Body & State

Generation Z has witnessed some of the biggest social changes in American history: gay marriage legalization, the MeToo movement and the fight for transgender equality. And as young Americans are becoming adults in this new reality, there is a growing gender gap on issues like marriage, children, and abortion. I sat down with demographer Ryan Burge to discuss what is helping shape Gen Z’s views today. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/gen-z-men-and-women-on-why-theyre-sharply-divided-over-reproductive-rights

For decades the Catholic Church has placed restrictions on certain reproductive health services at Catholic-run hospitals. The Ethical and Religious Directives lay out 77 rules for providing health care in the U.S., all based on the church’s theological and moral beliefs. But critics say these rules can run afoul of needed, emergency reproductive healthcare, especially in places where a Catholic-run hospital is the only option. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Religious directives at Catholic hospitals complicate emergency care for pregnant women https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/religious-directives-at-catholic-hospitals-complicate-emergency-care-for-pregnant-women

In 2024, California chiropractor Anna Nusslock was pregnant with twins. But 15 weeks into her pregnancy, she found out the twins would not survive. And Anna was told she could not get an abortion, because she was being cared for at a Catholic hospital. Sarah sat down with Anna at her home in rural Eureka, California to talk about her fight to access abortion care in a state that right is protected, but in an area where that kind of care is not always easy. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Religious directives at Catholic hospitals complicate emergency care for pregnant women https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/religious-directives-at-catholic-hospitals-complicate-emergency-care-for-pregnant-women

Across the country, crisis pregnancy centers offer free services to women, things like ultrasounds and pregnancy testing. For some pregnant people, getting care through these centers is the only affordable option, but many are unaware that they do not offer abortions and are often unregulated and unlicensed. In Texas, there are around 200 crisis pregnancy centers, the most of any state. And tens of millions of taxpayer dollars go to these groups each year. Over a decade ago, Maleeha Aziz became pregnant as a college student and went to one of these centers by mistake. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Rise of crisis pregnancy centers highlights shift in anti-abortion movement https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/rise-of-crisis-pregnancy-centers-highlights-shift-in-anti-abortion-movement 

The state of Missouri is home to around 90 crisis pregnancy centers. These primarily faith-based organizations offer resources to pregnant women to steer them away from abortion. The nonprofit Coalition Life runs one of these centers out of their offices in the St. Louis suburbs. I talked to founder and executive director, Brian Westbrook, about how they operate, where they fit into the anti-abortion movement and the criticisms of CPCs around the country. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Rise of crisis pregnancy centers highlights shift in anti-abortion movement https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/rise-of-crisis-pregnancy-centers-highlights-shift-in-anti-abortion-movement

A growing part of the anti-abortion movement in the U.S. today is crisis pregnancy centers. These often faith-based nonprofits offer resources to pregnant women to steer them away from abortion. But reproductive rights advocates and the medical community have criticized the centers for using deceptive and unsafe practices. I speak with one woman who accidentally ended up at a CPC during her freshman year of college. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Rise of crisis pregnancy centers highlights shift in anti-abortion movement https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/rise-of-crisis-pregnancy-centers-highlights-shift-in-anti-abortion-movement 

I sit down with Carrie Baker, a professor of the study of women and gender at Smith College. She’s authored a number of books on women’s legal history, gender policy, and reproductive health activism; her most recent book, “Abortion Pills: US History and Politics”, examines the history of the medication throughout American history. We discuss today’s anti-abortion movement, from contraception to anti-abortion centers. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Rise of crisis pregnancy centers highlights shift in anti-abortion movement https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/rise-of-crisis-pregnancy-centers-highlights-shift-in-anti-abortion-movement 

The abortion pill was developed and first approved for use in France in the 1980s. But it took until 2000 for the medication to finally get approval in the United States, after years of work by activists and healthcare professionals. One of the women involved in that work is Elisa Wells, co-founder of Plan C, which provides information and education about accessing abortion pills in the U.S. Sarah sits down with her to discuss the history of activists helping women get access to abortion and how groups are carrying on that legacy today. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Underground networks for abortion pills appear as states limit access https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/underground-networks-for-abortion-pills-appear-as-states-limit-access  Plan C Pills:  https://www.plancpills.org/ 

Today in the United States more women opt to use abortion medication than receive a surgical abortion to end a pregnancy. But the future of access to those pills is uncertain. Throughout the country, health care workers, doulas and ordinary people are stepping in to make sure women can still get abortion pills, even where it is banned. We spoke with two of the people involved in these networks. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Underground networks for abortion pills appear as states limit access https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/underground-networks-for-abortion-pills-appear-as-states-limit-access 

Medication abortions make up more than 60 percent of all abortions in the United States today. But after the fall of Roe, abortion pills are now banned in at least 14 states. That’s led to the rise of underground networks, operating outside the legal system, to give more people access to abortion medication. We sat down with one of the women involved in these networks. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Underground networks for abortion pills appear as states limit access https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/underground-networks-for-abortion-pills-appear-as-states-limit-access

Brown University professor Liz Tobin-Tyler walks us through what researchers have found about the link between abortion bans and domestic violence, and how access to firearms in the U.S. can turn volatile homes into deadly ones. She says a victim is five times more likely to be killed when a gun is in the home. And the states with more abortion restrictions, tend to be the ones with lax gun laws. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Abortion restrictions may be fueling a rise in domestic violence, experts warn https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/abortion-restrictions-may-be-fueling-a-rise-in-domestic-violence-experts-warn Domestic Violence Hotline: If you are affected by relationship abuse, you can reach an advocate at the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Visit thehotline.org. Text BEGIN to 88788. Call 800-799-SAFE (7233). Call 911 if you feel like you are in immediate danger or a life-threatening situation. Directory of Local Providers: https://www.thehotline.org/get-help/directory-of-local-providers/ 

Anthony Hingle has spent years working with men who have abused those closest to them to help stop the cycle of abuse. At Beyond Harm, a domestic violence intervention organization in New Orleans, Hingle often starts by asking the men to acknowledge the harm they’ve caused, sometimes to their pregnant partners or with a new baby in the home. Sarah sat down with him at Beyond Harm’s office in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Abortion restrictions may be fueling a rise in domestic violence, experts warn https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/abortion-restrictions-may-be-fueling-a-rise-in-domestic-violence-experts-warn Beyond Harm NOLA: https://www.beyondharmnola.org/  Domestic Violence Hotline: If you are affected by relationship abuse, you can reach an advocate at the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Visit thehotline.org. Text BEGIN to 88788. Call 800-799-SAFE (7233). Call 911 if you feel like you are in immediate danger or a life-threatening situation. Directory of Local Providers: https://www.thehotline.org/get-help/directory-of-local-providers/ 

Mariah Wineski has spent more than two decades helping survivors of domestic violence. Wineski spoke with Sarah about the misconceptions about domestic violence and the patterns of coercive and controlling behaviors that can go far beyond physical violence.   WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Abortion restrictions may be fueling a rise in domestic violence, experts warn https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/abortion-restrictions-may-be-fueling-a-rise-in-domestic-violence-experts-warn   Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence: https://lcadv.org/about/staff-and-board/    Domestic Violence Hotline:  If you are affected by relationship abuse, you can reach an advocate at the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Visit thehotline.org. Text BEGIN to 88788. Call 800-799-SAFE (7233). Call 911 if you feel like you are in immediate danger or a life-threatening situation.   Directory of Local Providers: https://www.thehotline.org/get-help/directory-of-local-providers/ 

A woman's risk of being killed in the United States increases by 20 percent on average when pregnant or after giving birth. For those under 25, that risk more than doubles. In fact, pregnant and postpartum women are more likely to be killed, than die from childbirth-related issues like severe bleeding, infection and high blood pressure. And many killings are the result of domestic violence. In this episode of Body & State, Sarah travels to Louisiana where she interviews Shona Chavis, a domestic violence survivor and trauma educator. Chavis grew up in rural Louisiana with a father that brutalized her mother, even when she was pregnant. Years later, Shona saw some of those same patterns in her own husband, as he began controlling and abusing her. WATCH ON PBS NEWSHOUR: Abortion restrictions may be fueling a rise in domestic violence, experts warn https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/abortion-restrictions-may-be-fueling-a-rise-in-domestic-violence-experts-warn  Domestic Violence Hotline:  If you are affected by relationship abuse, you can reach an advocate at the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Visit thehotline.org. Text BEGIN to 88788. Call 800-799-SAFE (7233). Call 911 if you feel like you are in immediate danger or a life-threatening situation. Directory of Local Providers: https://www.thehotline.org/get-help/directory-of-local-providers/ 

In this episode of Body & State, Sarah interviews conservative commentator Bethany Mandel, who writes about the declining birth rate and considers herself a pronatalist. Mandel and her husband, both Orthodox Jews, live in suburban Maryland with their six children. Through her writing and her podcast “The Mom Wars”, she aims to be a more moderate voice among pronatalists, and encourages people to have kids by showing how rewarding a big family can be. Watch our PBS NewsHour segment about the pronatalism movement and its ties to anti-abortion activism  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-inside-the-pronatalism-movement-encouraging-americans-to-have-more-children Read/Listen: Bethany Mandel on The Mom Wars https://themomwars.substack.com/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mom-wars/id1796727112

In this episode of Body & State, Sarah sits down with Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy at The Heritage Foundation and a key author of Project 2025, the right-wing plan that has become a blueprint for the Trump administration’s policies. A conservative Catholic and long-time opponent of abortion rights, Severino wants the government to promote policies that favor heterosexual marriage and parenting. He says these “pro-family” policies are key to stemming what he believes is a catastrophic decline in births. He also predicts these falling birth rates in the United States will lead to a fight for resources between the young and old, and a breakdown in the social safety net. Watch our PBS NewsHour segment about the pronatalism movement and its ties to anti-abortion activism  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-inside-the-pronatalism-movement-encouraging-americans-to-have-more-children   Read: "Project 2025” Mandate for Leadership The Conservative Promise Chapter 14 Pg. 449  Written by Roger Severino https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf   Read: How Project 2025 Seeks to Obliterate Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/how-project-2025-seeks-obliterate-srhr

In this episode of Body & State, Sarah sits down with Leslie Root, a demographer at the University of Colorado Boulder, who closely studies fertility trends in the United States and across the globe. Root has been trying to inject caution into the sometimes apocalyptic claims about the declining birth rate made by Elon Musk, pronatalists and far-right activists. Watch our PBS NewsHour segment about the pronatalism movement and its ties to anti-abortion activism  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-inside-the-pronatalism-movement-encouraging-americans-to-have-more-children Leslie Root: https://ibsweb.colorado.edu/colorado-fertility-project/people/leslie-root/

In this episode of Body & State, Sarah visits Simone and Malcolm Collins at their home in Pennsylvania. The Collinses are part of a movement known as pronatalism that wants to encourage people to have more children to help stem population declines. Several trends are driving down the birth rate: women have increased access to contraceptives like IUDs; far fewer teenagers are having babies; and more women are having children in their late 20s and 30s. In later episodes, you’ll hear from demographers who say lower birth rates are not an apocalyptic threat. Watch our PBS NewsHour segment about the pronatalism movement and its ties to anti-abortion activism  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-inside-the-pronatalism-movement-encouraging-americans-to-have-more-children Simone and Malcolm Collins podcast “Based Camp” https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/based-camp-simone-malcolm-collins/id1686813618 

Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat from Texas, explains why she believes the right to contraception is at risk in the United States and what she views as a growing effort by Republicans to limit access to birth control. Fletcher is a co-author of the “Right to Contraception Act” that would prohibit the federal government, states and localities from restricting access to birth control. Watch Rep. Lizzie Fletcher in our PBS NewsHour segment “After fall of Roe, anti-abortion activists take aim at birth control.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/after-fall-of-roe-pro-life-activists-take-aim-at-birth-control Watch “Examining the facts about contraceptives as birth control misinformation spreads online.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/examining-the-facts-about-contraceptives-as-birth-control-as-misinformation-spreads-online

In this episode of Body & State, Sarah sits down with John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, a Christian anti-abortion advocacy group that has advanced sweeping anti-abortion laws in Texas. Texas is widely viewed as a laboratory for other states, enacting an abortion ban before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and a new law that allows private citizens to sue anyone who “manufactures, distributes, mails, transports, delivers, prescribes, or provides” medication abortion pills to Texans. Seago spoke about efforts to stop Texans from receiving medication abortion through the mail, how he defines certain common forms of birth control as abortion, and what’s next for the anti-abortion movement.

In this episode of Body & State, Sarah sits down with political scientist and Texas A&M professor Valerie Hudson to discuss how the treatment of women in a society shapes the success of a nation. Hudson says a light bulb went on when she was having lunch with one of Afghanistan’s first female members of parliament. Hudson remarked how much progress women had made in Afghanistan. But the female minister responded that her husband could divorce her by simply saying, “I divorce you” three times. She would lose custody of her children and have nowhere to live. Hudson realized that the signs of women’s empowerment – like education and political participation – failed to capture the depths of sexual hierarchy. She has spent the last decade devising a theory to explain how it has persisted.   Watch our PBS NewsHour segment about the pronatalism movement and its ties to anti-abortion activism  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-inside-the-pronatalism-movement-encouraging-americans-to-have-more-children   Learn: Women’s Stats Project: https://www.womanstats.org/   Read Valerie Hudson’s research and books:  Sex and World Peace https://cup.columbia.edu/book/sex-and-world-peace/9780231131827/   The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-hillary-doctrine-sex-and-american-foreign-policy-patricia-leidl/31320ea405d3cc46?ean=9780231164924&next=t&next=t   The First Political Order: How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-first-political-order-how-sex-shapes-governance-and-national-security-worldwide-donna-lee-bowen/5350ad9efe073a1b?ean=9780231194662&next=t&next=t

During last year’s presidential campaign, President Trump said he did not support a ban on birth control. But since taking office, his administration has signaled a willingness to curtail information about and access to certain forms of contraception, purging birth control guidelines from government websites, freezing funds for some family planning clinics, and making plans to incinerate $9.7 million dollars worth of birth control pills, IUDs, and hormonal implants that were flagged as "abortifacients."    Anti-abortion activists have said they believe many common forms of birth control are the same as abortion and that argument is at the heart of the strategy to outlaw certain contraceptives under state abortion bans. Anti-abortion activist and founder of Live Action Lila Rose talks with Body & State host Sarah Varney. We have fact checked some of the assertions in this interview and included links in the episode notes.   Watch Lila Rose in our PBS NewsHour segment “After fall of Roe, anti-abortion activists take aim at birth control.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/after-fall-of-roe-pro-life-activists-take-aim-at-birth-control Watch “Examining the facts about contraceptives as birth control misinformation spreads online.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/examining-the-facts-about-contraceptives-as-birth-control-as-misinformation-spreads-online Link to The Lila Rose Podcast: Lila Rose - YouTube Hormonal birth control does not lead to divorce: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4536625/  Hormonal birth control does not encourage sexual promiscuity: https://intranet.bixbycenter.ucsf.edu/publications/files/DoesECPromoteSexRiskTaking_2008.pdf + https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24785603/  Hormonal contraception can cause mild side effects, and in rare cases, certain contraceptives that contain estrogen can increase the risk of things like high blood pressure, blood clots or stroke. But the medications and devices are safe and effective: https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/mirena/about/pac-20391354  https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/3977-birth-control-the-pill  https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/3977-birth-control-the-pill https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/mirena/about/pac-20391354   The pill has long been shown to reduce the risk of certain cancers, treat the symptoms of endometriosis and uterine fibroids, and prevent anemia: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/3977-birth-control-the-pill   Percentage of women seeking abortion who reported using contraception: https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2018/about-half-us-abortion-patients-report-using-contraception-month-they-became   Listen to Sarah Varney on “Science Friday”in collaboration with KHN about why contraceptive failure rates matter in post-Roe America: https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/contraceptive-failure-rates-pregnancy/

Legal scholar Mary Ziegler explains the anti-abortion movement’s efforts to re-classify common forms of contraception as abortifacients, and whether these plans could succeed in states with abortion bans like Texas. We also dig into how pronatalists like Elon Musk share similar goals with some in the anti-abortion movement, including the authors of Project 2025, and what’s next for pardoned anti-abortion protestors. Watch Mary Ziegler in our PBS NewsHour segment “After fall of Roe, anti-abortion activists take aim at birth control.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/after-fall-of-roe-pro-life-activists-take-aim-at-birth-control Watch “Examining the facts about contraceptives as birth control misinformation spreads online.” https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/examining-the-facts-about-contraceptives-as-birth-control-as-misinformation-spreads-online Learn more about Mary Ziegler’s books: https://www.maryrziegler.com/books