In this episode, Diana returns after a year hiatus to speak with Lupe Rodriguez, Executive Director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, to discuss why abortion bans affect Latinas the most. They discuss the findings of an updated report from the Latina Institute and the National Partnership for Women and Families that shows how the overturning Roe v. Wade and the abortion bans across the country has the impacted Latinas the most out of all groups in the USA.
Some of the key findings are below:
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Nearly 6.7 million Latinas – 43 percent of all Latinas ages 15-49 – live in the 26 states that have banned or are likely to ban abortion. They represent the largest group of women of color impacted by current or likely state bans.
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More than 3 million Latinas living in these states are economically insecure.
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Latinas in these states who face large wage gaps are particularly likely to be harmed. More than 1.4 million Latinas in the 26 states surveyed work in service occupations, which are less likely to provide access to supports that are necessary both to access abortion care and to achieve economic security, including paid sick days and flexible scheduling.
LISTEN HERE TO LUPE AND DIANA’s CONVERSATION ABOUT LATINAS’ ACCESS TO REPRO CARE POST ROE HERE.
Why do abortion bans affect Latinas the most?
Some of it has to do with geography, and where Latinas live: TEXAS, FLORIDA and ARIZONA, states that have awful abortion bans in place already.
When it comes to abortion rights in these states, here are some shocking statistics to keep in mind:
- Texas is home to 2.9 million Latinas of reproductive age – 19 percent of all Latinas of reproductive age in the country and 44 percent of Latinas who live in these 26 states. Read more about Texas’s draconian abortion ban, which prevents abortions at all stages of pregnancy except for life-threatening medical emergencies.
- Florida is home to 1.4 million Latinas of reproductive age – 9 percent of all Latinas of reproductive age in the country and 21 percent of Latinas who live in these 26 states. All of these women are harmed by Florida’s harmful abortion laws, which ban virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, including those resulting from rape, incest or human trafficking.
- Arizona is home to 585,600 Latinas of reproductive age – 4 percent of all Latinas of reproductive age in the country and 9 percent of Latinas who live in these 26 states. They are harmed by Arizona’s multiple abortion bans, including a near total ban that forced clinic closures.
Why Abortion Bans Affect Latinas the Most with Lupe Rodriguez
If you like this conversation, listen to our other conversation with Lupe here.
nearly half of all the latinas who live in those 26 states that are banning abortion or will ban abortion Are already moms or already parents, including 52,000 mothers of children under the age of three years old, so a huge proportion are already parents.
NEW: SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
00:08 – Diana Limongi (Host)
Welcome to Parenting and Politics, a podcast for parents who want to make a difference, where we look at parenting through a political lens. I’m Diana Limongi. Today, we’re welcoming back our guest, Lupe Rodriguez, the executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice. Hi, Lupe, welcome back.
00:26 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Hi, Diana, thank you for having me. I’m really excited to be back.
00:30 – Diana Limongi (Host)
I’m excited to chat with you again, but I’m sad, a little heartbroken about the state of affairs and reproductive justice since we last chatted.
00:39 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Yeah, the world is a heavy place right now.
00:43 – Diana Limongi (Host)
in general, yeah, the yes it’s a lot. It’s been a lot for a long time and now it just feels like it’s getting worse and worse, Right? So, with that in mind, the question that you’ve already answered. But it’s been a while and in this particular moment, with everything that’s happened and everything that’s happened in the world, let’s just talk about parenting and politics. Why should we have these two things come together?
01:22 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
It is it’s so incredibly important to make a connection to the way that the world works and the political state of our world as a parent, because, you know, I think I think my point last time was that becoming a parent is one of the most important decisions anybody ever makes in their life, and the context in which you’re able to raise your family that you choose to have, the context in which you’re able to provide them with food and shelter and healthcare, is part of that decision.
02:05
Your ability to take time off to care for them and yourself is at stake, right? Or is a question that comes into play when you’re deciding these things and so, and all of that, all of those things are shaped by our politics and are shaped by our society and the policies and the investments and resources that we choose to make, or our, you know, representatives choose to make, into those things, and so they’re integrally tied, incredibly connected, and folks who you know, who are parents, who are thinking of becoming parents, really need to think about what kind of society and community they’re entering into and how they can affect change there to make the conditions for them and other members of their community better and, you know, and to give them the ability to make those best choices for themselves and their families.
03:02 – Diana Limongi (Host)
Yes, it’s all connected more than ever and you know, I think that the younger generations are realizing that, because when I have conversations with the younger, you know, like people in their 20s and who are starting to think about what does having a family look like for them. I have met so many young people that are like, well, no, it’s too hard, it’s too expensive, I don’t, you know, I’m choosing to, I do not wish to like climate change, right, it’s a big thing that I think the people who are starting to think about having kids are really thinking about.
03:40 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Yeah, definitely, I mean all of that consciousness right about what kind of world we exist in and what kind of world we’re moving toward and what that would mean for a family right For having a family is right of mind for so many folks, and you’re right, I think. I think younger people are much more connected around those things and around what to do thankfully right and about what to do in order to make change, and I think we can all learn so much and be inspired by the energy and that that want for a better, you know, a better community, a better society.
04:18 – Diana Limongi (Host)
Absolutely. Today we’re going to talk about a recent kind of recent research that you, the Latina Institute, partnered with the National Partnership for Women and Families to look at how the overturning of Roe v Wade specifically has affected Latinas around the country. And I know that we already, I think, knew that Roe v Wade’s death would have an impact on communities of color. But can you tell us specifically, like, what did the research show when it comes to Latinas? Like, how are we as a group because I am Latina unique in our challenges?
05:02 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
That’s a great question and thank you so much for elevating this report and this work that we’ve been doing to you know, to to show the impact that these bands aren’t having on communities of color and on Latina specifically. I’ll say, first, that this Report has been published twice now. So the first time that we put out this report in partnership with the National Partnership for Women and Families, with last year, and so the report that we published just this month Is the follow-up to that report and really, you know, what it shows is that, by the numbers, latinas and Latinx folks are the most impacted by abortion bans across the country, because of where we live, because of where we are in the country. So nearly six point seven million Latinas 43% of all Latina’s ages 15 to 49, you know, within reproductive age, live in the 26 states that have banned or are likely to ban abortion and they, again, by the numbers, they represent the largest group of women of color Impacted by current or likely state bans. You know, nearly half of all the latinas who live in those 26 states that are banning abortion or will ban abortion Are already moms or already parents, including 52,000 mothers of children under the age of three years old, so a huge proportion are already parents. We also know that more than three million latinas living in the states are economically insecure. So there are folks who are at the poverty line or below, who Are having a hard time making ends meet for their families and and, as mentioned, many of many of them are already parents.
nearly half of all the latinas who live in those 26 states that are banning abortion or will ban abortion Are already moms or already parents, including 52,000 mothers of children under the age of three years old, so a huge proportion are already parents.
06:50
And close to half of all the Latina veterans in the us live in states that have or are very likely to ban abortion after dogs, and those are folks that are also impacted by federal bans on coverage of abortion and already, even before the fall of row, faced huge barriers to To being able to access care. So, in addition to being people of color who had some inherent barriers Um to care because of structural inequities, folks in the military are also more likely to have inequities and access to care, to abortion care, specifically because of federal you know federal health care systems that they have to turn to for care. So those are the the biggest findings. And then one last thing that’s really important to note is that nearly 43 percent of disabled latinas Live in the 26 states that we’re mentioning.
07:43
So we’re really just it’s a report that shows that this impact goes very wide, with the latin community, that it impacts in large majority, latinx and latina folks in in the states that are most impacted by the numbers, and that, you know, folks who are already economically insecure, who are already parents, who are already facing inequities to care, are even more severely impacted because of you know, because they live in these places, that are banning care. So it’s, you know, paints a a dire picture of the moment and I, but I think it’s important to share because In conversations that we have been having in the aftermath of the fall of row, we never want it to be lost, you know, like who is the most impacted by these, by these bans, and so we really want to ensure that this is being elevated.
08:38 – Diana Limongi (Host)
And I know that the report captures. You know that so many Latinas living in these states are already economically disadvantaged, which, of course, bringing another child to the mix, you know, can really, really Put them into poverty. But the report doesn’t even capture the, the families who you know Are living paycheck to paycheck, who may not necessarily fall under a In poverty category but who are still, you know, like cash dropped and living In the there, you know their means, the best way they can. When adding another pregnancy, and adding having to take time off, you know, for a pregnancy or Whatever the situation is, can also be a strain On a family’s budget and on a family’s like livelihood.
09:28 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Yeah, well, you know, actually, the term that we use in the report is economically insecure, and that I didn’t mean to suggest that that only means folks who are under, you know, specific poverty levels. It does Certainly include a lot of those folks, but it also means exactly what you’re saying individuals who live paycheck, paycheck to paycheck, who have, you know, work in jobs that that don’t provide a lot of security, um, et cetera. So so, absolutely, it really encompasses this term and could. Economically insecure encompasses a larger swath of community who are Already, you know, facing a lot of issues being able to, you know, subsist and sustain their families.
10:15
I think one thing that that we specifically and I didn’t highlight before is that the research also shows that one, the more than 1.4 million latinas in the 26 state surveyed, work in service occupations, and these are the kinds of jobs that we know, you know from a lot of the research Are less likely to provide access to supports that are necessary, both to access abortion care, like health insurance, and also that that um are insecure in in various ways in terms of hours, in terms of of leave right, like many of these jobs don’t offer paid leave, and so uh and, and flexible scheduling, et cetera.
10:52
So so, so that’s another layer here that a good a large proportion of the people that we’re talking about are folks who have these kinds of jobs that are also Insecure and and don’t provide them the ability to to be able to make the choices that they need to make or to get the care that they need to get so you mentioned something we’re going to talk about, which is the layers and layers, that intersectionality of the work and the the situations that we’re in.
11:19 – Diana Limongi (Host)
right, I don’t think that we can talk about Only repro justice or only reproductive care without touching on all the other things that you’ve already mentioned. That for latinas, I think it’s more like About immigration, about the wage gap. Right, we just Commemorate it because it’s not celebrated, right, we just marked, we just announced, we just, you know, right, yes, athena, equal payday, which was earlier this month, which I think there’s one. I think indigenous peoples payday might be later, but it’s pretty, I mean, it’s what are we making? 54 cents to the dollar of a white, of a white man.
12:06 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
yes, yeah, and that day marks right that it takes us that long into the year to make the same amount of money that a white man would make at the beginning of the year. Right, and so, yeah, Right, it’s almost, yeah. So, yeah, the next days are existing, thriving, and we’re adding more barriers for folks to be able to to thrive because of these bans, absolutely.
12:37 – Diana Limongi (Host)
So for Latinas, it’s about immigration, it’s about the wage, gap. It’s about the lack of access due to language barriers, you know, if you don’t have a command of the language, which can happen. A lack of health insurance, because we work in many industries that don’t offer health insurance, right? So yeah. The lack of access to childcare right. What if you have to travel to access reproductive care? The lack of access to paid sick time right. What if you need time off to peel from this thing that you need to get done? And on and on and on. So I feel like we can’t talk about the one thing without talking and thinking about all the other things. And in your work, like how, first of all, it seems daunting to think about. You know the list that we just talked about, so how do you think about all these issues in your work? And then, what does that look like on the ground? Like, do you tell me a little bit about you know what that looks like in the work that you’re doing at the Institute?
13:43 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Well, I think for us at Latina Institute and other organizations that work from a reproductive justice frame, we’re able to make those connections, those inherent connections between all of these different intersecting realities for our communities. We’re able to make those connections really easily because our movement really thinks about the way that all of those different issues affect a person’s ability to make choices about themselves and their families and affect their right to decide if and when to have children, and because the effects of that have to do with whether someone’s able to have the conditions to do it right, we really believe that folks should be able to make those decisions and be able to do so, you know, to parent their children in safe and sustainable communities, with dignity, with health, with resources, with support and power right. And so when we think about that whole picture, it makes it easy for us to identify all the different things that are creating barriers or creating inequities that affect a person’s ability to make these choices, and we’re able to then decide okay, these are the things that we want to work on, or this is the kind of approach we wanna take to this work, in order to be able to address those lived realities that our communities have. And you know we think a lot about, first and foremost, that economic justice is reproductive justice and that if we don’t think about addressing issues around inequities that folks have around pay, around job security, around actually having jobs that provide them with benefits like health insurance and paid leave, like all of those things are part of this and become a part of our advocacy. We also think a lot about systemic barriers that exist because of immigration, and so that’s one of the things that we focus on a lot because, in proportion, in terms of the communities of color in this country, latinx communities have a higher percentage or higher likelihood of immigration status differences or undocumented or being undocumented, and so we definitely think about that as part of the picture of what we’re working on, and so you know we’re thinking about things like that.
16:08
Immigrants have a harder time in this, are having a harder time in this moment as asking care because they can’t leave the states that they’re in, in many cases because of lack of documentation, because we have a system in this country where, even if you are eligible because of your income to get Medicaid, which is the federal health insurance program, you can’t get it if you’re undocumented, and you certainly and you can’t get it, even if you’ve been here for less than five years with documentation, because we have a five year bar policy in this country that keeps folks from being able to access services as well, and so we have these systems that are incredibly inequitable for immigrants, that we’re thinking about addressing too. And it goes on right Like there are racial justice issues and other issues that come into effect. But you know, one of the things that we’re thinking a lot about is what kind of policies we can put forth that account for all of these intersecting barriers and issues. When we’re putting the force, so when we’re thinking about the arm of our work that does policy, we think, okay, well, we can’t have a bill that’s just going to bring back Roe versus Wade protections, because we know that that didn’t guarantee the right to many people, including Latinx folks in this country, because it didn’t do away with inequities around health insurance lack of health insurance coverage. It didn’t do away with inequities related to Pate, sickleve or all those other things. It didn’t do away with inequities that exist for immigrants.
17:47
And so we’re thinking about bills that are thinking about removing the Hyde Amendment and restrictions around coverage for abortion and health insurance. We’re thinking about bills like the Heal for Immigrant Families Act that is moving toward giving access to undocumented immigrants to health insurance coverage and also allowing for folks who are new immigrants in this country with documentation to have access to Medicaid and other health insurance programs. We’re thinking about legislation that will support access on the ground, so really making sure that folks who are anti-abortion can’t pass legislation that makes it so that there can only be one clinic in a state, right, and so we’re really thinking about all of these things in our policy. In addition to that, we know that policy alone is not gonna save us.
18:37
As part of this framework and as part of again recognizing these intersecting realities, and so we know that we have to build power in our communities for folks to be able to change the structures that we currently have that don’t allow us to pass good policy, that don’t allow us to have the resources we need.
18:54
So we’re doing that as well, and that’s in line with what we’re thinking about, and we’re thinking about how do we address all the different issues that people are doing.
19:03
And then, third, we’re doing a lot of work around communication and culture shift. Right now we know that folks recognize that reproductive rights and economic justice, or reproductive justice and economic justice, are connected just because of how they lived experiences, but they may not have the language and they may not have the training to be able to use that information to share, to make change, and so we’re doing a lot of work to connect with storytellers and build their power around how the power of their stories can be leveraged for change. We’re also doing a lot of work within the media to dispel any myths that exist about the Latinx community and reproductive rights and really put forward that folks are supportive of these issues. So, anyway, these are some of the ways that we’re bringing it together, and it really takes a holistic approach on not just thinking about policy change but how we create the conditions in our communities so that we can have real change, and for the longterm and before we go on.
20:11 – Diana Limongi (Host)
I just want, can you explain a little bit what the Hyde Amendment is? Because I, because I know that some listeners may not know if they’re not in this space.
20:22 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Yes, the Hyde Amendment was a policy that was passed three years after the Rovers’ weight decision in the 70s, 1976. And it was basically a provision that has been maintained in all of the budgets since then. That says that the federal government cannot use federal funds to cover abortion. With some exceptions, it can be used to cover abortion in case of rape, incest or the health of the mother. However, what we found in practice is that those exceptions rarely are respected or responded to like. Folks are rarely ever able to get coverage for this care, and it means that people across the country and various states of states can decide whether or not they provide this coverage for their Medicaid recipients, and there are very few states that allow that, so the majority of states. Even if you get your care, your health insurance, through the government, you can’t have access to abortion, and it also means that the federal employees who get their care through the federal government post office.
21:29
Military folks are not able to get coverage for abortion through their health care.
21:34 – Diana Limongi (Host)
Okay, and the states is where we’re going next. So perfect segue. So the report gets really granular, and you pinpointed three states in particular where access to reproductive health care and abortion care has been particularly hard for Latinas. And the states are drum roll Texas, florida and Arizona. It shouldn’t shock anyone. So, in just your mind, folks, florida’s abortion laws ban virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, including those. So there’s no exception for rape, incest or human trafficking. There’s no exception, right.
22:16 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Right, it’s really awful.
22:20 – Diana Limongi (Host)
And then Texas abortion ban prevents abortion at all stages of pregnancy except for life threatening medical emergencies. On paper, but I imagine. I mean I’ve read stories in the media where you know there’s a lawsuit right now.
22:37 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Yeah, there’s a lawsuit right now in Texas from victims of the law that were in situations that were detrimental to their health and weren’t allowed to get the abortion care they needed. So, yeah, I don’t think the law is being respected.
22:53 – Diana Limongi (Host)
And then Arizona also has multiple abortion bans and includes a near total ban that forced a lot of clinic closures, because what’s also happening is that clinics are closing. So now not only do you not have abortion care, but you don’t have maternity wards and right and reproductive just reproductive health in general because clinics are closing. But in Arizona there’s a court battle Right Happening right now.
23:21 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Right, yes, exactly, I think that’s such a good point.
23:25
Dianna, I know I know you have a question forming, but I want to just make a point about what you just said about the impact of the abortion bans on access to care of other kinds, not just abortion care.
23:38
Very many people, particularly folks who lack insurance, lots of immigrants, like you know, folks with lower incomes depended very often on providers like community clinics that were providing there were also abortion providers for other types of preventative, basic preventative health care. It often is like these kinds of clinics were the first entry point for any kind of health care for people, and so we’re absolutely seeing that you know places where folks would get their birth control, places where folks might get like a diabetes test or you know hypertension tests, are no longer there and that impact is being felt in the community. And we’re also seeing that there’s a lack of providers, OBGYN providers in these states as well, because they’re choosing not to practice there, and so that’s having an effect certainly on maternal care and people being able to get sound prenatal care, and I think we’re going to see that there’s going to be an effect on maternal care, maternal mortality and other kinds of poor health outcomes for mothers and children.
24:46 – Diana Limongi (Host)
I’m thinking back to something that Paula Avila Guillen, who leads the Women’s Equality Center, who’s been on the podcast as well, and she said it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Do you agree with?
24:59 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
that Unfortunately, yes, I think we haven’t yet seen all of the results of what has been happening in the last year, right Like we’re one year into the fall of road after the DOBBS decision.
LISTEN TO DIANA AND PAULA AVILLA GUILLEN: What We Can Learn from the Abortion Rights Fight in Latin America with Paula Ávila Guillen
25:12
After the DOBBS decision, and lots of clinics have closed across the country, lots of folks have been unable to get the care they need. There are folks right now who’ve had pregnancies right since the decision that they may not have wanted. I think the outcomes, the long-term effects, are going to be really devastating and I think we have some research to show that this has been in what those outcomes might be. There was a study called the turnaway study that was done in the 2000s or in these last two decades. That followed women who were denied an abortion and went on to give birth and it just demonstrated that their experience showed an increase in household poverty lasting many years. After that, they experienced poorer health outcomes, etc. And so we’ve seen this before and I think the bigger numbers now of folks who are not able to receive the care they need I think will show a result in really devastating outcomes for our communities in years to come.
26:22 – Diana Limongi (Host)
I’m not happy that that’s the topic we’re talking about, but Dr Foster Greene has been on the podcast and we talked about the turnaways. It was great. It’s really, really illuminating the research that shows the devastation of women having to stay in abusive relationships and financial insecurity and all of that. So, yeah, the question is about the states. So it’s Florida, texas and Arizona, and we know that these three states are particular interesting states. When we talk about voting, a lot of people call these purple. Or do you think that we’re at a point where what happened with reproductive rights and the overturning of Roe v Wade is going to impact voter turnout, and specifically Latina voter turnout, because Latinas are a big demographic in that state?
27:23 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Yeah.
27:25
I think the answer, Thankfully, is yes, and it’s a really important part of the hope that we have in this moment, because we have seen that, while anti-abortion politicians are rushing to ban and restrict abortion access across the country, people are standing up, they’re fired up, they’re fighting back, they’re showing up in these elections that we’ve had and denying the efforts to take away their freedom to make their decisions about their health and their bodies.
LISTEN TO MORE WITH LUPE: Ep. 54: Latinas’ Access to Reproductive Care in a Post-Roe World with Lupe Rodriguez
28:03
So I think there’s a lot to show that, yes, these issues are important to voters, they’re important to people in everyday communities, and we also know, thankfully, that Latinas and Latinx folks are supportive of abortion access and believe that it’s important to show up to vote.
28:26
One specific tidbit is that in the midterms last year, abortion was a winning issue, as we know, and Latinos made it clear in those elections that they want their elected officials to support abortion access care, and exit polls showed that about 60% of Latinos voted for Democrats, who tend to be folks who are supportive of abortion care, and 67% of Latino youth voted for a Democratic House candidate, and we know, as mentioned, that the connection there is about support for abortion access.
29:01
We also know that Catholic Latinos are supportive of abortion access in a majority, about 60%, and we have other data that we have done in polls in the past that shows that Latinas, latinxs across the country are supportive of this care and are willing to go out to vote for it. They believe that what the Supreme Court did was wrong, they believe that politicians should not be setting these policies and again, they are willing and interested in showing up to vote. So that, I think, is really hopeful and I feel like we’ve seen it in some of the elections again in the past couple of years and I think we’ll see it again.
29:48 – Diana Limongi (Host)
I love that we didn’t plan this. But this is the excellent segue to the next part, which is I want you to address some of the myths that I think we associate many times, and I think one of the myths you just mentioned, which you referred to, which is Latinos who are Catholic are anti-abortion, which I think is the one that jumps out at me. But are there other myths that you that’s really important that we address and that we kind of also know what to say, because I think so, like from my experience right, I know older Latinos who may feel certain ways about abortion. How do you speak to them and break those stereo, those myths?
30:37 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Yeah, I definitely think that. Certainly that point about Latinos not being supportive of abortion and not being willing to have this as an issue that’s important for them in voting or in their perspectives or on politics is a myth, so I think that’s really important to raise up. I think the angle around faith and abortion is really important to lift up, because we know that a majority of Catholic Latinos are supportive of abortion, access and reproductive healthcare, and even larger proportion are supportive of birth control, which in many of the faith, like specifically the Catholic faith, is not something that should be used, and yet a large proportion of Catholic Latinos use birth control and believe that it should be accessible and it should be legal, and so I think that those are really important myths to lift up. I also think that it’s important to destroy the myth around voter engagement and participation by the Latino and Latinx community. It has been demonstrated election an election pass that folks show up to vote. I think there continues to be a lack of investment and engagement with the community that doesn’t support the kinds of numbers that the community can have, that we can have in the voting booth, and I think that that sort of myth about the community not being a voting community impacts that investment, and so I think we really need to do away with that, because, despite the barriers that we face in terms of inequities around, like having time off to go vote, in spite of the fact that we’re not really talked to by people during election time the candidates don’t invest in us and don’t invest in mobilizing us we still come out, and in spite of the fact that we also face voter suppression, like other communities of color in many states, we’re still showing up, and so I think that needs to be destroyed immediately.
32:49
And then one final thing in terms of we actually have a series at Latina Institute around how to talk to your family about abortion and how to talk about faith in abortion.
33:00
So my team is definitely the expert in this, but I feel like it’s very important to break off the myth, or destroy the myth around how our communities support each other around abortion.
33:14
I think there’s a lot of well, if I don’t believe in abortion, then I’m not going to do anything related to the issue, but in fact, we know the majority of the community resonates with the message that they support each other.
33:28
This like yoteapoyo message, like I will support you if you need support in this moment. If you want to have get this care, I will be there for you, even if I don’t believe in it. So I think that that’s a really important point, and then also again that I think our community is like complex, and that we know that our lived experience demonstrates that being able to make choices about our family size and about how we raise our children is central to our economic opportunity, is central to lots of different facets of our lives, and so I think being able to cut off that myth that folks see abortion as other folks see reproductive health care as another thing, I think that that’s important too, because that’s not the case at all. We know that people know that these things are tied and they’re acting for what’s best for their families.
34:30 – Diana Limongi (Host)
Everyone. Make sure you follow Latina Institute on Instagram. There’s a lot of great content there and on Facebook, which I am not crazy about, but that is where all the older adults are, as in.
34:43
I mean, like you know, my grandma, my older aunts and my mother are all on Facebook sharing things, so that would be a good place to share. So they see all that, all those myth busters. Lupin, thank you so much for joining me. This was such a great conversation. Thank you, dianna. I want to end the way we started, which is the world is such a heavy place right now. Work is heavy and the world is heavy. So I want to close out by asking how do you break away from the heaviness?
35:16 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
Well, I have a really beautiful, curious four-year-old niece who is just the light of my life and really smart and hopeful and just so fortifying to spend time with, so that I also think about how I take a lot of energy from our community and how they respond in moments of injustice. I think so many particularly young people have been showing up to talk about the state of the world, to talk about climate change, to talk about not supporting wars, to decry restrictions on abortion access and other kinds of access, to really fight for our rights to have health care access and to be able to go to school without mountains of debt. So all of that kind of movement and energy is so fortifying and I take so much energy from that. So I guess all together from the young people in my life who are really stepping up and from the littlest of the people in my life who just make the world really, really happy.
36:35
They’re always just full of joy, and she’s clever phrases and funny observations, so it’s beautiful to see the world through their eyes.
36:45 – Diana Limongi (Host)
It is. Sometimes you just need to take a break from the computer and all of it and just engage with whatever they’re doing and you’re going to feel, I feel, like the heaviness gets lifted. So the last question that we end up the podcast with is what keeps you hopeful? And I feel like you already touched on this, because you talked about the young people and the community.
37:09 – Lupe Rodriguez (Guest)
So I don’t know if you want to add anything to yeah, I think young folks who are activists and activating right now are really giving me a ton of hope.
37:20
I’ll say again that the team that we organize with at Latina Institute, our poderosas, give me a lot of hope. In fact, we had an activation in commemoration of the passing of Rosie Jimenez, and she was a person who passed away, one of the first people or the first person to pass away after the Hyde Amendment was put into effect, because she couldn’t afford to get the abortion care she needed, and we had an activation in her honor and really talking about this moment of resolve to never have that kind of thing happen again and to ensure that we’re fighting for a future where you know, where we can live with health, dignity and justice. And so it was just really beautiful to see our boledosas from across the country coming together and again their energy in the face of some of the worst of what’s happening right now. They’re in Texas, they’re in Florida, they’re in the places that we discuss that have the worst conditions, and yet they have so much hope and vision for what we can do, and that’s always really uplifting and fortifying.
What happened in Kansas? Learn more here: Abortion Rights Victory in Kansas with Kansas Abortion Fund
38:32 – Diana Limongi (Host)
Oh yes, I love ending every episode with a hopeful note because after all the discussions, I definitely need that dose. So thank you again for coming on. It was great to have you Everyone make sure to follow at Latina Institute. Don’t forget to leave a review. If you like the podcast, share it with your friends. We’ve just restarted after a year of hiatus, because you know the world’s a happy place. But I thank you for listening and until next time, don’t forget, hope is our superpower. Bye.
