Just thinking about how many times in my life my period has been six to eight weeks late, even when I was on birth control keeping -- trying to keep it regular. And not to mention, you know, pregnancies that need to be ended because of health issues. Not to mention it's just, you know, a way to keep women and families poor. And just like the cycle of abuse of people that know they shouldn't be moms or can't be moms or can't be dads for whatever reason, if they're just not mature enough or don't have the financial means or, you know, they've had their own trauma that they've never dealt with and then they just pass it along to kids and just create this cycle. And it just, it's just really disappointing. And it just really bums me out that people that like are so pro-life or you know count this as a victory, that they just, like, don't care about women's health services in general, about keeping Planned Parenthood funded, about keeping medical expenses for women at an affordable price, which they absolutely are not. You know, if I got pregnant this year, it would take almost -- it would take more than a third of my yearly income to just have the kid for the one year or nine months, you know, of medical expenses. And, I don't know, it's just, yeah, why are these people that are so pro-life so, like, against sex education and keeping people safe and keeping people informed and giving them the opportunity to make sure that accidents don't happen? I don't know. So it's just -- it really feels like, yeah, it just really feels like an attack on women's freedoms. And it's just sad to see.

Note: Some language has been edited out of the transcript that is not edited out in the audio. This week has been kinda hard. The news with you know the Supreme Court unraveling our rights as we sit idly by has been difficult. I am very scared for what comes next. Already I have friends who, like, take medications for, like, rheumatoid arthritis and I think the other one’s for anxiety or something and their doctor says that they have to take them off those medications because those medications can be used as, like, they can induce abortions. And it’s just like, it’s really horrifying, like, my one friend, she uses this medicine to prevent her being in pain all the time, and they’re saying, “Because you have a uterus, and there’s a possibility you could get pregnant, and this medicine would mess with that, you can no longer take this medicine. It’s not a choice.” Like, that’s some disgusting s*** right there, ‘cause I bet you the men taking that medicine aren’t having to go off that medicine, so it’s like, “You’re not a human anymore that has like pain that needs to be managed. You are a potential vessel for a potential baby.” And that person’s not even married, you know like, she has no plans to be pregnant, it’s just, it’s really beyond disturbing, and I’m worried for my -- for my gay friends and I’m worried for me about like not having birth control options, and it’s just. Yeah, I really am almost numb from like I don’t know the shock of it and not knowing what to do with that.

I guess that brings me to say like you feel like you have to align yourself with one side or the other, and, to be honest, with the abortion issue I really don’t. I would say I for sure lean more towards the side of being pro-life. That would be the sentiment I carry for myself, like for my own self I don’t believe abortion is right. I know if I were put in that position, even regardless of the circumstances, it would be better for me not to have that procedure because I would carry the guilt with me for the rest of my life, and I’m pretty sure it might as, like I might as well, in a sense, be dead myself. I would feel tremendous guilt, so I know for me that would never be the right choice regardless of the circumstances. I also like could not recommend it to a friend or someone that asked my advice explicitly on the issue because I think one thing that they’re maybe not talking about enough is that I think people would leave this procedure having the abortion, I think they could easily leave it with very deep emotional scars, and maybe it’s a healthcare right, maybe not, but I think maybe we’re overlooking like, “What could be the consequences of this?” ‘Cause we’re focused so much on “It’s, it’s my right to do what I want.” And I mean going the other way you could say like, “Oh, we’re so focused on saving the life of the unborn baby,” which I believe that’s important, but then we’re ignoring the scars of like maybe the woman didn’t wanna have the baby. There’s scars that can get ignored both ways. I just feel like lately it’s been we’re favoring like, “It’s too scarring for me not to get to do what I want, so like we should make abortion pretty easily accessible,” and we’re not focusing on like some people could be really affected by this lifelong and they might not ever be the same again. That can be a tremendous scar, in and of itself I think. I can’t say too much ‘cause I’ve never been in that position, but yeah. To be honest I think the court’s decision was a decent compromise, unlike some people I know that are really pro-life, I think it’s best that we do…

Note: Some language has been edited out of the transcript that is not edited out in the audio. Most prominently, I guess, the Supreme Court overturned the landmark decision in Roe versus Wade, and abortion is no longer a guaranteed right. And this seems to me at the very least, like, nothing more than license for the state to control women's bodies. And I mean this one I've at least seen coming for the past couple months, you know, I mean, there was the draft opinion that was leaked. But it is still horrible. I mean, a large portion of the US population -- I shouldn't even have just said women because it's just anyone who can get pregnant -- not to mention that this will, of course, disproportionately impact poor people, black people, any person of color, really. I'm probably missing a few other important marginalized groups who, I mean, members of the LGBT community who are often at much more risk of being victims of sexual violence, right? Like I mean, all of these people are disproportionately, you know, in need of access to abortion care and will be, you know, disproportionately limited in their ability to obtain abortion care, especially members of the trans community who are already fighting and struggling for, um, access to healthcare generally, much less abortion. And like I've always understood the anxiety of like pro-life people. Like, if you take seriously the idea that fetuses are people deserving of moral consideration, then it makes sense to be concerned about the taking of the life of a fetus. But, there is so much more at play than just that. There are health risks to the mother, and I honestly think like no matter if you think the fetus has the right to life, the mother definitely has the right to life as well, as well as the right to bodily autonomy. And, I mean there are a couple essays I read, especially Judas Jarvis Thompson's, the essay in defense of abortion from I think this paper was from like the 70s. But she argues that even with another human being fully developed, the right to life does not necessarily outweigh the right to bodily autonomy because of the physical impacts and the sacrifices you have to make in order to, in order to go through a pregnancy. Thus the right -- or just…

Rather than just share memes and complain about it, I did go and order, even before this came out but just when it was kind of threatened. Well, we knew ‘cause of the draft, I ordered a petition sheet. And so I've collected some signatures and I'm gonna send that back just to get this on the ballot in Michigan ‘cause at the end of the day if it's our decision as a state, I would like it to be the current people's decision, not people from, you know, 1931 or the 50s or the 60s. Like put it before your current people, where I do feel like in the state it would overwhelmingly pass because I know several people who are super conservative who still believe it should be their right to choose. So I'm very excited that it doesn't appear to be such a partisan issue and that it's more of people are recognizing this is about our rights as women. And maybe I'm sharing this information and the person listening is not happy with that. I'm so sorry. I'm not trying to offend anyone. I just, I don't wanna make any decision for anyone. I would hate to be put in that position. I've never had to be put in that position. The only miscarriage I've ever had didn't require intervention of any kind. But I just don't wanna make a decision for someone else and I want me and my husband to be able to make the right decision for us, and, and we do want a baby. We want one really soon, but who's to say? You know, you just -- there's so many situations that you don't know you'll be put into and I don't want to be relegated to my life being threatened or carrying the life of a baby that, or not carrying the life, carrying a baby who's not going to have a life or is gonna be harmful to deliver because there's something so wrong with their physical structure. I mean, there's just so many situations, and so I'm really -- I'm trying to just be positive that we can mobilize and do exactly what we have the power to do. But it's, it's very heavy on my mind and I'm thankfully married to someone who, he saw it before I did because I was just very busy at work,…

Note: Some language has been edited out of the transcript that is not edited out in the audio. Did end up finding a number of organizations to donate to. ACLU, of course, they're, they're kind of a standby for these types of issues, individual liberty and freedom types of issues. So yeah, put through some money towards the ACLU Charter of Michigan, or ACLU section in Michigan. Found this one called Midwest Access to Abortion. I believe that's what it was called, based out of Chicago, Midwest Access to Abortion. And they, despite being based out of Chicago, they, they had a map on their website that showed all the Midwest states the conventional Midwest states, you know, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and they counted North Dakota, South Dakota, and Illinois. I'm striking out about whether they covered Nebraska or not. I think they did. It was like the census definition of the Midwest. But anyways, so their goal is to, they don't provide direct financial support to the, for the medical procedure for abortion, but they are logistics people. And so they, I heard, first heard about them like a month or two ago when the memo leaked, and I'm not sure what their training or purpose was before that, but, you know, if someone doesn't have access to, what's it called, plan C? If someone doesn't have access to plan C, travel is gonna be their move. And so that's what this organization exists to do. Threw some money to them based out of Chicago, Midwest Access to Abortion. I might be slightly misremembering the name. I mean it's, the story kind of begins now, right? What's gonna happen in this new version of, of the country, you know, not to make it too grand of a statement, but like this is, this is gonna f*** a lot of things up, I think. A lot of plans that people had, and plans that didn't, people didn't have. The plan A, the plan B, the plan C is one way I heard it, saw it explained today. Oh, that was the other one. It was a “I need an A, dot org” was one of the key websites that I saw these funds pointing people towards when they need help so. “I need an A, dot org.”

Note: Some language has been edited out of the transcript that is not edited out in the audio. The Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v Wade today, and it basically, what that means is that states now can decide the fate of abortion rights in their own constitutions and in their own legislature, which is kind of, kind of nerve-wracking because there's a lot of states that don't agree with it. Which I -- and it's not that I think everyone should believe the same things that I think. However, I think there are a lot of areas where it's just not up for debate with that being areas where people should be able to do what they want. Like abortion, I fully, fully believe that anybody should be able to get one if they want it, so they please. I don't give a f*** if it's not in your religion. I don't give a f*** if you don't, if you personally don't want one, I don't care. But you shouldn't be allowing yourself to make that decision for somebody else. You just can't. Like you can choose, if you get pregnant and you choose to keep the -- your baby, then that's fine. That's perfectly fine. But I truly do not believe that anybody should be making that decision for anybody. I definitely think that's something that somebody that -- a person should be able to make for themselves, that a woman should be able to make for herself. I don't think it's up for f***ing debate ever. Like I said, I don't, I just don't get where people get off on having this control over somebody you don't even f***ing know. Like, like what the f*** do you care if some random girl in a different state chooses to get an abortion? Like those people that stand outside of Planned Parenthood with signs like protesting it, what the f*** are you doing? Like you, don't have a better way to spend your afternoon other than harassing girls who might not even be get -- who cares if they're going in to get an abortion, but maybe they're not, maybe they're just going to get f***ing birth control or an STD test. You don't f***ing know. Like, I just don't get it.

The big national news of today is that Roe versus Wade was overturned which is horrible, and I don't know where we as women go from here. I used to work at Planned Parenthood, but it was so emotionally taxing, like, there's never any resolution on so many issues, and it's just so frustrating that I had to step away. And I think that happens to a lot of younger women because like of all the friends I knew that worked there, none of them do anymore, and most of the people that worked there were like younger in their early twenties, and I was in my early twenties when I worked there, so I think it's a job that people burn out of quickly, which is unfortunate because it's not an unimportant job. But, just like for my mental health, it's so hard to follow it and be involved and all that and like emotionally it's really hard. I had a couple different jobs there, but one of the things I did was work in the call center and that was especially hard because like you'd hear people calling like on the worst, like, scariest days of their lives. Like they didn't want anyone -- like they were a child trying not to let their parents know or they were someone who had an affair and had an STD or something like that. It was horrible and I, I don't regret leaving there at all.

I'm generally not pro, I guess I would call it, I'm not pro-forced birth. Which I'm also not pro-abortion, I guess? Like I -- it's weird how everything's been whittled down to two phrases, which is usually like pro-life or pro-choice. It's so much more complicated. Like I, I'm not a fan of abortions like, “You know what I like? When people get abortions.” But I think I do believe in people's right to be able to have them, absolutely. I've wondered, and I think this is overly simplistic because it's a very complicated issue but, I’ve wondered, I feel so silly making this, this argument, but I've wondered if men were the people who had to give birth, whether this debate would still be a debate. Just because, I just -- I think this is my thing. Forcing someone to give birth -- birth is such a huge, serious, life altering, physically altering, consequential, no going back process. And I just, I guess I'm troubled at the notion of forcing everyone to have to go through with that, if they become pregnant by any means. You know, if men, I don't know, like if the role I would play, I don't have a child and I, I've never really been in this position, but if I were to impregnate someone, the role I would play would be that of a caretaker. And so, you know, monetary supporter at like worst. That's it. I don't -- I don't go through any physical alterations. My intestines don't get rearranged. I don't have to go through this potentially deadly process where parts of me are disfigured and sometimes permanently. I, I don't know. It's just a tough pill for me to swallow as being a thing that is completely outlawed. But I guess I do acknowledge that it's a complex issue and to everything I say I understand there's someone who has a, a counterpoint which is why this has gone round and round.