You Can Still Have An Abortion
How does anyone make sense of abortion access these days? We sat down with All Options Pregnancy Resource Center in Bloomington, Indiana to talk about what’s changed since Indiana’s full abortion ban went into effect last August. Local abortion funds like All Options do a lot, but they can’t talk to clients about self-managed abortion, even though the World Health Organization says it’s safe and effective. We learn about...
7 Shows to Listen to this Women’s History Month
We’re knee deep in Women’s History Month and at Making Contact we’re celebrating the best way we know how: highlighting the stories of women making change and fighting for a better future for ourselves and all those around us along the way. Check out these stories from Making Contact featuring the often untold stories impacting women everyday: 1.Don’t Let Them See You Bleed: PERIOD From period stigma to the unfair tax on...
Reproductive Justice: The Ongoing Struggle for Bodily Autonomy (Encore)
Today we share excerpts from “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry,” a documentary filled with stories that still resonate today as women face new challenges around reproductive rights and sexual violence. The documentary tells the stories of the activists of the Women’s Liberation Movement that gained traction in the late 1960s and led to social and policy changes that set women on a path towards equality and reproductive...
The Feminist Birth of the Home Pregnancy Test
In 1965 Margaret Crane was a young designer creating packaging for a pharmaceutical company. Looking at the rows of pregnancy tests she thought, “Well, women could do that at home!” and so she made it a reality for potentially pregnant people to be able to know about and take control of their own lives and bodies. But while the design of the prototype was simple, Crane faced the issues we continue to fight when it comes to...
Agitation to a System: Trans Resistance in Louisiana
Hundreds of bills targeting the trans and queer community have been introduced across state legislatures this year – a new record. Louisiana, like many other states, has seen a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ bills this session. But the state is somewhat of an outlier in the South, and activists have been successful in pushing back against these types of bills in the past. Sophie Ziegler joins today’s episode to show us what legislative...
Revolutionary Mothering (Encore)
In the mid 1990s, the Reproductive Justice movement was formed by Black and indigenous women as a response to the limitations of the “reproductive rights” movement. Movement leaders argue, “rarely do we find ourselves fighting for just one aspect of reproductive justice such as abortion rights” – SisterSong. Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, scholar and writer, joined us to talk about her book Revolutionary...
Well Nourished: How Mutual Aid is Transforming Food Security for Single Moms in Ohio (Encore)
Federal food programs, like WIC, face big changes coming out of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. Meanwhile, a single moms collective in Ohio holds it down for the single pregnant and parenting people in their community. Motherful’s resource pantry serves their 325-strong membership out of a garage three times a week. We talk to members and founders to learn what’s it’s like to participate,...
Post-Roe Abortion Access from The Response Part 2
This episode is part two of a series about post Roe abortion access produced by our friends at The Response Podcast. Since the loss of federal protection, access to abortion care has become more difficult, especially in the south, the plains and the Midwest, but the movement for reproductive justice has only strengthened. Today we hear about mutual aid efforts to connect folks to medical abortion and emergency contraception,...
Post-Roe Abortion Access from The Response Part 1
We hear a quick update about how the issue of abortion access has impacted the 2022 midterm elections, followed by the piece Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice in a Post-Roe Landscape, brought to us by The Response podcast. We learn about how abortion funds, mobile clinics and other mutual aid efforts are helping people access this critical healthcare – especially in areas of the American South, where states have enacted some of...
Revolutionary Mothering and Reproductive Justice
In the mid 1990s, the Reproductive Justice movement was formed by Black and indigenous women as a response to the limitations of the “reproductive rights” movement. Movement leaders argue, “rarely do we find ourselves fighting for just one aspect of reproductive justice such as abortion rights” – SisterSong. Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, scholar and writer, joined us to talk about her book...
