FT Weekend: Why US abortion rights are under attack

It’s about to become much harder to find safe abortion care in America, in a country where some states already make it almost impossible. This week, we make sense of what’s happening and how we got here. Lilah speaks with Rhiannon Hamam, a Texas public defender and host of the popular show 5-4 (“a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks”) to make sense of Roe vs Wade, the seminal law that is expected to be overturned. Then, we pass the mic to three people providing abortion services in three states that will face some of the biggest changes: Wisconsin, Alabama and Illinois. They tell us what they’re seeing, and how they’re preparing for a post-Roe world.

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Links and mentions from the episode: 

– You heard this week from Rhiannon Hamam, co-host of the podcast 5-4. Listen everywhere, or here: https://www.fivefourpod.com. Rhiannon is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AywaRhiannon 

– Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an obstetrician and gynaecologist in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She's on Twitter at https://twitter.com/kristinlyerly?lang=en

– Robin Marty is author of ‘The New Handbook for a Post-Roe America’ and operation director of the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa. She recently wrote an op-ed for the FT: https://on.ft.com/3wr0HZK. You can find her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/robinmarty 

– Marie Khan is director of programs for the Midwest Access Coalition, a practical abortion fund. You can learn more about them at https://midwestaccesscoalition.org/ 

– Key coverage of the war in Ukraine is free to read: https://www.ft.com/freetoread

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Want to say hi? We love hearing from you. Email us at [email protected]. We’re on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap. 

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner.

Archival clip courtesy of CBS.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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