The Return of the Abortion Underground

Cascade PBS Ideas Festival

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, advocates are pushing back to assure that people still have access to reproductive care.

Last June the Supreme Court transformed the landscape of reproductive rights overnight when it overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving the power to determine the legality of abortion to individual states. For many the decision also signaled a need for a new abortion underground.

For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we listen in on a conversation about this new landscape featuring Kelsea McLain, deputy director of abortion advocacy and reproductive justice organization the Yellow Hammer Fund, and Judith Arcana, a member of Chicago’s pre-Roe underground abortion services organization the Jane Collective.

The two women share their personal abortion stories with journalist Megan Burbank, and they discuss the history of abortion and misconceptions about reproductive rights, as well as the legal challenges facing organizations and individuals who support a the rights of individuals to make their own choices about reproduction.

The current landscape of reproductive rights has become highly politicized, but these panelists offer a framing that suggests more complexity than what’s been normalized.

This conversation took place May 5, 2023. Read Megan Burbank's article about the Jane Collective here.

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Credits

Host: Paris Jackson

Producer: Seth Halleran

Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd

Engineers: Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

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