“God Bless the Abortion Providers”

(episode 5.5)

GIANA: It's The Broadly Entertaining Podcast for all you Femme Broads, Them Broads and Dude Broads out there.

[ukulele chords start fading up in the background]

JAMIE: If you listen to us, then you're probably not very happy with a lot of the latest American, and for that matter world, news. That might also be an understatement!

GIANA: If you've been drowning in the news cycle, doom scrolling, or staring blankly into the anxious void for indeterminate periods of time, then this episode is for you.

JAMIE: We are aiming for fun, postponing the games, and leaning into the feminism. Thanks for letting us support you.

[ukulele fades out on a strum, and then starts up again with playful ukulele theme music]

GIANA: Hello, and welcome! My name is Giana and I wanted to do some magic when I was a kid.

JAMIE: Oh! I am Jamie, and when I was a kid I supported abortion and I didn't even know what it was. [Giana laughs]

[Giana self-harmonizes a jingle: It's The Broadly Entertaining Podcast -- ends with a few whistled notes]

GIANA: We are recording this episode on July 20, later in the month than our usual schedule. Initially thrown off by the Roe v. Wade decision and then guest cancellation and then I got COVID and then Jamie went on a road trip to adopt a dog…

JAMIE: So yeah! [Giana laughs] So there's been a lot on our plate and it's been a mixed bag. Meanwhile we moved forward with some wedding and game night gigs, all while leaning further into our mission to lead with our principles.

While the Dobbs decision grabbed most of the headlines and attention, the court had a busy end of session making it easier to carry guns without restrictions, harder to separate church and state. They made it easier for cops to arrest people without reading them their rights and harder for Border Patrol agents to be held accountable for atrocious behavior! [said in a sarcastically jovial tone]

GIANA: Are we having fun yet, friends?

JAMIE: Oh, so much! So much fun. I know, I know… don't even get me started on how they're probably gonna make it easier for state legislatures to overturn federal election outcomes, but please do get me started on the damage they have just done to abortion access, reproductive justice, and the actual lives of living people with uteruses.

GIANA: Yes. Yes! And let's— Let us focus on that part, actually. It's been on a lot of our minds for weeks and months and years now, for some of us. Anti choice activists have been working at the state level for years if not decades to push through measure after measure to make it difficult if not impossible for a large portion of the country to access abortion care. Meanwhile reproductive justice advocates have been fighting against those laws and finding ways to work around those barriers to help people access the care that they deserve.

[two-chord upbeat ukulele strum]

JAMIE: Back in May, my BE a Feminist segment was a shout out in support of regional abortion funds. We are going to revisit that topic today and encourage all of you out there to have difficult conversations with the anti-abortion people in your lives, be they friends, family, employers if you can…

GIANA: And doctors. Check in with your doctors.

JAMIE: Mm. 

GIANA: We’ll share a bunch of resources in the show notes, since we could probably go on for ages telling you what we think, but there are plenty of white ladies out there already doing that [small laugh], and we are definitely not experts on a lot of what we want you to know. We're just pissed off, we’re feminists and we have a small platform, and so we're gonna use it!

JAMIE: Yes! Praise be to abortion funds and God bless the abortion providers. So I did mention this in May when Injustice Alito's draft opinion was leaked from the 13th century— [Giana giggles]— You like that one? I like it, too— 

GIANA: I do, it was a good one—

JAMIE: [laughs] Um, and you can check out that episode to hear my spiel. You have probably also heard or seen a lot more about these groups if you yourself have been following the topic.

GIANA: These local and regional abortion funds—which you can find a full list of at AbortionFunds.org—have been working on the ground for years, and many in states where it's already been difficult if not impossible for a lot of citizens to access the care that they want or need.

JAMIE: Sadly there are politicians that are already pushing to enact laws that will make funding abortions a punishable offense, but these groups are well poised to respond to and work around those barriers. [bright ukulele strum] 

These funds need funds now. Not just to support pregnant people but to pay their lawyers, and to continue to be able to offer the very necessary support and community outreach that they excel in.

GIANA: Policy ch-ch-ch-changes [a la David Bowie’s Changes]! Policy changes, my friends. The American patriarchy has been working for DECADES to roll back not just reproductive rights but voting rights, true freedom of religion, equality for the queer and trans communities. They've put in a lot of time and a lot of effort and we are going to have to do the same. Roe was not overturned overnight, and while it may have been completed by five political appointees, it was aided and abetted by dozens of elected representatives and minority-led organizations. By which I mean a minority of Americans.

JAMIE: 100%. Except actually, a lot less than 100% [they laugh a little] because that's what a minority is. And now, it is time for more of us on this side of the fight to lean in—if I may borrow that tired capitalist phrase—lean in and make our voices heard. This includes voting, it definitely includes voting, but it does not start and end there. It includes calling and writing our representatives, volunteering with organizations that have been doing the work and laying the foundations for years, speaking out every day even, or especially, when it's uncomfortable.

GIANA: Though, we of course want you to say stay safe, too. We want you to be rested and to take care of yourself, because this is the start of a new social era and it's going to take a depth of commitment beyond showing up for one march and making a post on social media.

JAMIE: Yeah, like the “I will help you go camping” posts?

GIANA: This is definitely one that has been on the ground, or going around for a little, for a minute…

JAMIE: Mm hmm. Yeah, and I've actually heard and read some mixed responses to it. I attended a webinar from the National Network of Abortion Funds and somebody made the point that if you can't call an abortion, abortion, it seems like it's something to be ashamed of, and I read an essay that was talking about the irony or the disconnect between people using this very public platform to talk about how they're going to do something that in reality needs to be done with extreme discretion and secrecy if you want to do it safely and correctly. And then also just wondering if people posting these memes are really going to see it through the way that that implies.

GIANA: Which— That's all very interesting and that makes a lot of sense. It's important that we don't act too impulsively, or with good intentions that we don't actually follow through on.

JAMIE: Are you reading my star chart? [they laugh]

GIANA: Um, but I will— Okay, so I'm gonna say something that I have learned that I found really interesting. I didn't actually get to attend the virtual event put on by Operation Save Abortion courtesy of Abortion Front, but I was able to get access to the Google Drive folder that they gave everybody and we are also going to share that with you. Just a bunch of resources on all sorts of things, on how to protest to cool stickers and social media graphics— but something that I took away from it that I found super interesting was about when to schedule your protest, when to schedule your demonstration to make sure that the media is there. And if you want to get their attention you kind of have to play by their schedule and their rules. So, early in the week, early in the day, for sure, which I found super interesting.

JAMIE: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't have thought of that but it makes a lot of sense. And you know I love stickers; I actually made some stickers in— by my impulsive self, that I will share those image files for everyone to download and print. So you got options, you got sticker options!

GIANA: That's right! And it's time right now for everyone to be a feminist.

[short whistled melody over a simple percussive rhythm]

GIANA (cont’d): —And I will kick it off with a little story time about Giana; me and how I grew up. I grew up Catholic and maybe some of you know that and maybe some of you don't, but I grew up super Catholic. Like, really involved into the church and I realized at a really young age that I wanted to be a leader in the church. I knew a lot about it, my mom schooled us in it. Like, I was— In every class I knew every answer. Like in every catechism class and all that stuff (I went to Catholic school, too). And I wanted to be a leader and I wanted to be a teacher, and the best of those were the priests, right? They were the ones up front and center. They got to do that cool magic trick [Jamie laughs] called transubstantiation where Jesus goes into the little wafer and it's very cool and blood turns into— the wine turns blood and it's like this cool thing that the priest gets to do. 

And maybe it was my ego that wanted it. Maybe it was the fact that I wanted to be a leader and I wanted to be as close to God as I possibly could and it seemed like that was the path. You can't become Pope if you aren't a priest, so I wanted to be a priest and when I learned that I couldn't just because I am a girl—not because of my lack of knowledge, not because my lack of faith, not because of my lack of being a good Catholic. Like, I mean, I was— I was a good Catholic! But it was just because of that, that was my first crack. That was the first like, Huh. That feels shitty, I don't like that. 

JAMIE: Mm hmm.

GIANA: And then the next crack was hearing the parable of Christ being 12 and being so pissed at all the merchants that were in the church courtyard, and turning over tables and throwing coins everywhere and just being so upset because that's not what it was about, and then on my way out of mass passing the gift shop on the way out that had all these cool things that I couldn't afford, and it was just like, not— I don't know; that was the next big, like, whoa. 

And then all the other hypocrisy started to sort of follow suit as I got older and older and I started hanging out with more people. I was lucky that I was in the arts, and so I hung out with a lot of people, creative sort of hippie types, and I got their perspective as well. My friend Malary was my first friend that was like, I see you and I see your head and I see your heart and there are things that are just not mixing they're not matching they're they're different and I don't believe you when you say this super, like, misogynistic joke that you’re trying to say to get the boys to laugh and think is funny. But like, she was like, “I don’t believe that you believe this, I really don’t.” And she questioned me and kind of steered me right. My friend Zach Skiles from San Francisco was the same way. And Jamie, you’re one of them, too, that’s constantly sort of righting, or shall we say lefting the course [Jamie laughs] from how I grew up and I'm lucky that I've had all of you in my life to kind of give me this perspective that I wasn't given in my upbringing.

JAMIE: Yeah, indeed. Aw, thanks. I'm honored to be on that list! Quick question about Jesus overthrowing the tables and the vendors in the church— 

GIANA: Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah!

JAMIE: Was he 12 years old in that story or were you— He was 12 years old in that story?

GIANA: He was 12 in that story. That is the only, if I remember— If I remember it 'cause like my brain is like, you don't need this information anymore. But if I remember correctly it's one of the only stories from infancy to age 33. It’s him at the temple at 12.

JAMIE: Oh interesting, interesting. Wow. Learn something new everyday! 

Great, well for my BE a Feminist, I will also share a childhood Jamie story. When I was— I've always been a very independent-minded little girl— I mean I’m not still a little girl but I was, as a child, very independent and very feminist, even probably before I kind of had a concept of what that concept meant. It was always very important to me that girls were just as good as boys, and women could do everything that men could do, and anything that smacked of inequality because of sex or gender I was like, That is wrong and that is not how it should be. 

So I remember when I was in 5th grade— I'm pretty sure fifth; it was fourth or fifth grade— and I could not tell you what prompted this, but I remember having a debate of some sort with another female student about abortion, about the bodily autonomy of women and how women should be able to have control and say over their bodies, and how dare anyone tell them that they are not allowed to have an abortion. 

It is worth noting that around this time my favorite movie was Dirty Dancing which hinges on an abortion, but I didn't register that. Like, I knew something bad happened and that it was important for Penny to see a doctor. I thought she got stabbed or something, and that's why she couldn't go dance at the Mandrake or whatever the hotel was— 

But so clearly I'm arguing for this thing that I don't really understand the concept of. It's just that it was very important to me to say that women control their own bodies and their own lives. And I actually looked up the fellow student that I was having this debate with. I remember— We'll just call her Melissa 'cause that's her first name, and she's a doctor now. Hopefully she is, you know, a good doctor and hopefully she has leaned into these ideals and is supporting her patients and her people in this way.

GIANA: I like the idea of the 5th grade teacher just being like, what— what's gonna happen here?

[Giana laughs]

JAMIE: Hey man. New York City, man. New York City public schools; they're lawless!

GIANA: The teacher’s like, They're saying the same thing, I wonder if they'll figure it out.

[They laugh]

JAMIE: Years and years later I figured it out.

[calming ukulele strums fade up]

GIANA: Thank you for spending this time with us. Check the show notes for lots of links and a transcript of this episode. Send feedback or questions to BroadlyEntertaining@gmail.com — We love a listener voice memo!

JAMIE: Ooh, yes; send us a voice memo! The Broadly Entertaining Podcast is written and produced by Giana DeGeiso and Jamie Rosler of Broadly Entertaining.

GIANA: I write and perform all the theme music and the weird segue songs, and I’m also in charge of sound mixing and podcast audio editing.

JAMIE: Yes you are! / GIANA: Though I’m very new.

JAMIE: Yes you are, and you're doing great. I take care of the transcript and the episode’s video version for YouTube. Some are better than others. [Giana laughs]

GIANA: And you are also doing great. 

If you like what— if you like what we do, please rate, review and follow us in your podcast feed. Share it with a friend!

JAMIE: Venmo a tip? To Broadly [dash] Entertaining, or click the Support button at anchor.fm/BroadlyEntertaining.

GIANA: You could always find out more at BroadlyEntertaining.com and follow us on Instagram [at]… Broadly Entertaining. Thanks for joining us, Broads, and we will talk to you again soon. [ukulele fades out] 

Bye! 

JAMIE: Bye!