Two doctors explore modern abortion rights movement in new podcast
Dr. Beverly Gray and Dr. Jonas Swartz, two professors at Duke, provide well-researched episodes and interviews with leading figures in abortion rights.
A new podcast undertaken by two doctors documents essential moments in the reproductive rights movement in the last few years.
Outlawed, produced by Dr. Beverly Gray and Dr. Jonas Swartz, has had six episodes recorded thus far that deal with everything from the legal aspects of abortion politics to a harrowing case of an Indiana doctor who performed a necessary abortion on a child rape victim who was pregnant.
Swartz is a professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy. His research interests include health policy issues that impact care for the underserved. Much of his work has been on health disparities, with a special focus on immigrants, Medicaid policy, and access to abortion and contraception, according to his biography on the school website.
Gray is also a professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the same school. She has been a longtime activist for reproductive rights. She’s mostly known for being part of a lawsuit that challenged North Carolina’s 12-week ban in 2023.
The first episode introduces us to Sally, an abortion worker who answers phones at an abortion clinic in North Carolina. It shows the day-to-day life of people who work in the healthcare sector. It humanizes a group of people on the battle's frontlines.
The second episode features Brigitte Amiri, the deputy director of the ACLU’s reproductive freedom project. She explains how the litigation has played out at various levels of the judiciary system. Ohio’s legal battles over the six-week ban and 24-hour waiting period are featured among other states.
Texas was predictably a subject in the third episode, with a focus on how SB8 affected women and the abortion rights community. That law made abortions after a fetal heartbeat a crime. As has been reported in other outlets, the quality of reproductive care has deteriorated because of the fear doctors operate with due to the fear of prosecution and civil liability.
Episode 4 draws a more inclusive picture of what an abortion seeker looks like. It goes into the aspects of how challenging it is for poor people to get needed care without the support of Medicaid, which can’t pay for abortions under the Hyde Amendment, which stipulates federal money can’t be spent on abortions.
The episode that I found the most eye-opening centered on Dr. Caitlin Bernard from Indiana, a physician advocate and complex family planning expert. She provided abortion care for a 10-year-old rape victim in Indiana and was the center of a media and legal firestorm. She dealt with political harassment and was subject to a legislative hearing that went on for 14 hours. Another part that I found fascinating was that they have to report data on the abortions they provide in the state. Then, that information can be requested under open records acts by antiabortion activists.
As a journalist and someone familiar with the movement’s issues, I believe that the laws protecting the free flow of information have instead been used to violate people’s privacy.
It’s one thing that we scrutinize government leaders and even powerful organizations. I’ll give an example. I once exposed how hospitals in Pittsburgh weren’t enforcing workplace safety after I filed a bunch of freedom of information requests with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for complaints and inspections. The result was an award-winning story about how, under the Trump administration, the agency stopped inspecting workplaces after getting complaints.
Those types of stories can be weaned from open records laws. But where is the line drawn? These are good questions from now on in developing laws that promote transparency while protecting patient safety and comfort.
The podcast is worth a listen.