Avery was 18 weeks pregnant when her water broke—a medical emergency that made her pregnancy nonviable and placed her at risk for severe blood loss and sepsis. Even though her doctors knew she needed a D&E (Dilation and Evacuation) procedure, Georgia’s abortion ban created delays while providers determined whether her condition was “serious enough” to legally qualify her for care.

Avery had every advantage: early prenatal care, expert medical knowledge, access to a major hospital system, and a strong support network. 

Her story raises an urgent question: if someone with those resources struggle to receive timely emergency care, what happens to patients facing greater barriers to access?

“It’s like insult to injury in the worst possible way,” Avery says. 

Mini and Avery discuss:

• How abortion bans interfere with emergency pregnancy care
• Why abortion ban “exceptions” are designed to fail in real-world medical emergencies
• What it means when doctors are forced to wait until patients become “sick enough” to receive treatment
• How Georgia’s maternal health crisis is worsening under abortion bans
• Why storytelling, organizing, and state elections matter in the fight for reproductive freedom

Episode recorded on March 8, 2026

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This reality has never stopped Rene Chelian, an abortion provider and advocate who has spent decades caring for patients and fighting for access. In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Mini Timmaraju sits down with Renee, Founder and CEO of Northland Family Planning Centers, to talk about what it takes to deliver care, protect patients and staff, and defend abortion access in the face of escalating threats. 

With nearly 50 years on the front lines, Renee has lived through the full scope of anti-abortion extremism and helped advocate for the federal protections of patients seeking abortion care—the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. 

This episode is about resilience and the ongoing fight to protect abortion rights for everybody. Renee continues that work through Reclaim, an initiative focused on restoring dignity, confidence, and public support for abortion and reproductive rights through advocacy and education.

Protecting abortion access requires all of us—providers, advocates, and communities—willing to stay in the fight. 

Episode recorded on April 8, 2026. 

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In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Mini Timmaraju sits down with New York Attorney General Leticia James to break down the critical role of attorneys general in protecting reproductive freedom in this moment.

From defending abortion providers under attack, to taking on the Trump administration’s overreach, AG James is at the center of the legal fight to protect our rights—and she’s winning. Democratic attorneys general like her are taking on Trump’s unconstitutional executive orders—and they have an 80% win rate.

Mini and AG James get into:

• How shield laws protect providers and patients across state lines
• Why Republicans’ “leave it to the states” argument is a lie—anti-abortion extremists are trying to criminalize abortion care nationwide
• What’s really at stake when emergency care is being denied—people are suffering and dying as a result of abortion bans
• What abortion access actually means: it’s not just about legal access, but also access to information and actual care
• Why attacks on abortion and gender-affirming care are part of the same playbook to take away other freedoms
• How Democratic AGs are coordinating across states—meeting weekly—to defend rights, democracy, and reproductive freedom

Mini and AG James make one thing clear: the old rules don’t apply anymore.

Even in a moment that can feel overwhelming, there are leaders fighting back—and winning. But protecting our freedom will take all of us: organizing, voting, and paying attention to the races that decide whether our rights are protected, or stripped away.

Episode recorded in New Orleans on April 10, 2026.

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Abortion bans make it impossible for doctors to take care of their patients with the dignity and autonomy we deserve. When you deny people access to abortion care, women and pregnant people die. 

In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Mini Timmaraju sits down with OB-GYN and President of Physicians for Reproductive Health Dr. Jamila Perritt to discuss how abortion bans and restrictions harm patients and providers, and what’s really at stake when elected officials try to interfere with medical decisions. 

Episode recorded in DC on March 25, 2026. 

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In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Mini Timmaraju sits down with journalist, author, and “Abortion, Every Day” founder Jessica Valenti to break down the current landscape of the fight for reproductive freedom: the attacks on medication abortion, the rise of manosphere and culture war politics, coordinated disinformation campaigns, and how we set the record straight—across media, in classrooms, and within our own coalition.

They dig into what voters actually believe: the majority support freedom, privacy, bodily autonomy, and the right to make personal decisions without government interference.

Abortion rights are a fundamental freedom issue. And if Democrats can’t turn the anger people feel right now into lasting policy change, that’s not just a political failure—it’s a moral one.

Episode recorded in San Francisco on March 5, 2026.

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Told through Tracii, the clinic’s head of security, the film captures the everyday reality of accessing reproductive health care in states with abortion bans: constant safety protocols, providers weighing medical care against their legal risks, patients navigating fear and anxiety.

The film shows just how arbitrary and devastating abortion bans can be. In one ultrasound room, there’s relief when a patient learns she is still within the state’s limit to receive abortion care. In another moment, there’s devastation when a patient is turned away at six weeks and one day. The difference of a single day determines whether someone can receive medical care or not.

Mini and Soledad talk about how that “difference a day makes” echoes throughout the film—and what it reveals about the real-life consequences of abortion bans.

The conversation goes deeper into the big picture: why clinic protections like the FACE Act exist (and how it’s being misused by the Trump administration), how abortion bans deepen maternal health care deserts in Georgia, and why storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have to inspire change and combat misinformation.

And importantly, the episode gets at something we don’t talk about enough: how policy actually lands on people. Abortion bans aren’t abstract political debates—they directly shape people’s lives, their health, their families, and their futures.

Georgia shows us something else too: we are not helpless here. We can fight back ... and win!

Thanks to the organizing work of Reproductive Freedom for All, Georgia voters prevented a Republican supermajority in the State House in 2024—a critical win and no small feat. With leaders like Senator Jon Ossoff and reproductive freedom champions across the state, the fight for access and accountability is very much alive.

This documentary shows what actually happens inside an abortion clinic—the hardships that abortion bans create for patients, providers, and communities.

Episode recorded on February 23, 2026

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Before we dive in, it’s important to ground ourselves in what’s happening across the country. Right now, undocumented people, immigrants, and people of color are being targeted, surveilled, and subjected to violence. When leaving your house feels unsafe, fear shapes daily life—where people go, who they trust, and whether they seek help when they need it. That fear reaches into exam rooms and clinics. It affects access to abortion. It affects access to prenatal care. It affects access to basic health care. And when people delay care, avoid care, or are denied care altogether, the consequences are real—and often devastating. 

Access to care is never just about whether a service exists. It’s about whether you can safely reach it. 

That reality shapes Daniela’s story. When she needed an abortion, Florida’s six-week abortion ban left her with no real choice—just a deadline designed to run out before most people even know they’re pregnant. For Daniela, that meant leaving her home state to access health care that should have been available in her own community. 

These laws force people across state lines, layering financial and logistical strain onto those with the least room to maneuver—including immigrants, people of color, young people, and families already navigating systemic barriers. When politicians restrict abortion this way, they don’t eliminate the need for care—they impose unjust burdens on individuals and families least able to carry them. At its core, this comes down to a simple principle: decisions about pregnancy should belong to the person who is pregnant, not the government.

Episode recorded on February 2, 2026 

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Mini Timmaraju sits down with U.S. Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota to connect the dots between reproductive freedom, authoritarian tactics, and what communities across America are being forced to endure.

Right now, undocumented people, immigrants, and people of color are being targeted, surveilled, and subjected to violence. When leaving your house feels unsafe, fear shapes daily life — where people go, who they trust, and whether they seek help when they need it.

That fear reaches into exam rooms and clinics. It affects access to abortion. It affects access to prenatal care. It affects access to basic health care. And when people delay care, avoid care, or are denied care altogether, the consequences are real — and often devastating.

In this episode, we cover:

🚨 What’s happening in Minnesota — and why many see it as a testing ground for a broader authoritarian playbook.
🏥 What providers are seeing as patients skip prenatal visits, avoid clinics, and disappear from care systems because they’re afraid to be detained or targeted.
📹 The weaponization of power — including intimidation of observers, journalists, and communities, and the distortion of laws meant to protect people.
🏛️ The fight over the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid — and the extremist push to hold people’s healthcare hostage to force new abortion restrictions.
🗳️ Why organizing still works — and how winning elections is the clearest path to protecting and restoring reproductive freedom nationwide.
❄️ Why Minnesota is showing the country what resistance can look like — from mutual aid networks to grassroots organizing that turns fear into action.

Episode recorded on February 9, 2025

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In collaboration with Abortion in America, our latest episode of My Body. My Pod. with Mini Timmaraju features Oklahoma-based nurse Victoria Parks, who reflects on what it means to speak up in a rural community and connect with people who don’t always see themselves as “activists” or “on a side.”

From a conversation with her mother to a moment with a fellow parent at a baseball field, Victoria shows how most people share core values around privacy, dignity, and the right to make personal decisions about their own bodies—even if they use different words.

Her story is a reminder that abortion isn’t divisive—and that common ground can shape culture, policy, and the choices we make at the ballot box.

Episode recorded on November 18, 2025

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Dr. Bernard shares how she became an abortion provider, the mentors and communities that shaped her work, and what it means to practice medicine when laws override medical judgment. 

She walks listeners through the realities providers now face—adapting care for out-of-state travel, supporting patients through the trauma of being denied care because they’re not “sick enough yet” to receive treatment per their state’s abortion ban laws.

Despite the harm and trauma caused by abortion bans, Dr. Bernard explains where hope lives: in patients, storytellers, and communities turning lived experience into momentum for change.

Episode recorded on November 18, 2025

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Stacey walks Mini through her “10 Steps to Autocracy,” exposing just how far Republicans have gone to seize power. Then, she shares her 10 steps to freedom and power: concrete ways we can defend democracy, protect reproductive freedom, and make sure our government actually delivers for people. Along the way, they dig into Dobbs, Medicaid and ACA cuts, the surveillance state targeting pregnant people, and why we cannot look the other way.

Listen in for a hopeful challenge: we don’t all have to do the same thing—but we all have to do something.

Episode recorded on November 18, 2025

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Episode recorded on November 6, 2025

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Phang joins RFA's Mini Timmaraju to share why she built her own platform for fearless, nuanced, fact-based storytelling and how independent voices are reaching more audiences that legacy media often overlooks.

Together they dig into attacks on mifepristone, the intersection of voting rights and abortion, the power of local and state races (including judges), and why real stories move policy. Listen, subscribe, and take action.

Episode recorded on October 15, 2025

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Episode recorded on October 7, 2025

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First up: Riata Walker’s journey from firm anti-abortion beliefs to the understanding that abortion is critical health care. 

💬  “My challenge to people who would say that they are pro-life… is to dig a little deeper,” says Riata. “Just listen to some stories and listen to where people are coming from and just try to understand.”

Growing up in a conservative community, Riata was firmly opposed to abortion and never imagined her own pregnancy would test everything she believed. When a devastating diagnosis revealed fatal fetal abnormalities, she made the decision to end her pregnancy. Through her experience, Riata came to understand what abortion truly is: health care. A personal choice. The freedom to decide what’s best for yourself, your family, and your future. Now, Riata advocates for abortion access, and shares why her experience transformed her understanding of privilege, compassion, and reproductive freedom.

Riata’s story is about more than one decision—it’s about the barriers and inequities that determine who can get care and who cannot. She had the support, the means, and the legal access to care. Many do not. Across the country, patients are navigating dangerous laws that endanger their lives and well-being. The consequences are devastating—and often preventable. 

We’re deeply grateful to Riata and other abortion storytellers for their courage, and to Abortion in America for helping bring these voices forward. Visit Abortion in America and follow on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to stay connected with their important work.

### 

Episode recording: 

October 7, 2025

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💬  “Most voters are very nuanced… I’m not afraid to have discussions with voters whether Democrat, Republican, or Independent, even though we’re going to have disagreements.”

Join Mini for a conversation with Sen. Ruben Gallego who grew up with a single mom and three sisters in Arizona—and brings that experience to his steadfast fight for reproductive freedom and access to health care. In this episode, we cover: 

🚨What’s at stake in the government shutdown

✊ Why protecting affordable care is part of reproductive freedom

🗳️How Sen. Gallego’s upbringing in a working-class Latino family informs his beliefs about health care

🤝And how connection—yes, even across party lines—can coexist with conviction.

### 

Episode recording: 

October 7, 2025

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💬  “Donald Trump is the most anti-abortion president in our lifetime.” 

So how did JB Pritzker become one of the fiercest governors in the fight for reproductive freedom? It started at home, folding mailers and joining abortion rights rallies (including ours!) with his mom. In this episode, we cover: 

✊ How Illinois became a safe haven for abortion access. 

🗳️ What’s at stake in the fight for reproductive freedom ahead. 

🚨 How to take on bullies like Donald Trump and win. 

🍕 And yes ... Mini even presses the Governor on the all-important Chicago question: which deep dish reigns supreme? 

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Additional Episode Notes:

This episode was recorded before the recent ICE raids in Chicago — unprecedented in their scale and reprehensible in their impact — and before the deployment of National Guard troops across Illinois by the Trump administration. Because of the timing, you won’t hear discussion of these events in this conversation. Reproductive Freedom for All affirms our solidarity with immigrant and undocumented communities, and with leaders like Governor Pritzker who are fighting back against these attacks on our neighbors and our rights. 

Episode recording: 

September 17, 2025

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