Speaker 1: I was implored by our fellow post to bring back
Speaker 1: a certain segment, and I think that this particular one
Speaker 1: actually in endures, not endoors, but it deserved. So we're
Speaker 1: going to go to Alabama, of all places where they
Speaker 1: have a step in the right direction, step.
Speaker 2: In the right direction. Yes, step in the right direction. There,
Speaker 2: step step step in in the right direction. Yeah, Kelly, No,
Speaker 2: Rob has a story. Sorry, thanks, Cynthia.
Speaker 3: No, that's me. Here we go. After Roe versus Wade
Speaker 3: was overturned in twenty twenty two, several states criminalized abortion.
Speaker 3: Among them was Alabama. After the overturning, I personally saw
Speaker 3: many people go online Facebook in the session say things like,
Speaker 3: you know, if you ever need a place to go
Speaker 3: while you see some doctors, you could hit me up. Clearly,
Speaker 3: we're creating an underground railroad sort of support network for people.
Speaker 3: Now these states where it was criminalized, you can criminalize
Speaker 3: the mother. This is sad, but permissible under the new laws.
Speaker 3: The doctor again said, but piscible, permissible. But did you
Speaker 3: ever think that the Alabama's Attorney General, Steve Marshall, would
Speaker 3: sue people out of his own state for conspiracy? However,
Speaker 3: federal judge Myron Thompson has ruled that the Attorney General
Speaker 3: Marshall cannot as that would interfere with their protected First
Speaker 3: Amendment rights, as well as the right to travel in
Speaker 3: the US of A. This story is from Metro by
Speaker 3: Sarah Hooper on April first of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Rob, I appreciate that. So I want to
Speaker 1: go to the person who has also another womb.
Speaker 2: Hey, Jay, is this good news? Is it good news?
Speaker 4: I don't know. I mean the title of the article
Speaker 4: was major win for abortion rights in the US, and
Speaker 4: I would feel good about this outcome, but I just can't. Well,
Speaker 4: this is a big deal, Okay, it's a big deal
Speaker 4: for Alabama because abortion is flat out and there's no exceptions,
Speaker 4: not even for rape or incest, which also includes underage victims. Right,
Speaker 4: it's like children, a little girl. But that is exactly
Speaker 4: why I cannot feel positive about this, Just because, oh wow,
Speaker 4: you're not going to get punished for helping someone you know,
Speaker 4: drive someone elsewhere for an abortion. This situation is still
Speaker 4: really really awful. They still have to drive somewhere else
Speaker 4: to get the procedure, and if you really think about it,
Speaker 4: it's really depressing because This means that the residents of
Speaker 4: Alabama have less abortion rights than women in the United
Speaker 4: Arab Emirates, which is an Islamic country. They passed laws
Speaker 4: last year to allow women to get abortions if they're
Speaker 4: raped or in cases of incess. So you know, unfortunately,
Speaker 4: women in Alabama are alone half of the US now
Speaker 4: half with stays in the US have abortion bands that
Speaker 4: don't give any type of accesss for incense, including uh
Speaker 4: well lived like Texis, so many of the other southern
Speaker 4: red states like Oklahoma, Luisiana, Tennessee. I mean, yeah, Alma obviously,
Speaker 4: Like I mean, remind me how this is happening in
Speaker 4: the so called land of the Free.
Speaker 1: I mean, like, even if we put it to the
Speaker 1: states that do give an allowances for raping incests, a
Speaker 1: lot of times they don't allowances for rape and incests.
Speaker 1: I mean, like we covered a story about a young
Speaker 1: person who was thirteen years old who was raped in Mississippi,
Speaker 1: where they have on the books you're supposed to give
Speaker 1: allowances for raping incests, and they didn't allow it for her.
Speaker 1: She ended up having a baby because her mother was
Speaker 1: not did not have enough money to take her to
Speaker 1: the nearest place for her to get an abortion, which
Speaker 1: was in Chicago, Illinois, which is over nine hours away.
Speaker 1: So there's always some type of caveats when it comes
Speaker 1: to some of these, like you know, trigger laws as
Speaker 1: they were called once Rob Waite was overturned. But Kelly,
Speaker 1: is this anything new for Alabama?
Speaker 5: No, No, not at all. Alabama has a history of
Speaker 5: getting involved with other states laws that this is all
Speaker 5: the way back in eighteen fifty a. They were one
Speaker 5: of the states that arguing for the Fugitive Slave Act
Speaker 5: to be passed so that a runaway slave who had
Speaker 5: made it to a free state where they were saved
Speaker 5: could be put in chains and hauled back to be
Speaker 5: chatteled once again in states just like Alabama. So this
Speaker 5: shit is nothing new to them, nothing new at all.
Speaker 5: And what really gets me about this is the GOP's
Speaker 5: continued proclamation of being for states rights. They obviously don't
Speaker 5: give a shit about states rights if those rights go
Speaker 5: against their own agenda, as they do in this case.
Speaker 5: This is one more case of the total hypocrisy and
Speaker 5: within this polytical machine, and it's this open hypocrisy, open
Speaker 5: hypocrisy like this that creates the distrust in the government,
Speaker 5: which actually could be a good thing in some ways.
Speaker 5: All you need, folks, is faith in the system. Yes,
Speaker 5: faith in the system. It's what keeps them in power.
Speaker 5: And think back to our regularly scheduled show.
Speaker 3: I think you're not fully respecting Alabama's states rights to
Speaker 3: travel in other states that if they had just had
Speaker 3: the correct rights to begin with, we wouldn't be here, right,
Speaker 3: But what's the unfortunate part, Rob, Well, the unfortunate part
Speaker 3: is back to it's similar to Oklahoma. It's it's the
Speaker 3: continuing chipping of trying to just get away with more
Speaker 3: and more shit. Like the reason so the reason why
Speaker 3: this is actually astounding to me is because it's it's
Speaker 3: like worse than Walter I believe, right, because at least
Speaker 3: they're not loyal here, Like presumably they know the law
Speaker 3: and the jurisdiction of any given power is one of
Speaker 3: the first things that you have to establish and abide by.
Speaker 3: So like the fact that they want to just completely
Speaker 3: ignore their own jurisdiction and go beyond that is like
Speaker 3: it's worse than overreach, right, Like it's heinous, it's insane,
Speaker 3: I I it's it is Harry Potter and the goal
Speaker 3: of this bastard, like that's that's what it is.
Speaker 1: Well, I have a question for all of you, in
Speaker 1: what ways can community organizations because, like we establish in
Speaker 1: another episode this week, that change does not happen from
Speaker 1: the ground from the down, but from the ground up,
Speaker 1: So how can communicate So in what ways can community
Speaker 1: organizations continue to support reproductive rights in states with extreme
Speaker 1: band aj? I would like for you to start and
Speaker 1: then Rob and then Kelly again.
Speaker 4: You know when we discussed this in one of the
Speaker 4: last episodes that we quoted, and I think that the
Speaker 4: main thing that people can do is to continue to
Speaker 4: push the lawmakers that are putting out these laws, Like
Speaker 4: even if you live in a red state, still continue
Speaker 4: to write letters, to show up at the door of
Speaker 4: your representatives. Okay, I'm sorry, like their public office. Don't
Speaker 4: go to their house. Please, don't be a stalker. So yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, show up, like stand up, speak up, don't
Speaker 4: stay quiet, and you know, just take it, don't just
Speaker 4: take it. That's the best way that we can hope
Speaker 4: as individuals we can help these community organizations to help
Speaker 4: these people that are you know, who's whose rights are
Speaker 4: being taken away.
Speaker 3: It's going to be hard because ultimately, really the only
Speaker 3: thing they can do in my mind is vote out
Speaker 3: to people and get other people voted in. The reason
Speaker 3: why they wanted to try to prosecute people out of
Speaker 3: state who are helping the travel due to conspiracy. The
Speaker 3: reason why they can to do it is because it's
Speaker 3: outside of their jurisdiction. However, if the community within Alabama
Speaker 3: are trying to help the people get abortions, then they
Speaker 3: are perfectly within the state of Alabama to be prosecuted
Speaker 3: for conspiracy. So that's insane. So yeah, do the voting,
Speaker 3: get them out, and then if you're feeling up to
Speaker 3: it and you're spicy, then like literally create another underground
Speaker 3: railroad to hide and keep secret these people who need
Speaker 3: those things, because that's the only other way they're going
Speaker 3: to be able to do it without actually being prosecuted
Speaker 3: for conspiracy.
Speaker 1: Listen, I need everybody to read the story of Harriet
Speaker 1: Tutman if they really want to understand the underground railroad,
Speaker 1: how it worked and how also human beings powered it
Speaker 1: in order to get x LLave safe. And I agree
Speaker 1: with the point where and I know that, like you know,
Speaker 1: all you black acts that actually have watched this youse,
Speaker 1: do not like beat you down for like making equivocation
Speaker 1: of the underground slave underground railroad with you know what's
Speaker 1: happened today. But you know, even as the Bible says
Speaker 1: there's no new thing under the sun, there is a
Speaker 1: such thing that us, the people that's on the ground,
Speaker 1: can actually set up network to be able to get
Speaker 1: people to safety in order for them to get the
Speaker 1: services they need. You know, back in eighteen fifty, eighteen forty,
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty, it was getting slave, getting x slaves to freedom,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's to the north or even all
Speaker 1: the way up to Canada. Nowadays it's helping those who
Speaker 1: have the ability to become pregnant get to states where
Speaker 1: they don't have these draconian laws that would keep them
Speaker 1: from being able to make decisions on what they can
Speaker 1: and cannot do over their bodies. And I believe that
Speaker 1: it's contingent on all of us who call ourselves humanists,
Speaker 1: call ourselves activated in this space to help in some
Speaker 1: kind of way within their capacity to make this happen. Kelly,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 5: You know what, I have a lot of thoughts here.
Speaker 5: One we were talking about what we can do in
Speaker 5: the community. One of the big movers and shakers in
Speaker 5: the community has been Planned Parenthood, and they have been
Speaker 5: trying to get rid of that for years, and I'm
Speaker 5: afraid that they are going to Now there's a bill
Speaker 5: in Congress right now to defund it. This is something
Speaker 5: the GOP has wanted for a long fucking time, and
Speaker 5: they've got the ability to do it, So I think
Speaker 5: that's going to happen. So that so one of the
Speaker 5: things that we need to do as a community is
Speaker 5: to step up and help them stay in operation. They
Speaker 5: are going to need funding. So if you're looking for
Speaker 5: things in the community to do, help fund Planned Parenthood.
Speaker 5: Another thing I wanted to mention was these these lawsuits
Speaker 5: that these here against people that they have no jurisdiction of.
Speaker 5: We talked earlier this week about Ryan Walters bringing a
Speaker 5: lawsuit that really has no constitutional bearing, and and they
Speaker 5: these guys are not stupid. They know they are not
Speaker 5: going to win these lawsuits, but they make headlines, they're
Speaker 5: in the news. I'm out there, I'm out there being
Speaker 5: a Christian warrior. I'm on the front lines. I'm fighting
Speaker 5: for you and your and the Bible so that we
Speaker 5: can put God before everything, and that's why they're doing this.
Speaker 5: That's exactly why they're doing this. So I mean that's
Speaker 5: maybe one of the things we need to do is
Speaker 5: fight back against that message that there's a reason why
Speaker 5: we don't want the Bible out there in front of
Speaker 5: our government. Right, and then you mentioned that the changing
Speaker 5: of the underground railroad, and something I've been saying for
Speaker 5: once now is that we might have to have a
Speaker 5: rainbow railroad going up to Canada. So and then I hate.
Speaker 5: I'm like, right near Canada, I'm sure I could find
Speaker 5: some boats to take people across Lake Superior. So I'm
Speaker 5: volunteering to be the last stop on the railroad.
Speaker 1: Listen, listen, I am all about you. Guys. If you
Speaker 1: are in the States right now, find a place where
Speaker 1: they sell really good poutine because you're gonna need it
Speaker 1: if you decide to go ahead, you know, and get
Speaker 1: used to seeing and knowing what that really means. But
Speaker 1: you know, if you guys, this is give me a
Speaker 1: little breathing. I do have. So, in a critical win
Speaker 1: for human rights and bodily autonomy, a federal judge has
Speaker 1: ruled that Alabama cannot prosecute individuals who help women for
Speaker 1: people who are able to become pregnant travel out of
Speaker 1: state for abortion care. This decision affirms what many of
Speaker 1: us already know. Basic freedoms, including the right to travel
Speaker 1: and the right to offer help, do not vanish at
Speaker 1: the state line. Attorney General Steve marshall attempt to weaponize
Speaker 1: conspiracy law to intimidate helpers was not about protecting law.
Speaker 1: It was about punishing dissent and expanding control.
Speaker 2: If it had.
Speaker 1: Succeeded, it would have set a chilling precedent that a
Speaker 1: state could oppose its narrow ideology far beyond its borders,
Speaker 1: even on actions perfectly legal elsewhere. This really reminds that
Speaker 1: reproductive freedom, like a civil like all civil rights, doesn't
Speaker 1: depend on geography and all and for all organizations like
Speaker 1: Yellowhammer Fund, it means that they can once again support
Speaker 1: low income people without fear of being criminal. Let's be clear,
Speaker 1: no one should face prosecution for helping someone access medical care,
Speaker 1: and seeking an abortion is absolutely medical care, and no
Speaker 1: state has the right to trap its citizens within its
Speaker 1: own ideology. This fight isn't just about abortion. It's about
Speaker 1: our shared freedom, dignity, and moral