For this fieldwork, Esme and I interviewed Bethany Sousa over zoom. Bethany is a lawyer at Planned Parenthood, and she’s worked there for a really long time. We asked her similar questions to the ones that we asked Paola Ferst, who also worked at Planned Parenthood. We asked her if she thought abortions should be legal in America, which is our opening question for almost all our interviews. She obviously said yes, and she also said that it should be legal in every point in pregnancy, and that the government and states shouldn’t control women’s bodies. We also asked if she’d ever volunteered outside her organization, and she said that she actually worked at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington D.C., and that she has volunteered. We talked about birth control and how it liberates women and lets so many people live their lives easier. Birth control has helped so many women and is such a wonderful invention that so many women rely on. We asked her about any stories with patients where birth control or abortion made a big difference, but she personally didn’t have any so she said she would send some in. The next question was, Do you think women in america have enough safe reproductive healthcare? She said no and actually told us about Care Deserts, where women need to travel really far to get abortions and birth control. Some of the reason for Care Deserts is religiously affiliated hospitals. Some religiously affiliated hospitals don’t provide abortions, and reproductive healthcare is not covered by medicaid or state insurance. A lot of women who live in Care Deserts can’t afford to travel to get an abortion or can’t afford to pay for the actual procedure. She told us that Planned Parenthood supports women in Abortions banned states by having health care centers that provide other types of care and helping with patient navigation. They also refer some patients to other organizations that will help them get faster, safer, and cheaper care. One source that is usually referred is Abortion Funds, an organization that pays for women to travel for abortions or pays for the procedures at safe clinic. They also do separate advocacy in banned states, and they try to get legislative seats with democrats. We asked her, Why do you think people think they can control other people’s bodies? She said a lot about systemic sexism, and some women being raised in a sexist world. She also said that society has a mindset about controlling women, and men thinking that women’s bodies can be owned by men. We talked about how at home abortions are becoming more popular, like coat hanger abortions, and other violent kinds of self contraception. Some women throw themselves down the stairs, punch themselves in the stomach, or use herbs to try and end pregnancies. These methods are really unsafe and do more harm than good. Now, there are ways to get abortion pills in the mail that are safe and reliable, but they are being banned by the government in some states. We need to make abortion rights a federal bill and add them to the constitution. Bethany was really helpful and gave us a lot of informational insight.
