Truth Tellers In The Room (with Asha Dahya)

This week, we’re talking about repro. Again. Because somehow politicians and pundits still don’t understand that it’s not just about abortion – although abortion rights are critical. It’s also about birth control, IVF, and all of the other potentially life-saving procedures that are on the chopping block this year. Some of us may have been surprised when Roe v Wade was overturned but we refuse to be surprised again. We can’t stop talking to everyone we know about it in this pivotal election year.

Then we’re joined by Asha Dahya, a storyteller, TEDx speaker, and producer of a new documentary about later abortion called Someone You Know. Asha shares what she learned about later abortions while working on the film, including the outsized effect that Catholic hospitals have on the availability of reproductive care in this country. As a former conservative evangelical, Asha has been on a journey and she's a great example of the power of personal stories to change minds.

Finally, Rachel and Jasmine raise a glass to the Ukraine aid bill passing and to being chosen as a Biden delegate in this week's Toast to Joy.

If you want to learn more about Project 2025 and what you can do, we encourage you to check out our explainer page here.

And don’t forget to sign up for our Substack newsletter! It’s free and we’d love to hear from you in the comments.

For a transcript of this episode, please email theswppod@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

Instagram: @RedWineBlueUSA

Facebook: @RedWineBlueUSA

YouTube: @RedWineBlueUSA

Transcript

The Suburban Women Problem - Season 5, Episode 2

Jasmine Clark: Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us. I'm Jasmine Clark. 

Rachel Vindman: I'm Rachel Vindman. 

Jasmine: And you're listening to the Suburban Women Problem. 

Reproductive rights are one of the most important issues in the country right now, not just for the upcoming election but every day for real women all across the country. Last week, we talked to Amanda Zyrowski about how she nearly died because of Texas's abortion ban.

And this week, we're talking to filmmaker Asha Daya about her documentary, Someone You Know, which tells three women's stories about their later term abortions. Honestly, it's a difficult topic, even for those of us who are staunchly pro choice. But as always, the best way to learn is through personal stories.

But first we have to catch up about the news. Amanda couldn't join us again this week because she's being super busy and super fabulous, but she will be back soon. So Rachel, what have we all been talking about in our group chat? 

Rachel: Uh, I think we're just continuing to talk about how people are really missing the mark on reproductive rights, you know, it's not just abortion. And we have to widen that and talk about it in a different way. And, you know, as I've said, my brother in law, my husband's twin– not my husband, this mistake is made multiple times every week and people are–

Jasmine: They do look very much alike.

Rachel: They do. They do. That's how twins work. But yeah. And so he's running for office in Virginia and I said my advice, which, I am no one so like, I can see why people might not take my advice on political matters. But I was like, “I think you need to do just a straight ad looking at the camera talking about women's rights and that you trust women to make their own decisions. Like just really unambiguous. And I think you also,” you know, I told him, “I think you need to include these other issues.” 

Because for one thing, I think it's a public service to do so. I know we just keep talking about reproductive rights, and we're going to talk about other things than reproductive rights, but the reality is we're being inundated with it. And it's just like drinking from a fire hose, and they're talking about stuff all the time, and people are like, “I don't really want to listen to this,” but you have to listen.

You know, Marsha Blackburn talking about how she thinks it's wrong, whatever the Supreme Court case was…

Jasmine: Griswold, I think. Yeah. 

Rachel: Griswold. Yes. Griswold. So it was a gross overstep in her mind that allowed the Supreme Court to decide on birth control. Right. This is what Marsha Blackburn, a seated senator in Tennessee, said. 

Jasmine: Right. Like she's in a position to, like, rally caucus members and take away people's right to contraception. Or as in the case in Georgia, there's not necessarily a right to contraception, it's just kind of an unspoken thing, but it can be taken away. 

And I think that that's something that we have to keep talking about. And you're right. There are so many things going on, but I do think this is a very important issue that touches on a lot of other issues. If you care about the economy, you care about reproductive rights. If you care about like, education and access to health care, you care about reproductive rights. Because all of those things are related to each other. 

Rachel: I couldn't agree more. And that's why we have to talk about it. That's why we have to, you have to draw those threads for people because not everyone understands. There was… I'm not on Twitter very much. I know you're not on Twitter. 

Jasmine: I gave it up. 

Rachel: I was actually, I was actually, I downloaded again. And then I've already deleted it for my phone, but it was to defend Amanda and Casey, actually. But anyway, it doesn't matter. Um, but I saw something from someone and her argument was that “access to birth control,” we're back to birth control, “access to birth control does not reduce abortion rates.” I'm like…

Jasmine: That's not true. 

Rachel: Well, in any case, what we've been trying to tell people again and again and again and again, abortion is not about birth control either. It is about healthcare. 

Jasmine: Yeah. It is about so much more than that. 

Rachel: It is about, yes, it is not just someone who is like 16 and pregnant and wants to not have the baby. And if that's what it is to you, that's fine, I trust you to make that decision. But if it's about your health, the health of a baby, the viability of the fetus, whatever, any number of these things, we're just seeing a lot more chatter on this birth control issue. And be warned, we cannot assume. 

Jasmine: Yeah, people didn't think Roe would fall.

Rachel: I didn’t.

Jasmine: Like it was one of those things where people were like, “Yeah, that's just a scare tactic. That's just hyperbole. Roe will never fall.” And then it did. And then people were like, “Oh crap. Maybe things aren't as a strong foundation as we thought they were.” 

And I just want to also point out that in fact, during the Obama years, when we increased access to birth control and made it to where more people had access to things like birth control pills, the abortion rate did go down. Also, in countries that have universal healthcare and universal access to contraception, they also have lower abortion rates. So abortion is not always going to be tied to “I just don't want to be pregnant.” Sometimes abortion is tied to “this pregnancy is killing me,” or it's “I have to choose between this pregnancy and a life saving treatment” or any number of reasons. There's so many different scenarios. 

And when you broad brush like what they've done in Arizona, where they just straight up repealed it using a freaking Civil War era repeal to– sorry, ban, there's a blanket ban, no exceptions whatsoever. That really does not take into the account all the many, many, many reasons why people need to have an abortion.

Rachel: They don't want to hear it though. 

Jasmine: It's crazy though.

Rachel: When you start talking about it, if people hear the stories, they're going to change their mind. Not everyone, but a lot of people will, because they will realize there is a space in this, that there is a point of view to which they have not been exposed. And many people live in this area where they aren't exposed to this idea of what abortion is; they only see it through a very narrow scope. And it's something that we have to keep talking about, which is why we're talking about on our show. 

But we're in this, like, choose your own adventure on truth type situation. And it is truly bizarre that we don't even agree on facts anymore. And I don't know how to get back to a normal place, but it is exhausting. And I saw it creep up, I don't know if this has happened to you, but I saw it creep up into a conversation I had with Ellie last week. And she basically was kind of like, it was like Kellyanne Conway was sitting next to me and she was like, “well, alternative facts.” Like, “that's what you believe, but that's not the facts I see.” And I was like, that's not how facts work! 

Jasmine: Yeah, I've had, I've had this battle for many, many years, especially when I first went into politics.

Rachel: It is such a weird place, is it not? This very strange, like, back to like Kellyanne Conway, you know, alternative facts. Like there are no alternative facts! 

Jasmine: She's one of the reasons I ran for office. I mean, because I was seeing this happening and I was like, “We need truth tellers in the room. We need fact tellers in the room. We need people who are going to, you know, not make up facts but actually put, you know, use the facts that are right in front of their face. And, and, and work from that direction.” 

But yeah, I think that we are in this weird dimension right now. I don't even know how to describe it. Just going back to this Arizona thing, I keep, cause I'm so blown away by it. I don't know if you saw the video. 

Rachel: No, I feel like we haven't talked about it. I saw the video. It made me sick to my stomach. You can tell, you can explain the video.

Jasmine: I felt sick. 

Rachel: Horrible. 

Jasmine: So, you know, in Arizona they basically procedurally blocked the ability to debate and appeal of the 1864 near total abortion ban. And so, you know, upon successfully blocking the debate, the Republicans turned around and started clapping and cheering at basically holding down the front and supporting this near abortion ban. But the part of the video that disturbed me the most, and I don't know if we watched the same video, there's this woman that is just so proud of herself and just clapping. 

Rachel: Yes.

Jasmine: I thought there was something about that that made me sick to my stomach. I just can't understand how a person, and she looked relatively young, even if she is out of the window where she might be considering having children, she might have children that will soon be considering having children, if not already in that age range. It really bothered me. And I just don't really know how to feel about this.

Especially when we are in a place now where everyone is being affected by this. There are people who are going through things like miscarriage that are being turned away from hospitals because they are afraid of the liability and say they would rather let you go bleed out in your car in your home or a bathroom somewhere before they will treat you as an emergency because they are afraid of the liability. That is what she was clapping for. It just blows my mind. I just don't even know how to see things like that and, and feel like I'm in reality, like I am actually in the real world. 

Rachel: I completely agree. I, you, what I was reading the story about the women who are being turned away, and this has been reported on a couple of times last week, things I read being turned away when they have miscarriages.

I remember, my first miscarriage was on Mother's Day. And it was just a couple months after we got married and I had gone home to Oklahoma. Alex was working doing some Army training. I went home to Oklahoma to tell my family and I actually didn't get a chance to tell them because I started kind of miscarrying. And, and I went to the hospital like the first time and they were kind of like, they were very nice, but they're like, “Yeah, there's really nothing we can do.” And so I went home or rather went to my parents house. 

And then later that night I was in just excruciating pain. The most pain I've ever been in in my life. Um, it was like a 9 out of 10 and I characterized it as a 9 because I hadn't passed out. But it was the most pain I've ever been in. And I ended up being admitted. And I thought about that experience and like, and how scared I was and how like just so many emotions. This was the beginning of our infertility and loss journey, and it was still like, no, no more or less than when it happened, you know, later as well.

But I was treated with compassion. I was treated with, “I know this is hard. There's nothing we can do,” you know, the first time at least. And then I was admitted, but if I hadn't been able to be admitted, if I hadn't had someone saying, “this is normal, you'll be okay”... you know, all that stuff you want someone who's like a professional, not your mom, not your friend to say. Like you want someone that has had some training and like seen some stuff to tell you this sort of thing. And that they don't have that. I just, you know, my heart just went out to them, like how isolating that must be.

And then, I mean, as you know, it was like Amanda that we talked to last week. Not our Amanda, Amanda Zurawski, she has permanent fertility issues, implications from not being treated like she should have been. And they've made her infertile. And the people who listened last week, you know, heard her say like, now they say, “Hey, don't worry, this doesn't even apply to you because you can't get pregnant.” I mean, like that is cold hearted. Just like that woman clapping in Arizona. And I saw that, I saw her clapping. But it is cold hearted. Can you imagine saying that to someone? 

And like, when you're at that point, like, what are, what are we doing? You're like, you said, “Who are we, what are we doing?” That speech that Joe Biden gave, and I don't even remember when it was now, but “We know who Donald Trump is. The question is, who are we?” Right? And you know who the Arizona Republicans are, who want this. Who are we? What are we going to do? What are you going to do? Are you going to get uncomfortable and challenge people on this? 

Because, you know, speaking of uncomfortable, you know what I did last week, I had to take my mother in law to an appointment. My husband was out of town. And I mean, sometimes I just like to keep it light, you know, but she started talking about “why are there so many migrants? Why are there so many immigrants?” And I'm like, “I don't want to be the person to like, I don't know if you need to know this, but you were also an immigrant!” Again, it wasn't the conversation I wanted to have. But it was successful because I just, I just went with the facts, you know? And it was something that she hadn't heard and she was open and receptive to it. I mean, is that how you would propose handling it?

Jasmine: Absolutely. This boils down to the suburban women problem that Republicans have, and that they assume that the suburbs are a homogenous sea of white people. I'm just going to just put it out there. And it's not. And so where I live in my community, we are rich with people who are born here, people who are immigrants who are contributing to our community, people who, who are immigrants and they're starting their family, so their children might be American citizens, all these different things.

They hear this stuff. They hear what's being said and they hear the negativity coming their way. Um, as the kids would say, they are basically catching strays for no reason. Like they're like, “I'm just here coaching my son's soccer game. And all of a sudden I'm being accused of being a fentanyl pushing rapist because I happen to have brown skin.”

And so what I do is I acknowledge that crime is an issue, but crime is an issue no matter where you're from. And then from there, just go into the facts about the contributions that immigrants make to our communities. And at the end of the day, I think that people realize that the Republican platform of negativity and creating boogeymen and creating monsters is not a winning platform, whether that be again, immigration, whether that be reproductive rights or all the many are LGBTQ rights or diversity, equity, and inclusion, and all the many things that they have turned into like, you know, monsters that we should be afraid of. We just have to not just push back, but just lead with facts that actually tell the true story. 

Rachel: Yes. 

Jasmine: All right. Now we're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we'll be joined by Asha Daya.

BREAK

Jasmine: Welcome back everyone. Asha, thank you so much for joining us today. 

Asha Dahya: Hello. Thank you so much for having me. This is wonderful. 

Jasmine: So your documentary, Someone You Know, just premiered last month. Could you tell us a little bit about it? 

Asha: Yes! The documentary is called Someone You Know. It features three women sharing their experience having to navigate numerous barriers in a hostile landscape to get an abortion later in their pregnancy. Spoiler alert, the hostile landscape is the United States of America. 

Rachel: I had a feeling that was going to be the case. 

Asha: Sadly.

Rachel: This is very interesting to me, when I was reading about your documentary, because later abortion is one of the least understood topics out there. I know what I was taught, like, 30 years ago and the propaganda that I was subjected to. But what did you learn through interviewing the women in your documentary? Why do people get second and third trimester abortions? 

Asha: You used a very poignant word there, propaganda. And I think that has dominated the conversations politically, culturally, socially. So one of the things that I learned is that at any point in a pregnancy, you need to be able to make decisions, sometimes difficult decisions, and that can happen in the second and third trimester as well as in the first trimester. It becomes much more rare, you know, as the weeks of gestation go along, but it also becomes more complex, more complicated, potentially more dangerous and much more expensive as well as you go further along in pregnancy. 

But I think the reason why it has become such this bogeyman, if you want, you know, this monster, this issue that becomes easy to use propaganda to talk about, especially on a political platform is that it's very misunderstood. And that a lot of the people who have later abortions, they don't speak out because of the fear of being harassed, of, you know, being weaponized. And, and then, you know, the politicians who do support it, sometimes they don't even have the education enough to talk about it in the right, correct, medically accurate way.

And so I felt, you know, making this documentary, sharing, it's not an overtly political documentary, although there are some, you know, bits of context in there about certain states and the landscape and all of that. But it was really important to me to show the personal stories, the nuance, the journey that these women that I feature have to go on because it is not easy. It is not something that you can access just at the drop of a hat. So I hope people are able to see that and understand that later abortion is not this one size fits all weaponized propaganda topic that often gets talked about. 

Jasmine: I, I hear that. And I think that's really important to kind of take the politics out of this and just talk about this because it is very much a medical issue.

You talked a little bit about it being a journey. And so one of the goals of Red Wine and Blue is to promote conversations across the political spectrum. And so a lot of the people, a lot of the women in our network, they actually used to be apolitical and some of them even used to be Republican. And so you yourself were actually a conservative evangelical before you got into this work. And so speaking of journeys, I'd love to hear more about your journey and how you got to where you are today. 

Asha: Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, I love that this podcast reaches so many, such a broad audience. I think that's really wonderful and we need that. 

And you know, I did come from a conservative evangelical background. I was raised in Australia, hence the accent. Um, the landscape there is, is very different to America. You know, religion isn't as politicized, although it is changing. So when I moved to the United States in 2009, I just assumed that being an evangelical Christian was the same as it was in Australia. Boy, was I in for a shock because that was also the year that we nominated the first African American president of the United States. And that ignited its own political firestorm in my conservative church, unearthing a lot of issues to do with systemic racism and, you know, things like that, that were still very present and still are in the American evangelical church.

And I very quickly got an education on what it meant to be American and evangelical and what I, what political views I had to adopt in specific areas, specifically around LGBTQ folks and abortion. And so I never really had any overtly political view on abortion, other than I had to identify with the label, quote unquote, pro life, didn't know what that meant, didn't do any research. I just knew it was the thing to do. 

It wasn't until I learned that there were women in my church, people who I was friends with, who had secretly gotten abortions and who would, you know, on stage profess to be pro life, but then would get abortions and justify it in a number of different ways that made me realize, hang on a second, there's, there's, there's some disconnect here. And obviously real life is different to what's happening in the pews, in the pulpit. And we need to break this down a little bit more. 

Like, how do we have these conversations? All of the conversations that I saw on the stage, on the pulpit, about abortion were usually from white men. And looking back, it's like, of course, no one else was going to speak out about it. Of course people who have been through abortions felt afraid of sharing their journeys because of, you know, they're going to be ostracized. So that kind of led me on a path or of, let's look at these stories more. Let's look into the facts, let's look into the education, you know, why this is happening.

And it was really enlightening for me. And it also felt freeing to know that my views can change and it's okay to learn new things and to look at not just the statistics, but the people behind those statistics. So that was my journey. And I, I, you know, I'm still learning a lot. I'm still utilizing personal storytelling as a way to become more educated. And I think that's a really powerful tool beyond just political messaging or statistics and data, which can be overwhelming and boring sometimes. So yes. Journeys are important. 

Jasmine: Yeah. It doesn't change minds as much as personal stories do. I mean, that's just the truth about it. Not everyone's a nerd like me. I like numbers. 

Asha: Me too. Me too. 

Rachel: I like both. I mean, I love a good pie chart, but I also love to hear from people and their personal stories and, and about things, you know, about which I have no experience. So when they can tell their story, it's very powerful. 

You know, religion is very intertwined, as you mentioned, with, with abortion rights. Could you tell us more about what you learned about Catholic hospitals in particular and how they affect the ability to access reproductive health care. 

Asha: Yeah, I'll talk about that and then I'd love to, if it's okay, to talk about the religious landscape and the history of religion and abortion rights because it's not what people typically think about it.

Jasmine: I would love that, yeah. 

Asha: Yeah, so the Catholic Church owns one in six hospital beds in the United States. Um, they're, they own a lot of hospitals, community clinics, and they have a lot of money and a lot of power, and they specifically go to areas, like rural areas where there are not a lot of options as in the big metro cities.

So one of the women in my film, Mindy Swank, she lives in the Midwest. And when something in her pregnancy, when she got a bad diagnosis, something went wrong in her pregnancy, her only options in her area were Catholic hospitals. And what people should know about, and this is something I list in the film in context to her story, is that Catholic institutions take their directives from the Catholic conference of bishops, not from medical standards. They also routinely deny a number of procedures, including abortion, tubal ligation, birth control and, and a number of other things, as well as emergency life saving abortion procedures, which is what Mindy ended up needing. But because there's so many laws and this web of religion and politics and, and stringent legal boundaries, a lot of the times the doctors, it's easy for them to be hands off and say, “I'm sorry, we cannot help you.”

And so she ended up, you know, experiencing an amount of hemorrhaging. She went through trauma and it was just such a horrific experience for her because she wasn't able to get the care she needed early on in the pregnancy. To the point where she wanted to transfer to another hospital across state lines… her first hospital wouldn't even send the paperwork to the next hospital because they were like, “this could be seen as us participating in your eventual abortion procedure.” It's just mind blowing. Every time I hear, watch that part of the film, it just makes me so angry because… at what point are we getting back to the healthcare aspect of this?

And so going on that point, what I, what I love about talking about religion and abortion and history of America is that  religion in America and, you know, a lot of the main predominant religions are not necessarily anti abortion. And actually, when you look at, you know, the evangelical or the Protestant churches history in America, When Roe v. Wade was decided, many of them, including the Southern Baptist Convention, including famous preacher Billy Graham, they approved of this decision. Because they did not want to see people resorting to unsafe methods and dying as they were, you know, going to clinics that were not regulated or not vetted.

And also there was a, there was a secretive underground collective called the Clergy Consultation Service. And I want everyone to look this up because they are fascinating. Um, they were a group of religious leaders that would help women find legitimate clinics, legitimate doctors, and safely get the procedure that they needed and with support without judgment.

And I think these are the kind of narratives we need to see more of, you know. Being religious does not mean you have to be anti-abortion. There, there should be an ability to see the nuance and that everyone's lives are complex. A pregnancy is so complex and and can be complicated. So. I always like to mention that about religion and abortion in America.

Rachel: I think it's really, it's actually it's in a lot of books that we've talked about, but one of the reasons why the Protestant church didn't have a problem with abortion is because the Catholics did have a problem with abortion. So if you're ever wondering, like, how some of these doctrinal like decisions are made, it might not, the answer might not be like, 

Jasmine: It's not in the Bible itself.

Rachel: Right. That's my point. And like, you can believe what you want to believe, but just know that like, how a lot of these decisions are arrived upon is not what you think. So it's worth examining it. And you know, I'm so glad that you break that down because what you're doing is giving people like, a freedom to have more information and base their decision on what's right for them, more than just what the, yes, what the church says. It's, it's, there's a lot more to it. 

I'm curious about… you started this work, you know, kind of before you were a mom and now you are a mom. How has that maybe changed your perspective or has it changed it at all? 

Asha: It definitely has. It's made me more aware, hyper aware of the fact that I want to be able to make the decisions about my body and my life and my family with the people that I choose to and with the freedom to know what's right for myself. Like, I don't want to invite, I'm not going to call up my local Senator and be like, “Hey, I'm going to make this decision. You cool with it?” Like nobody does that. When you're in the hospital, when you're in a doctor's clinic, when you're deciding with your family or your partner, whoever it is, “Hey, maybe we should do this.” You're not calling up any stranger in a church out there in the world to, to decide for you. 

And so becoming a mom made me realize… and I've got two kids. The intricacies that happened every day in my body throughout that pregnancy, and I remember it was a very quick education for me because my doctor, you know, when I did that first blood test in my first pregnancy, my doctor was saying to me, “okay, so we need your hormones to be doubling every minute of every hour of these first few days. It's very crucial.” And she's giving me this, you know, this whirlwind of education. And I realized, “Oh, this is, this is serious stuff. And I've got to really look after myself.” But anything could go wrong at any point in a pregnancy. And you need to be able to have the tools and the freedom to make the right decisions for you. 

And so becoming a mom just made me more fiercely pro choice and pro reproductive freedom because if we don't have the ability to make decisions for our lives, well, who's making the decisions for us and what do they know about us?

Jasmine: Right. Exactly. Especially when you think about the fact that a lot of times the decisions have to be made very quickly. 

Asha: Yeah. 

Jasmine: And I, for one, do not want my healthcare professional, I do not want my OB, or my nurse midwife, second guessing themselves because they're afraid of getting in legal trouble. And I'm sitting here in a life or death situation. And they're like, “I'm in a life or death situation in that if I make this decision, I could go to jail or I could lose my income and my licensure and all this stuff.” And so now they're deciding is their life worth, you know, saving my life, putting it on the line. 

And I don't want that to be the case in our society. We are supposed to be an advanced country that is, you know, we are supposed to be some type of beacon on the hill. And now we're at the point where a doctor in the moment where they should immediately be saying a standard of care and they're like, “yeah, standard of care, but what about liability?” I don't need “buts” in the moment where five minutes from now I could be passed out and I might not wake up from that moment. 

Because let's be clear. The United States has an abysmal maternal mortality rate. You cannot convince me that these abortion laws are not directly correlated to this maternal mortality. And in fact, the states that had the strictest abortion policies also have the highest maternal mortality rates. And so there is actual data that supports this. You will end up killing people when you try to take their choices away. And so I really, truly, thank you. 

I think that people need to understand that it is not hyperbole when we say that this is the most important election of our lifetime. It is actually true, particularly when it comes to abortion rights. So I would love to ask you, what do you feel is at stake in November? And do you think there's a possibility that we might get a federal ban on abortion in the United States? 

Asha: Ooh, this is a big question. It is the most consequential election, especially for abortion rights right now.

There are two current, while this is not election related, there are two Supreme Court cases this year. One we heard a few weeks ago, looking at access to, to the abortion pill. And there's one that's being heard this week as we're doing this recording, that's going to potentially decide whether states or hospitals have the ability to deny life saving later abortion care. That is a terrifying prospect. So keep an eye out for that one. 

In November, I'll get to the, the presidential part in a minute, but there are up to 13 states that are going to have abortion ballot measures. And these are really important to look out for Florida is going to be one, Arizona, a number of Missouri, I believe, and a number more. And these are important too, this is where I have the most hope because every state that has voted in an abortion, an abortion ballot measure, state ballot measures so far since Dobbs was decided in 2022, and I believe there's seven or eight states that have done this… abortion rights have overwhelmingly been protected and voted into state constitutions. 

And it just goes to show that abortion bans are deeply unpopular. When you put the power back in the hands of the people, people across all political spectrums, this includes conservative, liberal, anyone in between, they want to protect the right to make this decision for their body. So that's something important to remember. And those ballot measures are also being attacked. You know, state legislatures want to make it harder to get them on the ballot and make it just more complicated. 

Jasmine: Or lie to people about what it is on the ballot.

Rachel: Yeah, in Florida we're lying. Yeah, we're lying to people in Florida. It's already started. It was only two weeks ago that they decided that they announced it and they're already lying to people about it. Um, so it's, it's going to take money and effort in order to get these to pass because they will put a lot of money and effort into making sure they don't pass. And we have to do the work on the other side as well to counter it.

Asha: Yeah, absolutely. Information, the misinformation just runs rife. And then that brings us to the presidential election. There are a number of very big, very well funded anti choice groups that have put a plan together called Project 2025. I encourage everyone to look it up and just be aware of what these groups are proposing if Trump wins. Day one, they're going to give him the tools, give him the avenues and the loopholes and the education and the know-how – he ain't too smart, let's be honest. They're going to give him the tools to be able to ban abortion in a way that can bypass Congress, bypass all the, you know, the, the, the hoops that he needs to jump through, the executive orders we're talking about. And so that's something to really be aware of. 

I know that candidates are not necessarily people's favorite people. We're not trying to have a beer with these people. We're not trying to be best friends, but what is at stake is the ability to make decisions for our lives. And if Trump gets in, I mean, look, last time in 2016, he said, “If I win, I'm going to appoint pro life judges and overturn Roe v. Wade.” Look what he did. 

Jasmine: And that is exactly what happened. 

Asha: That is exactly what he did. 

Rachel: It's like the only time he told the truth. 

Asha: Haha. Exactly. And not only that, but there may be some other Supreme Court Justices retiring. Do we want President Biden to nominate a new Justice, or do we want Trump to put another potential three Justices on the Supreme Court, which would be devastating for future generations? So these are things to think about and this is what's at stake.  

Jasmine: Well, Asha, where can listeners go to learn more about you and about your documentary and about your work as a whole? 

Asha: Yes. Please check out www.someoneyounowdoc.com if you want to request a screening. You know, this is a social impact project. I'm not charging people money. I want to get it out there as much as possible. If you are an organization, a community, a group, please reach out to me. And I would love to work with you on hosting a screening, getting you set up with all the tools that you need to screen this film.

You can check out more of my work at AshaDahya.com. Please get in touch. And if you want to know more about the film or how you can share it with people, the Someone You Know Doc website has resources and links and all the good stuff there that you can check out. So please get in touch. I love to hear from people. 

Jasmine: Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us, Asha.

Asha: Thank you.

Jasmine: So first of all, that was a pleasure. Powerful conversation with Asha and I think that, yeah, it's just so many things that we talked about that I'm like, “yes, yes, we need more people to know this.” 

Rachel: Yeah, I think, you know, watch that and see that and then juxtapose it with like, say, reading Project 2025 and what they plan on doing and the heartlessness. Same as the woman in Arizona that we talked about at the beginning of the show, like this, you know, you're just like, you have two choices. You can choose to be compassionate and give grace and empathy, or you can choose the opposite. 

Jasmine: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's weird. We let Republicans co-opt the word freedom, but I really, truly feel like Democrats, their policies actually create a more free society. They're very good at stealing words and using them to mean things that they don't actually mean. 

All right. So before we go, we have to share a toast to joy. So Rachel, what is your Toast to Joy for today? 

Rachel: My Toast to Joy is the Ukraine aid bill passing. It's been a long time coming and Ukraine is frankly, barely hanging on. My husband was there for a week and he is not someone who gets overly emotional, but I could tell it really was weighing heavy on him, on his mind, on his heart. The things that he saw and how just desperate it is.

 So it took a lot, a lot of effort to get it over to get the bill passed and to get over the hump if you will. But that was the right thing to do. And I'm sorry that it took so long, but I hope this gives Ukraine a little hope to hold on hopefully till November. And then, you know, better things could happen, not just for Ukraine, but for Russia's efforts and anything else that they have planned where they think that we didn't care enough because we do care and we have to keep caring.

So I applaud everyone who came together. Senator, sorry, Speaker Johnson for doing the right thing in the end for bringing this bill to the floor and Slava Ukraini, I hope you can hold on and thank you for all you're doing to fight for democracy and for freedom and for the whole world, continuing to stand up. And I just hope that we can all see the benefit of, of this, of spending money, although it's a lot of money and I understand that, but we spend this money in lieu of American lives and and, and that is meaningful. So that is my Toast to Joy this week. And what is yours?

Jasmine: So my Toast to Joy is that I have been elected to be one of the PLEO delegates for Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention. So if you're wondering what PLEO means, I also didn't know what it meant. It's Party Leaders and Elected Officials. 

Rachel: Oh, it’s an acronym. 

Jasmine: To give you context, there were 105 people that were running for one of these positions and there were only 14 slots. I was very nervous about it and you know, it was my first time ever running for something like that. Um, you know, I've run for office and all these different things, but this was new. And I am so happy that I was elected because I genuinely feel like when in this very, very, very consequential election that is coming up in November, the choice can not be clear as to who we need to elect as our next president of the United States.

And so I love the opportunity to be a part of this process. To be, you know, in the, in the moment when he officially becomes the democratic nominee. So I'm very excited about that. I'm just like, you know, really excited to go to Chicago and all of the different things. But yeah, I could not wait. I was like, oh my God, bursting with like… I kind of told y'all ahead of time I wanted to be like a big surprise, but I couldn’t wait.

Rachel: Well, we're very excited and very happy for you. And the convention, I've heard that political conventions can be fun. You'll have to let me know. I don't think I'll ever go to one.

Jasmine: This will be my first.

Rachel: Okay. Well, we look forward to the report. Is it in July or August?

Jasmine: August. It is in August and I am so excited about it. And yeah, I, I, I look, I look forward to it too. It'll be my first time being a part of anything like this. So yeah, I, I'm excited.

Rachel: Well, I'm excited for you. 

Jasmine: Thank you. All right. So thanks so much to everyone for joining us today. Don't forget to sign up for our Substack, and we'll see you next week on another episode of The Suburban Women Problem.