The Rise and Fall of Roe with Chris Charbonneau

On the introductory episode of The Fall of Roe podcast, Chris Charbonneau compares and contrasts life before and after Roe and paints a vivid picture of what a future without legal abortion might look like. She opens up the episode by recalling the first time she was confronted by women’s lack of equality, and recounting her experience at a Pro Choice march in the ‘90s where doctors walking alongside her educated her on the horror show that were hospitals before Roe V. Wade. They explained exactly why that decision made young women’s lives safer and more fair, detailing dangerous procedures taking place when abortions were illegal.

Despite the fact that abortions had been deemed unlawful, they, of course, still took place, just in a far more dangerous manner. Women in states where abortion was illegal would hop on charter buses to states where it wasn’t. Abortions at this time were hardly accessible costing a steep $2000. Charbonneau states that even those living in rural areas when Roe was upheld didn’t even have clinics within driving distance. Given a similar fate that awaits us, she deems birth control and the use of contraceptives extremely important, and she draws this episode to a close by urging the audience to hold politicians accountable and by fighting for more ‘blue’. After all, it’s the Republican majority that intentionally got us into this mess in the first place. Join Chris today for a powerful premier episode of this vitally important podcast.

The Finer Details of This Episode:

• Women getting the right vote in Switzerland in 1971
• Dangerous procedures taking place when abortion was illegal
• Chartering women to states with legal abortion
• Abortions will always happen
• Lack of rural access
• The importance of birth control and contraceptives
• Accountability
• Voting blue

Quotes:

“I realized that women had a lot of work to do to make sure that our place in society was secure.”

“There are a variety of states that claim fame, and rightly so, by having been out front before Roe to change these laws, because these laws were horrific and had absolutely horrific consequences.”

“Many ended up in situations where they could never have children again, many were in pain for the rest of their lives, and many died.”

“A great many people had abortions, and they probably turned out fine because nobody ever knew about it, but it's estimated that some 50,000 women died from illegal abortions over time in the United States.”

“In order to end a pregnancy, people famously used coat hangers, they famously used knitting needles. You know, not a lot of people know enough about their anatomy to do that kind of thing successfully.”

“The American public is outrageously pro choice. They don't want changes made to Roe. A good 75% of them say so over and over again when asked.”

“We discovered that in many rural places, access had become so bad that we actually had a fair number of woman that felt that they had no other choice but to do their own abortion.”

“We need to ensure that the people who have created this situation ultimately get defeated at the polls.”

“You aren't going to be able to recruit talent into these [red] states. because either they are executives who fear for their own reproductive health, or they're people who have children that they fear for.”

“But when the Supreme Court goes down, it means that we no longer have the courts to rely on to protect us. It's going to have to be state by state and our politics.”

“So be thinking about who needs to be elected, where and what we are all going to do to make that happen, because we cannot afford to have a right wing Congress overturn the last remnants of safety everywhere in the...