37. Can We Trust Other Women and Their Bodily Autonomy?

“The wild woman thunders after injustice and she is utterly essential to women’s mental and social health”. -Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run WIth The Wolves Today we dive into a topic that rose to the surface this past June, the day that Roe V Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court. We try to create space to discuss this polarizing topic and share our initial feelings of shock that led to today’s podcast. As we talk about this challenging issue we discuss: •Kate’s perspective as a lawyer fighting injustice. •Betsy’s perspective as a psychologist who has a drive to stand up for women’s mental and social health. •That this is the first time in this history of our county that a right has has ever been taken away by the Supreme Court. •As women’s rights and power expand is this part of a backlash against women’s empowerment? •Women’s mental health trends during the pandemic and the shift of millions of American women away from the workplace. •Living in a time when our mothers have more rights than our daughters. As we close the episode we ponder the questions: •Do we as women trust each other? •Can we trust that our sister can listen to her own body, her own emotion, her own intuition about whether a pregnancy is right for her? •Can we trust each other as women to make our own choices? Books: Women Who Run With The Wolves -Clarissa Pinkola Estes Quote: “It’s hard to stomach that as women our bodies are in the hands of legislators who believe that your personhood and autonomy are conditional. Who believe that if you are impregnated by another person under any circumstance you have a legal and moral duty to undergo pregnancy, delivery, and in all likelihood two decades or more of caregiving no matter the permanent, potentially devastating consequences for your body, your heart, your mind, yourfamily, your ability to put food on the table, your plans, your aspirations, your life.” -Jia Tolentino in The New Yorker   Resource: Sister Song Source