale, and I started to notice that a lot of my students

weren't all that happy. So I created a new class. Welcome everybody to Psychology and the Good Life. It became the biggest class in the history of you. I'm a little bit surprised to see as many of you are here as are here, but that's great. But it's not just my students who need to understand the science of well-being. And that's why we launched the Happiness Lab so you can learn about it too. Are you ready to feel happier? Head to the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or if you like to listen.

Brought to you by the 2024 Subaru Share the Love event, now through January 2nd. Took a while for the country and particularly Texans to absorb the news about the Roe decision. The Supreme Court ruling was announced on the same day as another big news story that, over the next few days, absorbed attention south of the Red River. Cronkite was on the air when the press secretary of a former giant of Texas politics called the newsman to tell him a former president had died. Thank you very much, Tom. I'm on the air right at the moment.

Can you hold the line just a second? I'm talking to Tom Johnston, the press secretary for Lyndon Johnson, who has reported that the 36th president of the United States died this afternoon in an ambulance plane on the way to San Antonio, where he was taken after being stricken at his ranch, the LBJ Ranch in Johnson City, Texas. News of the road decision had to compete not only with coverage of Johnson's death and the planning for his funeral, but also the recently negotiated American withdrawal from the Vietnam War. No one could have guessed how deeply this one decision would reshape the makeup of the Democratic and Republican parties over the next half century. Americans divided almost evenly soon after the Supreme Court announcement.

A Gallup survey indicated that 46% supported a woman's right to choose and 45% opposed granting women access to abortion care in the days following the Roe decision. Reactions were often surprising. W.A. Criswell, the Arch--conservative pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, the largest Southern Baptist congregation in the nation, initially applauded the court. Perhaps the pastor, who had repeatedly warned 13 years earlier that the election of a Catholic, John Kennedy, as president would mark the end of religious liberty, was relieved that the Supreme Court was not controlled by the Vatican. liberty was relieved that the Supreme Court was not controlled by the Vatican. By the late 1970s, Criswell would emerge as a national leader of the religious

right and would help make opposition to abortion and gay rights a centerpiece of Republican politics. Shortly after Roe, however, he struck a very different tune. Quote, I have always felt that was only after the child was born and had a life separate from its mother that became an individual person, Criswell said, and it always therefore seemed to me that's what's best for the mother and the future should be allowed. Opposition to the legalization of abortion quickly formed and would build to homicidal intensity over the decades. In 1970, three years before the road, when abortion was still illegal in Texas,

Michael Schwartz, a student at the conservative private university of Dallas in the suburb of Irving, staged what might have been the first anti-abortion protest in American history. He held a sit-in at the Planned Parenthood headquarters not far from downtown Dallas, because the organization provided assistance to pregnant women planning on traveling to states where abortion was already legal, not unlike situations that Texans face today. The movement soon came to be dominated by right-wing Republicans and the occupations of clinics soon became violent, abortion opponents pouring noxious chemicals into clinic ventilation

systems. Anti-choice extremists had fired to clinics, bombed them, and even murdered doctors and clinic staff providing abortion care. One set of Texans may have won the decisive battle for abortion rights in the past half century, but a different set of Texans would lead the charge to reverse those gains. Strangely enough, the backlash to abortion rights included Norma McCovey. One day, Flip Benham, a leader of the extremist anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, approached her while she was autographing copies of a book she had authored called I Am Roe. They became friends, and she later claimed that she changed her mind about abortion when she saw photos of fetuses at different stages of pregnancy.

After being baptized in a swimming pool by evangelicals in 1995, an event filmed and widely disseminated in the anti-abortion movement, Makovie became a popular fixture at anti-abortion protests. At first, Makovie embraced evangelical Protestantism, and by 1998, she converted to Catholicism. But towards the end of her life, while being interviewed for a 2020 documentary called A.K.A. Jane Roe, McCovey confessed that her religious conversion had been a scam, and that she had been financially benefiting from her transition into a star of the evangelical anti-abortion circuit.

Did they use you as a trophy? Of course. I was the big fish. Do you think they would say that you used them? Well, I think it was a mutual thing. You know, I took their money and they put me out in front of the cameras and told me what to say. That's what I'd say.

McCovey died in 2017 at her home in Katy, Texas. By that point, anti-abortion politics had become orthodoxy in the Republican Party. In 2008, the state passed the misleadingly named Women's Right to Know Act, which mandated the physicians share misinformation about alleged fetal pain during abortion with women who sought the procedure. In 2013, a state senator, Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, staged a dramatic 13-hour filibuster of Senate Bill 5,

legislation that banned abortion after 20 weeks, required clinics to meet the same demanding standards as hospitals and surgical centers, require clinics to meet the same demanding standards as hospitals and surgical centers, and require doctors performing the procedure to hold admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Davis's fellow busters stopped the bill from being voted on before midnight June 25th, the mandated end of the legislative session. She killed the legislation for the time being, and the pink tennis shoes she wore became a symbol of abortion rights activism around the world.

However, Rick Perry called a special session of the legislature the next day and Senate Bill 5 passed. Her efforts propelled her into the 2014 gubernatorial race, but she was crushed by Greg Abbott by a 21-point margin. In recent years, Abbott has led the charge to erase many of the gains women have won in the fight to control their bodies. We will promote policies that limit the growth of government, not the size of your dreams. Under Abbott, Texas has passed some of the most intrusive and extreme anti-abortion laws that tightly regulate women's bodies. In 2021, Texas passed Senate Bill 8, which banned abortions after the sixth week of

pregnancy. It made performing an abortion a first or second degree felony unless the mother's life is in danger or there is risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function. The vagueness of that latter provision has terrified Texas doctors into not providing care to several women who have shown up in emergency rooms at death's door. Texas physicians have become less willing to perform emergency abortions than they were in the days before the Roe decision, even as far back as the 19th century. In 2023, the Texas Supreme Court denied Kate Cox of Dallas

the right to end her pregnancy, even though her fetus suffered from full trisomy 18, a severe genetic anomaly that guaranteed that the child, if it survived pregnancy, would only live minutes. If the pregnancy continued, Cox may have lost the ability to have children in the future. She fled this state in order to obtain an abortion where the procedure remained illegal.

In 2023, Amanda Zyrwarski almost died waiting for a lifesaving abortion when doctors hesitated to provide care because they feared criminal prosecution. For years, abortion right activists had chanted, pro-life, that's a lie, you don't care if women die. In fact, the state legislature and Governor Greg Abbott did nothing as the deaths of pregnant women in Texas soared 56%.

In 2021, Jocelyne Barneka, a mother of one, was joyful when she realized she was pregnant. She hoped to deliver a sibling for her daughter, but on September 21st, 17 weeks into her pregnancy, she was miscarrying with the fetus pressing against her cervix and about to exit the womb. Baranica's life was in danger, but doctors at HCA Houston HealthCare Northwest told her and her husband that because of Texas's law, they could do nothing until the fetus's heartbeat had stopped. Fearing criminal charges, doctors refused to medically accelerate the delivery of the dying fetus and let 40 hours pass. Barneka writhed in agony, begged to be allowed to see her daughter, and a fatal bacterial infection ravaged her body. She would die three days later, leaving her young child without a mother.

die three days later, leaving her young child without a mother. On October 28, 2023, 18-year-old Neva Crane was six months pregnant. She began vomiting, and she became soaked in sweat during a baby shower at her home in Beaumont. She, too, was miscarrying. Her boyfriend drove her to nearby Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas, where they waited for five hours in a waiting room before doctors diagnosed her with strep throat and gave her a prescription for antibiotics. Sent home, her condition only worsened. Crane was driven to another hospital in town, Christus Southeast Texas St. Elizabeth.

Her fever soared to 102 and she was bleeding, but her doctors continued to do nothing but administer antibiotics. Eventually, she was wheeled into a third emergency room. Doctors gave her two ultrasounds to, in their words, confirm fetal demise. Crane's mother, who had long been opposed to abortion, screamed at the medical staff to help her dying child. Crane suffered for 20 hours before her heart failed. Barneka and Crane's stories were revealed by the investigative news outlet ProPublica just days before the 2024 presidential

election. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris made abortion rights a central part of her doomed campaign. When an anticipated red wave expected to bring a Republican majority in the 2022 Congressional elections fizzled, and a number of abortion rights initiatives passed even in traditional Republican strongholds like Kansas and Ohio, many pundits believed that a Dobbs effect had heralded a permanent political realignment, or at least the upcoming presidential election results. This phenomenon clearly failed to materialize for Harris. Abortion rights referenda passed in seven states, including Arizona, Colorado, Maryland,

Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York in November 2024. But they foundered in Nebraska and South Dakota, as well as Florida, because the support of 57% of voters fell short of the required 60% supermajority. In Texas, Trump, once a pro-choice person, but now the proud instigator of the Dobbs decision, carried 56% of the vote. One of the most prominent Trump supporters, University of Texas PhD Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation, might soon be in a position to see his dreams of a national ban on the so-called abortion pill, Mipha Pristone, and even the reversal

of the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court decision that overturned state laws banning control pills and devices. When Harris Law's anti-abortion extremists exuberantly celebrated Trump's triumph. Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, who with right-wing rap artist Kanye West got to go to dinner in 2022 with Trump, saw the Republican victory as an opportunity to reduce women to the status of property. Hey b****, we control your bodies. Guess what? Guys win again, okay? Men win again. And yes, we control your bodies. Hi, I'm your Republican congressman.

Hi, I'm your Republican congressman. It's your body, my choice. Texas government has become big enough to regulate women's bodies and small enough to fit inside of its citizens bedrooms. Even though abortion rights have always enjoyed far greater support than Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has suggested, the right of women to control their own bodies and get the vital medical care they need to prevent bodily harm or their premature deaths seems on the precipice of vanishing. This grim reality is not deeply rooted in America's history or traditions, but unfortunately,

it is the current status quo and Texas has played a major role in bringing us to this place. I'm Stephen Monticelli. I'm Michael Phillips. Thanks for listening. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out from the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

You can now find sources for It Could Happen Here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Welcome to Decisions Decisions, the podcast where boundaries are pushed and conversations get candid. Join your favorite hosts, me, Weezy WTF. And me, Mandy B. As we dive deep into the world

of non-traditional relationships and explore the often taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday and Wednesday, we both invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. Tune in and join the conversation.

Listen to Decisions Decisions on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's John, also known as Dr. John Paul. And I'm Jordan or Joe Ho. And we are the Black Fat Film Podcast. A podcast where all the intersections of identity are celebrated. Ooh chat, this year we have had some of our favorite people on including Kid Fury, T.S. Madison, Amber Ruffin from the Amber and Lacey show, Angela Carras and more. Make sure you listen to the Black Fat Film Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Alpha Podcast

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