Crisis Pregnancy Centers are Evil

We talk to Carina Domingez, a reproductive health expert, about the predatory fake clinics known as crisis pregnancy centers and how they've infiltrated public health spaces to trick and terrorize people out of abortions and contraceptives.

https://www.plancpills.org/
https://crisispregnancycentermap.com/
http://Bedsider.org

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Uh, yeah, the podcast has started. Oh let's start. This
is this addict that happened here? This is it could
happen here. That's right, and you're Robert Evans. We also
have Shrine, Lanny Unis and Christopher Wong with us. Christopher, Hi, Yeah,
I guess I'm sort of running this show today, even
to Robert has You're right done? The intro question mark? Um,

(00:30):
always with a question mark. That's how the pros do it.
Can you can tell professionals? Yeah? But speak speaking of professionals,
we have we have Karina Domingus with us, who is
in fact actually a professional and has spent eight years
working in reproductive health issues of Karina. Welcome to the show,
and thank you for joining us. Thank you, thank you

(00:53):
for having me. It's lovely to have you on, Karina.
What's uh, what's going on? How are thanks? Things? Things
are okay? I think I can say that doesn't seem true, Yeah,
but they're okay. Um, yeah, okay. I pulled out of

(01:15):
a crash truck once and as I was trying to
like staunch the bleeding from a cut in his hand,
I asked how he was and he said, okay, So
I'm guessing it's that kind of Okay, you nailed it. Yeah, Karina,
do you wanna tell us a little bit about your
background and the work that you do and you know
why why why? We We just really wanted to have

(01:37):
you on the show. Yeah, I would love too. So again,
my name is Karna Dominguez. I am from Chicago born
and raised. UM. I've worked in reproductive health for about
eight years, but really what I consider about fifteen years
or so. UM. I have experience in working in the
community and different capacities. UM. I love reproductive health. I'd
consider myself a reproductive health nerd UM. And it all

(02:00):
started when I was a teenager growing up in Chicago,
where just in the city life, you see a lot
of things that don't really sit well with you. UM.
I knew a lot of young girls who were getting
pregnant at young ages, experiencing trauma and specifically sexual trauma
UM and not knowing who to go to or where
to go. So these were mostly young girls of color

(02:20):
who I cared for a lot. And I immediately knew
that I wanted to do more activism and that I
needed to do more activism. And the way my activism
looks is through my education. So today I have a
master's in Public Health UM and I also have a
bachelor's in public health, and with that education, I've been
able to provide sexual and reproductive health counseling. I practiced

(02:42):
as a full spectrum dou LA where I have provided
abortion care for people and also UM provided birthing care
for people as well. I led a pregnant parenting program
at a nonprofit for youth experiencing homelessness, and right now
I currently manage a sexual and Reproductive health grant where
we provide resources to treatment centers in the l A

(03:03):
area to integrate sexual and reproductive health for patients and
substance use disorder treatment. Cool. So we are slacking, Yeah,
I think the thank you that made us want to
chat with you. We were having a conversation show when

(03:24):
the news first dropped that the Supreme Court was yeating
Roe v. Wade into the sun UM. There were a
couple of different news agencies that did like intern you know,
while talking about what options we're going to remain for people,
that would bring up crisis pregnancy centers, which are UM
shady as hell. As I'm sure we're about to talk about.

(03:45):
But yeah, so that's that's kind of why we brought
you into what we brought you one initially to talk about.
I wonder do you want to kind of introduce folks
to what those are, because the gist of it is,
if you like Google, how do I like find out
if I'm pregnant or like you know, I'm pregnant and
I need help, There's a good chance old Google will
take you to one of these places, and they are,

(04:06):
shall we say not what they seem to be? Yes,
I think we can exactly say that, um and I
am just going to say it in the most direct
way I possibly could. A crisis pregnancy center is essentially
a fake medical facility that prays on vulnerable people, specifically
people who can become pregnant. So yeah, you know, we

(04:29):
can use the term fake medical clinic, um I for
the purpose just of using the most common term crisis
pregnancy center, I'm going to stick to using that term. Um.
But yes, there are a lot of concerns about this,
and I'm sure our friend Google will pop them up
for us really quick. Um. So, crisis pregnancy centers usually
have names like Women's Pregnancy center or women's health center.

(04:52):
Something health center UM, and it's a very misleading advertisement.
So they are anti abortion facilities that manipulate people into
having a full term pregnancy. So these places are usually
religious oriented, They have a religious agenda and it's not
patient lad. So some of these larger religious based organizations

(05:14):
that fund these what we think are smaller tiny clinics
are agencies or organizations like care Net, Heartbeat International, National
Institute of Family and Life, Birthright International, and RAMA International.
So a lot of times you might think you're going
to the small, little tiny clinic or maybe it's even
like a community medical mobile unit, and it turns out

(05:38):
there backed by big money and bigger agencies. So they
typically will implant themselves in communities of color, um, near
college campuses and low income neighborhoods. So what is that saying.
That's saying that this is a woman's issue, this is
a trans issue, this is an lgbt q I A issue,

(05:58):
this is a bipoc issue, Black Indigenous people of color,
and it's simply just an issue for everyone. Yeah, And
it's so one of the things that's kind of messy
about these places is that if you look at like
investigations into how they work, you'll run into a number
of stories of women who are like, hey, I actually
like always intended to go through with my pregnancy. I

(06:19):
just needed to like know that number one, know that
I was pregnant. I needed to test or something, and
these people advertised they would provide that for free. The
advertise that they were providing stuff like diapers, you know,
basic kind of supplies, formula for free, um. And some
of them do, most of them due to some extent,
but nearly all of them have some sort of like
and this is outside of kind of the abortion aspect,

(06:40):
access of it, have some sort of fucked up hoops
you have to jump through in order to actually get
access to any of that stuff. Absolutely, yeah, I'm really
glad that you brought up, like the diaper point. I
think that is a really essential thing because they don't
not give out stuff, right, but it's it's messier than
they want to portray it as. Yeah, yeah, totally. And
and to form of manipulation, right, And I think too,

(07:03):
it's a form of manipulation too, to deem yourself a
full functioning medical facility where they actually don't provide those
comprehensive services and sometimes you know, they might even stay
on the outside like HIV testing, s I v M,
STI testing, HIV testing, UM and they're simply not evidence

(07:24):
based practices. So what I mean by an evidence evidence
based practice is something like condom use. We know very
well at this day and age that condoms are essential
to prevent s t I S and HIV transmission. So
a lot of these clinics they might even say like,
condoms don't decrease your chances of s t I S,

(07:46):
they don't really matter. They're not really doing anything. And
that is a really big piece of information that we
need to know as the average person, because that means
we have a lot of young people going to these
clinics and having even their foundational sexual health education at
these facilities. So this is a really really important thing
to take note of. UM And I would say that

(08:08):
you know a lot of people even in my life,
that have gone to crisis pregnancy centers by accident. Um
are you know, being told that they can do STI testing,
HIV testing, and even birth control and then as soon
as you go there, you realize that's not what's happening.
Usually it's going to be a lot of pregnancy related
services like ultrasounds and pregnancy tests, which we know if

(08:31):
you're an actual clinic that's those aren't the only things
that someone would need for essential health care. But I
would say even more like going into the manipulation and um,
the gas lighting that they do within these facilities, which
in my eyes is medical violence. UM. They provide even
mandatory ultrasounds, make someone sit there to look at the ultrasound.

(08:53):
They make fearful videos of misleading information about what abortions are,
and sometimes even have someone who is not a medical
provider showing what an abortion is in their eyes, and
the video maybe of a baby that's whose limbs are
being ripped apart um, even giving information like abortions can
lead to breast cancer, or if you have abortion, you'll

(09:15):
never be able to have a child, and this is
your one and only opportunity UM. And sometimes even going further,
you know they are sneaky and what they do, because
they might even have programs that will say parent program
UM or youth sexual health program and even with that,
they're giving religious based agendas UM, and they are telling

(09:39):
people misinformation about sexual health and even so might even
talk about UM very heterosexual sex marriage. All of the above,
So there is a very specific agenda that is going
on here. Um. And we know too that a lot
of these agencies can be really sneaky with what they're
doing because they may even deny they are a crisis

(10:01):
pregnancy center, and even further, if you go onto their website,
they might not even have any language that they're religious
based or that they are, um, not providing comprehensive services.
So there are a lot of different tactics that are
you know, within the manipulate manipulative strategies that they use. Yeah.

(10:25):
One of the things I've heard a lot about is
like basically like not not literally physically forcing but like
terrorizing people into signing like fake legal documents saying they
won't get an abortion, which like really like every description
I've heard about that, it is just like this is

(10:45):
just terrorism. That's absolutely um. Yeah, And I find that
to be really interesting. I have never heard of that happening.
But just because I haven't specifically heard of that does
not mean it's not happening. Um. And I think that
you know, there, they're not all made the same, um.

(11:06):
They all function differently, And I think that's also what
is really confusing about them because they're not consistently all
doing the same thing. There are still other facilities that
they might do STI testing, they might do HIV testing,
and so to hear that is not shocking to me.
Um And the manipulative tactics that they are using for

(11:26):
people and yeah, I mean hip book goes out the door.
You know, any legal backing goes out the door with
these facilities because they are not based on providing patient
led services in the first place. Maybe this is an ignorant,
ignorant train of thought, but if they're providing all of
these like free ish services or like whatever to these

(11:48):
people that are desperate and um, it sounds like a
lot of them are like privately funded by these organizations,
and the shadows like what how do they benefit? Like
where like what is there other than like imposing religiou
and other people, but like like financially and like I'm confused,
where how they're still able to function? Yes, they function

(12:12):
very well and without a problem. Um And as I mentioned,
there's you know, five larger organizations that are funding a
lot of these CPCs, but they are also um this
is to be noted. They are on the CDC website,
they are on the CDC directory as places that provide

(12:34):
essential services. So I think that also goes to speak
to the confusion around CPCs. And I'm just gonna go
out in the limb and say I'm going to give
the CDC benefit of the doubt although they do not
deserve that, and say that, um, they themselves may not

(12:58):
recognize what what these agencies are doing. And so I
think that's where the awareness around the actual function of
the CPCs and how they even exist in the first
place needs to be shut down. And awareness needs to
be brought about these places. And and we know that
thirteen of them are funded by their states, so they

(13:20):
are getting direct government money to be able to function
and then on top of that also functioning with the
backing of their larger organizations. Wow, are they getting federal
funding too? Like I have some vague memories of like
Bush administration programs that we're funding. Just I mean, if

(13:41):
I'm not mistaken, Trump pushed a bunch of federal funds
towards these facilities. Yes, yeah, I wonder, Sorry, ahead, go ahead.
I was just I was wondering, like I wonder if
there's a um like one or two things you need
to qualify as like a what's what how did you

(14:02):
put it on the website? CDC uh um like they
offer like services, like maybe it's like, oh, this place
has an ultrasound. These are like this is why this
is on, you know what I mean? Like, I wonder
if they just like pick and choose the bare minimum
of things to like qualify to be UM considered among
like people that offer like full fledged care. But I
don't know what it's all scam, I don't Yeah, And

(14:25):
I mean I think that also is just a really UM.
I like that you bring that up, because I think
that would be a really ignorant perspective from the CDC
to think that a place that gives a pregnancy test
or an ultrasound right away is not necessarily your average

(14:45):
healthcare setting. UM. When someone is going into an appointment,
typically you know they're not getting an ultrasound right away.
Typically you're average person whom I think they're pregnant is
going into a medical facility, is going to do a
pregnancy test. Sure, but they're not just gonna immediately the

(15:08):
first twenty minutes you're there do an ultrasound. UM. And
especially knowing our healthcare system and the United States. You
know that might require referrals and another facility to get
that done, and you know that depends on what your
insurances and what you can pay for and etcetera, etcetera.
But I think it's a really big red flag to

(15:29):
just have a facility that has pregnancy tests and ultrasounds.
That to me is, you know, if I see on
a website that those are the only two services that
healthcare clinic is claiming to provide, I'm running away and
I'm not going there because that's very odd. Well, it's
it's very manipulative, because it's it's one of those things.

(15:51):
One of the ways in which you can tell is
something healthcare related shady as fuck is does it take
advantage of the fact that very basic things that you
need are extremely expensive um, And like ultrasounds, pregnancy tests,
this can all be like STD tests, you know, can
all be really really pricey um. And it's just so

(16:13):
like it's fucked up that this is kind of how
they're funneling religious dollars towards taking advantage of the fact
that a lot of people, like legitimately some people who
use these facilities. I don't know what else to tell them.
Because it's like, well, we don't provide people with a
lot of options in this country everywhere, you know, for
for some of these services. Yeah, totally. And I do

(16:45):
want to go into some of the people doing work
and I want to really highlight what they're doing. UM.
So I want to give the utmost credit to two people,
UM who I do not know personally but would definitely
love to UM Dr Andreas Warton Rubber and Dr Danielle Lambert.

(17:07):
They're both associate professors at the School of Public Health
at University of Georgia and they're both co founders of
the CPC Maps, which originated in two thousand and eighteen.
So yes, there's a brilliant map where you can search
these CPCs that are close to you. UM. And in
my eyes, this map is truly a piece of gold

(17:27):
because I myself have found ones that are in my
area UM and was very beneficial when I was working
with clients myself directly and would refer people to different services.
So this is a really great tool for healthcare professionals
and social service workers, et cetera to refer to UM.
And I can't even explain how grateful I am to

(17:48):
know that there's ongoing research about the distraught impact of
these clinics and the distraught impact they have on our
health care system and the ability to find an abortion provider. UM.
So again I hope that every service provider can find
these this map, UM and use this map and really
spread awareness around this. So. UM, what I want to

(18:11):
highlight and what these two doctors have found is that
just to give some more context, every single state has
multiple CPCs, multiple not just one, not to multiple there
are CPCs and throughout the United States, and that is

(18:35):
obviously a much larger number than the health departments in
the United States. And you know, as I mentioned, we
know the CDC directory utilizes CPCs on their website and
again thirteen states are funded or are funding CPCs UM.
So their advertisements are going far and wide. UM. And

(18:58):
to even go further, in the state of California, the
California Woman's Law Center says that there are more CPCs
then there are abortion clinics. So I think in this time, yeah, yeah,
we should be scared. That is really that's a really
concerning statistic, and especially looking at how we are going

(19:22):
to be and already are a haven state, we are
going to be a haven state for all the states
around US and for people throughout the United States. So
what is that saying when we are a haven state,
yet we are still competing with our local anti abortion
strategies ourselves, we are still putting up a fight as
a haven state, and I think that is so concerning. UM.

(19:45):
And even further, just to give some more statistics, we
know that of the clinics that CPCs that did not
offer SCI testing also will not refer out. We know
that eight offer HIV testing and that did not offer

(20:06):
HIV testing also did not refer out. So just to
summarize those numbers for you, what that data is telling
me is that these clinics are not accounting for the
health of the pregnant person, nor are the accounting for
the health of the fetus if that pregnancy goes full term.
And yeah, I mean I have even you know, more
stats as you know your reproductive health nerd um of

(20:29):
one of my favorite research institutes called the gut Mocker Institute,
and they are phenomenal and have really great data UM.
And if you haven't checked out their website, you definitely should. UM.
But since we're on the bandwagon of talking about religious
based affiliations. We know that seventeen percent of abortion patients

(20:49):
are oh sorry, um okay um. Seventeen percent of abortion
patients identify five themselves as mainline Protestant, as Evangelical Protestant,
and percent is Catholic. Thirty eight percent have no religious affiliation,
and the remaining eight percent reported a different religious affiliation.

(21:13):
So let's summarize that religiously affiliated people are still seeking
abortions too. Would you look at that ignorance is so bliss.
We know that abortions are affecting people who are living
in poverty and who are low income. So we know
of people that are seeking abortions are either living in

(21:34):
poverty or our low income UM. And fortunately you know,
throughout the past, we know that Medicaid has been a
really big funder of abortion care UM, and especially we
can say that in California too, UM, that about of
abortion patients are using Medicaid, and that's throughout fifteen different states.

(21:59):
So I imagine in this time right now too, that
number is probably going to decrease. UM. So again talking
about haven state that has these resources, we are probably
going to be mixing up how that looks UM and
knowing that fifty three percent of abortion patients pay out
of pocket for their procedures is already a very concerning statistic.

(22:26):
And so we are seeing how in our time right now,
we have to be looking at different resources for people.
We have to put on our activist hats, we have
to be supporting our community, and we have to be
supporting abortion funds because already fifty three percent of abortions
are paid out of pocket. Um. And just to to

(22:48):
summarize one more point eight percent of people who are
using abortion services are going to be using those within
the first twelve weeks. So um, we are eating to
see a lot of activism around abortion pill distribution and
abortion pill education and what that looks like. No, the

(23:13):
to like piggyback off of what Robert was mentioning earlier
about how it just feels like they're taking advantage of
the fact that, like things cost so much money. And
I feel like, if you this work is so important
because I don't think a lot of people know what
they're getting into. If they're like, because we don't have
a great education system in general, let alone about like
reproductive health or like what happens when you get pregnant.

(23:34):
So if you're a young person or any age and
you are desperate or you're feeling shame and you don't
have support from your community or something, and you see
an institution that's like free ultrasound or like whatever, it's
like they're praying on this desperation. And I think one
of the only things you can do to combat that
is like trying to educate people as much as possible

(23:55):
that like, I don't know, people are as um they
don't have the good will and good faith that they
present to be to have and I guess it just
like ultimately you have to be distrusting of people. And
maybe that's sad, but it's the truth. Yeah, definitely, And
I will say I feel like I saw that as

(24:16):
a service provider. Um So, as I mentioned, I worked
in homeless services, specifically with youth homeless services, and you
see that so much. You see how there is, you know,
medical oppression for people of color. There is medical manipulation
and violence for so many people in vulnerable situations. And

(24:39):
as someone that has accompanied many people to abortions and births,
I have observed that myself and I have seen how
so more people than not are going to experience some
type of medical manipulation, and especially if you are living
in poverty ESPEC. Actually if you're a person of color,

(25:01):
especially if you're lgbt q i A. This this issue
does not just stop, you know, with CPCs. If we
take out all the CPCs, we also have to address
so much of the institutional institutionalized racism and all the
things that exist around reproductive health UM, you know, starting
at how to get contraceptives too, when can you have

(25:24):
children and how can you be a parent, and that
never ends throughout the cycle, you know, and that parents
even after they have babies, even if they are a
person of color, even if they are lgbt q A,
you know, they are still told how, when, where they're
going to parent UM. And there's so much control over
that rhetoric for people. So you know, I mean that

(25:47):
even goes back to me thinking about the sterilization trials
that happened against USC in the seventies and how women
were forcibly sterilized, and you know that has nothing to
do with CPCs. But instead we're seeing that institutions are
finding this control and having these agendas, and it is

(26:08):
not serving our society. It is not serving our health
and instead it is creating more trauma in our communities
and it's it's crisis. Pregnancy centers are just one of
many layers of medical oppression that we are witnessing in
today's world. As a person who was working in homeless services,

(26:40):
I was program planning for a lot of the resources
that we were able to provide access to for my clients.
So all of my clients at that time when I
was running the Pregnant Parenting program at a nonprofit, they
were either pregnant and or parenting while also experiencing their
housing and security these UM, so I strived to find

(27:05):
what the proper resources were for them to support them
in every trauma informed way I possibly could, and that
were youth friendly. So there was a local agency that
was very very close to where I worked UM and
their services always kind of felt like limited to me,
So I met with them specifically to enquire because they

(27:27):
were always trying to find some type of partnership with
us and would knock on our door or call me.
So I finally was able to give them some of
my time UM and so their services always felt limited
and non comprehensive, and I think that is the biggest
kind of like takeaway. UM. They always gave me really

(27:50):
weird reasoning why they didn't provide birth control or STI testing,
and based on their answer, as I mentioned, I just
did not allow the partnership to thrive. So when I
did more research, I actually confirmed from another service provider
that there from another agency that they were indeed a
CPC before I could spread the word. They also already

(28:11):
had several partnerships with other homeless service providers, so they
wiggled their way in UM. And these other homeless service
providers were also working with young vulnerable clients. So one
day I was actually invited by another agency to come
to this presentation where I didn't realize happened to be

(28:32):
the CPC. UM. The CPC was presenting at this organization
and it was one of their outreach workers explaining what
their services were. So I took it upon myself to
make sure that I sat in that meeting and I
asked questions in the room with the other service providers.

(28:53):
I think they're about thirty other service providers that were present,
and I asked out loud, why doesn't your clinic provide
birth control? And the woman from the CPC, who was
the outreach worker said, we can't give paps mirrors, so
we're unable to provide birth control. If you know anything
side note if you know, yeah, I already see the questioning,

(29:18):
which I'm glad I received that reaction, because that is
the exact reaction audience, those of us with you, Uh,
all of our heads tilted and our eyes squinting. Uh, exactly,
please explain how that math doesn't work? Yeah, exactly. Side

(29:41):
note for all the listeners, if you know anything about
health care, you know that a paper is not associated
with being able to be prescribed birth control. So as
someone that has background in healthcare, has a master's in
public health, worked as a Duelah. I continue to push
back during the presentation, and it was very very clear

(30:02):
that I was onto something. Um. So this woman again,
she would always try to come around, give me pamphlets,
try to have us partner and say she really want
to work with us in our youth. Um. She stopped
after that presentation. I can tell you that. But anyway,
so I keep going. I reach out to a the
person who organized that presentation for the CPC outreach person

(30:22):
to attend and speak at. So I was like, I
need to get to the bottom of this, and I
need to spread this word UM and tell people, hey,
you're getting people from CPCs to come and speak to
you to advertise your services. UM. So I see SEED
a lot of the other service providers, and I expressed

(30:43):
my genuine concerns the lack of evidence based comprehensive care
they provided. But unfortunately, the person who I emailed said,
clients need to make sure those decisions are their own,
so they can decide if they want to go or
if they don't want to go. We can't force them
to say yes or no to go to a health
care fassity. So I responded by asking, but what if

(31:03):
you thought you were seeing a doctor for your health
care needs and then it turns out the health care
provider is providing misinformation and might not even be a
healthcare provider. UM. I never got a response from them,
but I still continue to make sure that I was
reaching out to everyone at that meeting and just raising
awareness behind it. UM. And then I wanted to take
it to UM. I wanted to take it a notch up.

(31:23):
So I called both of this. Both of the locations
of the CPC one is located in Westwood side note,
next to u C. L A. The other one was
in South l A side note, community of Color. Both
of my calls led me to the person on the
phone telling me that they don't know where to send
me for an abortion and that they didn't know what
what Planned Parenthood was, what they did, or where they

(31:46):
relocated when I specifically asked. So they were obviously circumventing
the ability to even talk about abortions and what it
was um and that was all the concern that I
genuinely needed. So in my present day, I'm still concerned
with these clinics, this specific clinic that is local to me.

(32:07):
I recently found out that in my present day work,
there are currently three treatment centers that are using this
crisis pregnancy center as a resource. So hopefully that means
more to come, because I will be working on this
and in this scenario, what I am doing as an
activist and as a person who cares for my community
is I will be educating these treatment centers about what

(32:29):
crisis pregnancy centers are and how they can avoid them
and what comprehensive services actually look like. Have there been
more sort of widespread like organizations who are working too
like a let people know what they are and then
be also trying to get them like not to be funded. Absolutely,

(32:51):
there are and we need to shout them out. UM.
There are. There is an abortion fund UM in Cali,
Fornia called Access. They are wonderful UM. They provide abortion
advocacy and awareness and education and they also provide direct

(33:12):
services UM and fund different They have fund abortions in
different capacities, so they might be funding the abortion services,
the lodging, the transportation, and even a doula. And they
partner with a lot of other agencies that are doing
the work. The agency is called Reproductive Transparency Now and

(33:33):
they are a Chicago based nonprofit. They provide a lot
of information, data, awareness research UM to raise awareness around
what CPCs are and why we should be avoiding them.
And I think I can say that I have the
same goal as them in my personal life, but to

(33:54):
ensure that they do not exist and are all shut down. UM.
So they are wonderful. I would highly suggest looking into
Reproductive Transparency Now and also Active Sorry Access Reproductive Justice
UM who are doing a lot of really great work.
And then I also do want to squeeze in other

(34:16):
resources for people as well. Yeah. UM, And you know,
as I mentioned first and foremost, I think the number
one thing we need to know is that crisis pregnancy
centers should not exist in any capacity. UM. But if
you are a person who's providing resources, who is working
with clients, who works in healthcare treatment centers, wouldever it

(34:40):
be please utilize Crisis Pregnancy Center map dot com. Again,
this is the UM, the website that was created by
two associate professors at University of Georgia, and I want
to make sure that this spreads far and wide, UM,
because is it will be the matter of providing referrals

(35:02):
and circumventing CPCs UM. And I want to acknowledge that
a lot of my data from this, from the information
that I've been speaking on, is from the Crisis Pregnancy
Center Map dot com UM, and from Reproductive Transparency as well. UM.
So first and foremost that map is a necessity. UM.

(35:27):
Another resource that I would like to share to be
able to find your state's abortion fund is abortion Funds
dot org and you can search state by state, so
you know, I'm in California, so that's going to be access. Again,
an organization that is an abortion fund, but they do

(35:47):
more than than fund abortions. UM. I also really encourage
people to find their local evidence based du lahs, midwives,
women health practitioners near them. And I know that there's
a lot of fear existing right now due to the
inappropriate politicians that are making disgusting decisions, but know that

(36:08):
abortion pills can be access and there are people that
can help guide you through UM. So I would say
making sure that we are accessing the resources on a
website called plan c pill dot com. It's a great
resource where you can find where to purchase abortion pills

(36:29):
and where to seek medical and legal support as well.
So if you have a question about how to take
medical abortion pills, or you need to understand the legality
of your state and the area near you, you can
you can look on this website UM as a resource. UM.
I just also want to emphasize like what community care

(36:52):
looks like right now. UM. If you're a person who
can get pregnant, this is truly a time to seek
preventative care. And I know that that's a loaded can
of worms for a lot of people. So I just
I really want to plug this in if you would
like to learn about pregnancy prevention you can take a
look at bedsider dot org to assess your needs. I
would highly recommend pairing that with talking to a provider

(37:15):
who understands your lifestyle and can support you with finding
one that works best for you, because every single contraceptive
is going to look a little different. If you're a
person who does not like birth control, I want you
to know to please still seek preventative methods UM, whether
that's a barrier method or whether that's more so of
a holistic method like fertility awareness method. I encourage you

(37:37):
to still speak to someone you can trust to ensure
you're using that method correctly. And again there are duelas
and midwives that can help guide you in the right
direction for holistic practices UM. And to continue on to
my community UH, my community kind of recognition. I hope
that this is also time where if it's feasible for

(38:00):
you too, if you can't yourself, find UM friends and
family that you trust and people around you UM to
either receive yourself or to get it from other people. UM.
Have pregnancy tests around you and make sure that if
you feel like you might be pregnant UM, whether you
are using an actual method or if you're not using

(38:21):
a method currently, make sure you very least have pregnancy
tests around you, UM, so that you know you can
detect early on if you are pregnant. UM. Normalize buying
your friends pregnancy tests for their birthdays. I have. We
just have to normalize that as a community, and normalize
buying abortion pills in case someone you know might need

(38:42):
them in the future, or it might be someone that
you don't know who could use them. UM. And to
have that accessible if that is feasible for you financially. Um.
And then yeah, I think just to summarize, like, this
is truly a time for community support and when the
government doesn't support us, we we need to figure out
unfortunately how and um, if you got the ability, go

(39:09):
get uh, go get go get snipped. Uh. You know
there's there's options out there. UMS. Yeah, I provide vasectomies
by the way, if you can just find me in
my house. UM. I'm not good at it yet, but people,
I'm gonna I'm gonna figure it out. I'm gonna figure

(39:29):
it out. For I got one of those I got
one of those sharpening wheels, and my butter knives are
pretty They've got a good edge. They got a good
edge these days. It's genuinely incredibly disappointment disappointed, and you're
not using the machete for this. This is this feels
like a portrayal. Well, there's other reproductive healthcare I used
the machete for, but that that that does have to

(39:52):
do with crisis pregnancy centers action. Well, I'll have a
bunch of referrals for you then, I know, or to
send them. That that kind of leans into another topic
I'm covering today. Unfortunately. Um well, thank you so much
for coming on and for talking to us. This has
been very enlightening. Um I wish uh it wasn't such

(40:17):
a bleak subject. But people need to know the fox
going on. People needed to know this a lot earlier.
But you know, I mean, broadly speaking, the thing I
keep coming back to in this whole fight is the
frustration of like the rest of us, Like life is
hard enough, There's like so much going on. People are
like busy trying to trying to get by, trying to

(40:38):
do their lives, trying to like find pieces of happiness
in the world. And there's this fucking group of the
worst people in the country that have just made this
made fucking access to reproductive healthcare up for everyone the
focus of their entire life for thirty years, and unfortunately
now we have to like do that make the opposite

(41:01):
the focus of our lives because we kind of just
not all of us obviously, like you've been in this
fight for a while, but most of us kind of
we're not paying as much attention as needed to be paid.
Um like most people in the end, I'm not trying
to throw blame on folks, but like, clearly the majority
of people in the country who support access to reproductive

(41:21):
health care weren't paying enough attention, you know, Like that's
the that's the only way to frame it totally. And
it's almost as if we are picking up the mess
that others are are creating. Um yeah. And you know,
after experiencing COVID as a society, everyone's a public health
professional now and a doctor. Um, so it's clearly, yeah,

(41:47):
I'm sending referrals to you, thank you. Um yeah. And
people have a lot of things to say. And with
that being said, I'm really glad that that these are
conversations being had. It. I'm glad that friends around me
now who I have never known to talk about reproductive
health are going there and talking about it and also

(42:08):
opening the door up for you know, people like me
to talk about evidence based practices and what the reality
is and and who's doing the work, and um, everything
that that focuses around reproductive health. So I I appreciate
this conversation. I appreciate that there are podcasts discussing this information.

(42:31):
It's necessary and these issues are not going anywhere, and
you know, we're going a little backwards. So I really
appreciate your time on this. Yeah, thank you for coming
on the show. And UM, all right, everybody, that's the
fucking episode, though, do something else. It could Happen Here

(42:53):
is a production of cool Zone Media. Well more podcasts
from cool Zone Media. Visit our website cool zone media
dot com, or check us out on the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can find sources for It could Happen here, updated
monthly at cool zone Media dot com slash sources. Thanks
for listening.