What A Day - The Impact Of Texas's Abortion Ban, Six Months In

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Tuesday, March 22nd. I'm Gideon Resnick. And I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And this is What A Day, where we're all working out the logistical nightmare that is sharing our one Netflix account. If I ever start a freedom convoy, it's going to be because I got a message that said I had to upgrade Netflix because I'm sharing it with too many people. I'm just saying it right now. On today's show, what the fight for abortion rights looks like in Texas, plus a passenger jet crashed in China. But first, a few updates on Ukraine as we go to record around 9.30 p.m. Eastern on Monday.

Starting point is 00:00:42 So there's been quite a lot of focus on Mariupol, a southern port city, which has been a real outsized target of Russian attacks. Gideon, what more do we know about what's happening there? Yeah, the reporting that is still coming out of the city is really shocking, and it is basically every day. This is the site of recent Russian missile strikes that hit civilian targets, including a theater where people were sheltering. And it's also a city where water is reportedly still scarce and electricity and heat are non-existent. One person who made it out of Mariupol told the AP, quote, there are no buildings there anymore. We can link to that story in our show notes. And on Monday, Ukraine rejected a demand from Russia that soldiers surrender the city, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying,

Starting point is 00:01:24 in part, quote, Ukraine cannot fulfill ultimatums. Devastating. The pictures from the city are just heartbreaking. Yeah. Can you tell us recent news from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv? Yeah, so that's another place where there were updates yesterday. A Russian missile struck a mall in Kyiv, killing at least eight people, according to officials. Russia had alleged that it had been used as an arms depot of sorts. That's what they tend to

Starting point is 00:01:49 say after these things happen. Here's a little bit from a dispatch from the New York Times in the city that gets at the strike. Quote, it was so powerful that it blew debris hundreds of yards in every direction, shook buildings, and flattened one part of the mall. It turned the parking lot into a sea of flames. Gosh, oh man. There's some reporting that the increased barrage of strikes that hit civilians and civilian infrastructure represent kind of a change in Russia's strategy here. So what have officials been saying about that? Yeah, so from this report in the Wall Street Journal that we can link to, the more intense bombing campaign some are saying is meant to pressure Ukraine as the actual ground offensive has in part stalled out in different parts of the country. The bombings are, of course, also leading to more condemnations from President

Starting point is 00:02:34 Biden, who spoke with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, and Britain on Monday before a later meeting with NATO leaders in Europe tomorrow. Russia's foreign minister said that relations between his country and the U.S. were, quote, on the verge of a rupture after comments that Biden made about Russian President Vladimir Putin being a, quote, war criminal. The White House also warned businesses on Monday to strengthen cybersecurity in the event of Russian cyber attacks. And the Biden administration confirmed Russia's previously uncorroborated claim

Starting point is 00:03:03 that we mentioned on the show yesterday, that Russia had used a hypersonic missile, which is almost undetectable to current air defense systems and goes five times the speed of sound. Just crazy. That would mark the first use of this kind of weapon in combat. So that is where things stand on Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the moment. And of course, we will continue to bring you more tomorrow. Gideon, I got to say, I'm not super thrilled to hear about these missiles that go five times the speed of sound. No. So moving to some domestic issues, as we mentioned on yesterday's show, the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Katonji Brown Jackson began yesterday with opening statements. If confirmed, Judge Jackson will join a court that is set to hear several high profile cases in the coming months. One of the issues that is devastatingly up for debate is the constitutional right to an

Starting point is 00:03:51 abortion. And it's very possible, given the conservative supermajority, that it may overturn or significantly weaken Roe v. Wade. Yeah, it's awful to hear every time. And before that issue goes before the high court, we should keep an eye on how this legal debate is already playing out on the local level. So what has that actually looked like? Yeah, so Republican-led state legislatures have passed an overwhelming amount of anti-abortion legislation in recent months, particularly after SB8 went into effect in Texas. And that's in addition to the years of them passing anti-abortion legislation in hopes that one day Roe v. Wade would be overturned and they could put it all into effect, right? So SB8 is the state's abortion ban that prohibits abortions after six weeks in a very key provision allows private citizens to

Starting point is 00:04:37 sue anyone who helps a Texas resident get an abortion. It's really an outrageous piece of legislation. Abortion rights advocates have been fighting SB8 in the courts over the past several months, and I talked with one of them yesterday, Roseanne Maria Purim. She is the executive director at Jane's Due Process in Texas, an abortion fund that focuses on getting minors the abortion care that they need. I wanted to know more about what things look like on the ground and what comes next as they face some very, very tough headwinds. So I started out by asking her reaction to a huge blow that happened last week. The Texas Supreme Court ruled against abortion providers in the state,

Starting point is 00:05:12 saying that state officials don't have the ability to enforce SB8 and therefore cannot be sued. So I think my immediate reaction was concern for pregnant people who have been trying to get abortion care in a state that basically has banned it for the last six months. It has been impossible for many people to even access the care. So we're an example of what it's like to live in a state without abortion care for so many. And then on the flip side, my heart went to the clinics and the abortion providers and abortion funds, which is this network of people who are trying to help folks still get abortion care and yet time and time again have been denied our rights, our human rights by the court system. Can you talk to us about your view on the ground? So as someone who's actually there, how has the ruling really impacted your work in your community? And not

Starting point is 00:06:01 just this recent ruling, but the past six months, right? We work with teenagers because in Texas, if you're under 18, you have to get your parent or guardian's permission to get an abortion. And while the vast majority of youth can involve a parent safely, for our clients, a lot of them are at risk of getting kicked out of the house if they're pregnant or are in the custody of the state in foster care or in immigration detention. They're just in these really marginalized situations where they don't have the help they need. So those are the clients that immediately were cut off from access. And we saw our hotline, which normally gets dozens of texts every week from teens, you know, dozens of calls, went silent for a full week. And think that we were just so

Starting point is 00:06:47 worried for youth because we knew how scared they were. And so we immediately started thinking, how can we help assure them that we're still there for them? And also that we will do everything we can to help them even in this impossible circumstance. Several other Republican-led state legislatures have put forth anti-abortion legislation. I mean, really for decades, right? Just sort of waiting for a moment like this. But recently, a lot of it has been modeled after SB8. And in some cases, they've taken it a step further. So for example, the Missouri House of Representatives introduced a bill earlier this month that would allow private citizens not only to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident cross state lines to get an abortion, but also outlawing the ability to leave the state to get an abortion. What are your thoughts on that strategy gaining traction,

Starting point is 00:07:30 especially in light of the Texas Supreme Court ruling? And when you look months, a few years in the future, how are you expecting that to affect the approach people take to trying to cut off the rights of those trying to get an abortion? Unprecedented is a word I use so much now. Sometimes it's lost all meaning. But the idea that you could control someone's freedom of movement, which flies in the face of foundational rights on a human rights level and in the Constitution, I think that piece is what I immediately think about. It's just you have no ability to stop someone from crossing a state

Starting point is 00:08:05 line to seek health care. You know, even though the Supreme Court has really failed us when it comes to abortion access, if they undermine the right to travel, I don't know how they would claim any form of legitimacy anymore as a court. Right. As a federal court in particular that's supposed to protect these federal rights, including moving between states. You know, we talk about that a lot at Jeans Due Process is the expectation is people can travel, right? If your state bans abortion, they say, oh, just go somewhere else. But from an access place, who can travel? You know, people with money. And, you know, because of systemic racism, disproportionately communities of color don't have those resources. So we serve, I think 80% of our clients seeking abortion care identify as youth of color. So for us,

Starting point is 00:08:50 we see that like, this is going to hurt youth of color, it's going to hurt communities of color. I think you have to see it as a racial and economic justice issue when you think about what abortion access is looking like in states that ban abortion and then try to criminalize travel as well. So most of the reporting on this last ruling says that this was like the last legal avenue that abortion rights activists had to challenge this particular law. But then an article in the Washington Post has pointed to a potential new legal strategy to counteract the law. Some Texas abortion funds are suing anti-abortion legal groups that are threatening them with

Starting point is 00:09:24 litigation. And they're arguing that these anti-abortion legal groups that are threatening them with litigation. And they're arguing that these anti-abortion groups are identifying themselves as enforcers of SB8. And so as a result can be the target of new legal challenges. That's kind of convoluted as it but that's the nature of this stuff, right? What are your thoughts on that as a strategy? I mean, I have a lot of admiration for our fellow abortion funds that filed those suits and are now getting harassed as a result. But I think that shows the tenacity of people on the ground here who are going to think creatively to protect pregnant people seeking abortion no matter what. Listening to like the oral arguments in the federal courts and the state courts, they just keep throwing up their hands. The judges

Starting point is 00:09:59 keep saying this is so novel. This is so outside of our ability to control. Well, true advocacy requires us to push back and say, okay, if this is such a novel legal concept, there's no one to prosecute. What about in this instance where you have groups coming forward that say they want to sue us? So I admire it and I think it's what we need. I've talked to mentors and to people who worked in abortion care when it wasn't legal. And I think what I admire is that yes, there's the law, but then there's also the morally right and just thing to do. And like abortion is a moral good. It allows people to live lives that they want to live. And our work will always be centered on the people themselves, not on the politics or over-politicalization of this

Starting point is 00:10:43 issue. So we're still doing our jobs and helping people get abortion care. We are also adhering to the law. It is a narrow space in which to live, but it's the only thing you can do if you truly believe abortion is health care and it's something that people deserve. It seems likely that SCOTUS is going to drastically restrict the ability for people to have abortions in the coming months. And so moving forward, how does support for to have abortions in the coming months. And so moving forward, how does support for those seeking abortions look? I think one huge piece that we kind of started to name is the amount of stigma there is around abortion. Like, why do

Starting point is 00:11:15 some groups get marginalized and, you know, no one stands up for them is because we have socially accepted the stigma so that people who have abortions are afraid to talk about the fact that they had abortion care. It's not something that we support as a pregnancy outcome. It's this quiet, shamed, stigmatized thing. So I think that's the fight is to destigmatize abortion care, to make it a part of our lives and our reproductive health in a way where you can't just silo it, which has been very effectively done by passing state laws, always under the guise of safety or under the guise of, you know, protecting the

Starting point is 00:11:50 pregnant person because they need to have a waiting period because they don't know what they're making this decision about or delaying care or requiring ultrasounds because they don't really understand the medical decision. It's just so rooted in misogyny and so rooted in thinking that people who get pregnant, especially women, can't make decisions about their own lives. And so I think we have to push on the stigma piece and also push and reveal that like anti-abortion advocates are also like people who hate women and people who hate pregnant people and people who hate queer folks and communities of color. They've been avoiding that conversation. And when you can push on stigma, I think then you can push on the political realities in a state like Texas, which is huge and diverse. And like the majority of Texans do

Starting point is 00:12:35 support abortion, but do they call themselves abortion advocates? Do most people feel comfortable saying they support abortion? We're not there yet and we need to get there. So I think that's the real area to go towards. Is there anything that our listeners can do to support abortion rights activists in Texas right now? Be forward about your opinion on abortion care and do it with the communities that matter to you. So talk about it with your family, talk about it with your friends, be public about supporting abortion. And if you're scared, just know that there's a majority of people in our country who agree with you. We just have to start talking about it. The other big push I would say is support abortion funds. Groups like Genes to Process, we're here in states that are

Starting point is 00:13:15 banning abortion, but we're still helping people get the care they need. Abortion funds do everything from actually like paying for abortion care to practical support, which means flying folks to other states, paying for transportation, paying for child care. So your state definitely has one. You can also support funds here in Texas. The National Network of Abortion Funds is a great place to start. And Gideon, that's my interview with Roseanne Maria Purim of Jane's Due Process in Texas. We'll have links to the resources she mentioned in our show notes. That is the latest for now. We'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. A China Eastern Airlines plane crashed yesterday in a remote mountainous region in southern China.

Starting point is 00:14:08 132 people were on board the Boeing 737 and tragically, there do not seem to be any survivors. The plane took off from the southwestern city of Kunming and was en route to Guangzhou. Everything seemed to be normal for the first 50 minutes or so, but then there appeared to be a rapid descent. The flight briefly recovered, but then the jetliner lost contact over the city of Wuzhou. The impact of the crash sparked a fire in the mountains, and according to NASA satellite images, the flames were so big they could be seen from space. Wow. China Eastern Airlines released a statement saying, quote, The cause of the plane crash is still under investigation.

Starting point is 00:14:55 The company expresses its sorrowful condolences to the passengers and crew members who died in this plane crash. Yeah, devastating. The Biden administration declared yesterday that Myanmar's military committed genocide against the country's population of Rohingya Muslims. Starting in 2017, the military began a killing spree of this ethnic minority, Wow. amplified hate speech against them. And last December, they filed a $150 billion lawsuit against Meta. A new report by the rights group Global Witness backs them up. It says that the social media giant neither detected nor stopped hate speech on its site against the Rohingya. The U.S. decision to describe what Myanmar's military did as genocide came after several reviews by the State Department of its atrocities.

Starting point is 00:15:43 This formal designation could lead to sanctions against the military, limits on aid, and more. When there are horrific things in the world, it's like you can almost count on Facebook not having done the right thing. There's always a clause or something that's like, they didn't actually do the right thing here. They could have maybe done something and they chose not to do that. So that's cool.

Starting point is 00:16:03 Yeah. Turning now to the latest COVID news, Hong Kong plans to relax some of its restrictions after experts said the worst of its Omicron-driven wave is behind the city. Yesterday, Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam announced the region will lift its ban on flights from nine different countries starting April 1st, and vaccinated residents will only have to quarantine for seven days if they come from overseas. This marks a huge turning point for Hong Kong because it has been pretty isolated from the rest of the world for most of the pandemic and required travelers to quarantine for as long as three weeks in a hotel. Meanwhile,

Starting point is 00:16:34 the Omicron subvariant BA2, the sequel no one wanted, is causing a surge in parts of Europe. As a result, Austria will bring back its indoor mask mandate beginning tomorrow. And last Friday, the government there said it plans to revise its isolation rules for infected people. Lastly, in some vaccine news, in the US, the FDA announced that an advisory committee will meet on April 6 to discuss the future of boosters, including, I hope, whether we'll need to take them every few months or just on a continuous IV drip. Truthfully, though, the committee will debate issues like when to give them out as well as when the shot should be updated to target specific variants. If there is an IV drip, I suppose we will also have to share that as our contractual podcast obligation. That's a callback

Starting point is 00:17:14 to the intro for all you folks driving and tuning out. Professional feud-haver Pusha T has lent his diss-writing talents to, are you ready for it? Arby's. No. In a commercial promoting the company's new fried fish sandwich by putting down the McDonald's version of the same item. Here's a clip. Filet-O-Fishers, then you should be disgusted. How dare you sell a square fish, asking us to trust it. A half slice of cheese, Mickey D's on a budget.

Starting point is 00:17:42 Arby's crispy fish is simply it. With lines around the corner, we might need a guest list. Okay, I was extremely skeptical, but he sounds so cool that I feel like it's kind of working. He kind of killed it. He really did. I gotta say. I'm angry. I'm angry at the same time. I'm confused.

Starting point is 00:17:59 I'm thrilled. I'm the opposite of angry. I'm happy. You know, of course, when most of us think Arby's, our first thought is not great seafood. So the company was always facing an uphill battle here. At the same time, the McDonald's filet-o-fish doesn't seem like the type of dominant force in our culture that would normally call for a diss track, but maybe more of a pep talk. Honestly, the real surprise here is that anyone is jostling to be in the drive-thru fish sandwich space at all. The Arby's ad campaign is enriched by an understanding of Pusha T's long and troubled

Starting point is 00:18:25 history with McDonald's, particularly his claim that he's, quote, solely responsible for the I'm Lovin' It swag and the jingle of that company. The I'm Lovin' It jingle is more often credited to a German music house called Mona Davis and to Justin Timberlake, who was paid $6 million for it in 2003. Pusha T wrapped over the jingle in one commercial, but his other contributions and how much money he took home are murkier. It's TBD whether the Pusha T Arby's collab squashes his McDonald's beef or reignites it, but either way, that beef will come from 1,000 different cows. You know, Drake is going to have to come out against Arby's in order to keep up appearances here. And unfortunately, I think given what we've heard, I think that that's not an unlikely scenario.

Starting point is 00:19:13 Yeah. Honestly, the only way the story gets better is if Drake gets involved. Yes. We need Canada to jump in here. Exactly. Mitigate a little bit. This is our future, though, is artists that we like hawking various sandwiches

Starting point is 00:19:27 that make our tummies hurt. And that's what we are looking forward to as a species on this planet. Truly the best news we have today is that. It really is. And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. Stuck with Damon Young

Starting point is 00:19:43 is the newest podcast from Crooked and Gimlet. On the show go. Stuck with Damon Young is the newest podcast from Crooked and Gimlet. On the show, award-winning author Damon Young explores the uncomfortable, hideous, and hilarious absurdity of being Black in America. He's joined by some of the brightest minds and boldest voices of the Black community, including Nicole Hannah-Jones, Sam Irby, Jason Reynolds, and more really high-quality guests here. You're going to love this show. Listen and follow Stuck with Damon Young only on Spotify. That is all for today.

Starting point is 00:20:08 If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, change your vaccine booster IV bag, and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading and not just oral histories of fast food songs like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. I'm Gideon Resnick. And message us if you want to share our Netflix account.

Starting point is 00:20:28 Don't you dare because if I have to pay for it, I'm going to be unhappy. So don't. Just know that if you try to share our Netflix account, I have two children that only watch Cocomelon, so they will mess up your algorithm. Exactly. Jokes on you. Yep. Dear listener.

Starting point is 00:20:43 That's what you get for being cheap. I happen to love the show, so it's not a problem for me. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance, Jazzy Marine,

Starting point is 00:20:59 and Raven Yamamoto are our associate producers. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our executive producers are Leo Duran and me, Gideon Resnick. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.

What A Day - The Impact Of Texas's Abortion Ban, Six Months In

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