DeepSummary
The podcast episode begins with Jenna and Spencer, founders of Ucorra, discussing Jenna's struggle with frequent urinary tract infections (UTIs) and their motivation to start the company that makes innovative urinary tract supplements and UTI relief products. They offer a money-back guarantee for customers unsatisfied with their products.
After a brief sponsor message, Dahlia Lithwick introduces the main topic: the Alabama Supreme Court's recent decision that frozen embryos are legally considered children, and the broader implications of this ruling beyond just IVF. Lithwick and guest Dr. Michelle Goodwin discuss the historical context of policing women's wombs and the criminalization of motherhood, particularly for Black and Indigenous women.
Goodwin explains how the Alabama ruling is part of a larger movement to grant personhood rights to fetuses and embryos, which could impact a wide range of issues such as contraception, sex education, and family planning. She highlights the discriminatory ways in which laws around reproduction have been enforced, often targeting marginalized communities while affording more leniency to white, wealthy women.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are legally considered children has far-reaching implications beyond just IVF and reproductive technology.
- There is a long history in the United States of policing and criminalizing women's reproductive rights, especially targeting Black and Indigenous communities.
- Laws and policies around reproductive rights have often been enforced in a discriminatory manner, affording more leniency to wealthy white women.
- The movement to grant legal personhood to fetuses and embryos could impact a wide range of issues like contraception, sex education, and family planning decisions.
- The Alabama ruling appears to be heavily influenced by particular white Christian nationalist beliefs that should have no bearing on secular American law.
- Medical professionals are caught in an difficult position trying to navigate conflicting legal and ethical obligations around reproductive healthcare.
- There are concerning parallels between current reproductive rights restrictions and historical injustices like slavery era laws stripping Black women of autonomy.
- The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority seems sympathetic to Donald Trump's legal challenges in ways that could further imperil reproductive freedoms.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “The very first laws of the United States determining how parenting would come about, that there would be this thing called matrilineity, that children would inherit the status of their mothers, and from the very start, a campaign that would say, you inherit the status of your mother, meaning that it doesn't matter who your father is, if your mom is an enslaved black woman, that will be your future.“ by Michelle Goodwin
- “There are so many comparatives to times before that we've seen. And I think if we pay attention to that, that gives us some insight in terms of what is coming next.“ by Michelle Goodwin
- “Justices Sotomayor and Kagan have been ringing an alarm bell about the weaponization of the First Amendment, saying so quite directly on cases that involved reproductive health care.“ by Michelle Goodwin
- “This lean into religion makes no room for anything outside of a kind of white christian nationalism type of approach which should have no bearing in american law.“ by Michelle Goodwin
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Episode Information
Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts
Slate Podcasts
3/2/24