00:00Do you feel like you need to have a personal connection to abortion to care about other people's access to
00:04abortion?
00:05You don't need to, like, personally need to have an abortion to understand that people should have a choice and
00:12ability to access such a health care necessity.
00:16The fight over Roe v. Wade is quickly reaching a boiling point.
00:19The abortion flashpoint all across the country, a wave of new restrictions.
00:23Missouri could become the first state in the country without an abortion clinic.
00:28In 2008, Missouri had five abortion clinics.
00:30Now the state is down to one, and soon that number might be zero.
00:34This is the only clinic left in Missouri that provides abortions.
00:38It's under constant threat from conservative lawmakers wanting to shut its doors.
00:43State of Missouri, please keep your fingers out of our vaginas.
00:47The sleepy Midwestern city may not look like a battleground, but war is being waged.
00:56St. Louis, Missouri, is home to one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the country, known as HB126.
01:03This law is among some of the biggest threats to women's reproductive rights in nearly 50 years.
01:09Radicalism is what gets people to pay attention.
01:11We don't necessarily need to get arrested, but we need to show people that we're serious.
01:15Millions of people are on the line.
01:16Millions of women are on the line.
01:18And radicalism is what it takes. Radicalism is what we're going to do.
01:22One in four people who have a uterus will seek abortion care before the age of 45.
01:29So it doesn't matter where you live or who you vote for or what religion you are.
01:33You still might need an abortion someday.
01:36Pregnancy is complicated, and it can be potentially really dangerous and catastrophic.
01:42And so anytime that we're forcing anybody to continue a pregnancy means we're asking them,
01:47we're forcing them to assume risk to their own health.
01:50If you care about racial justice, you should care about abortion.
01:52If you care about economic inequality, you should care about abortion.
01:54Like, it's just something that was like a no-brainer.
01:57Meet Farheen Khan, Clara Stoltz, and Sunny Liu, organizers of St. Louis Pro-Choice Student Activists.
02:05Do you have a galvanizing event in your life where it got you into activism?
02:10Can you pinpoint one thing in your history?
02:14My parents are, like, very right-wing.
02:16They're evangelical Christians, and I grew up, like, very immersed in religion.
02:23When I was a lot younger, I think my parents were faced with a lot of that Islamophobia and that
02:28racism.
02:28I know we've had some incidents where people either spray-painted our house, or we were targeted by a white
02:34supremacist group.
02:36And we were actually at the church when Michael Brown was shot.
02:39We heard the gunshot.
02:41We drove past.
02:43That was probably, like, one of the more defining moments for me.
02:48Missouri's restrictive abortion law, HB126, gave these teens a common cause.
02:54We really started engaging with each other for this specific rally and this organization, like, through this giant groupie that
03:03happened in result of HB126, the abortion ban bill, getting passed.
03:09Imagine a group chat of 300 people, all fired up, pissed off, but without an actual action plan.
03:16That's when Claire, Farheen, and Sunny stepped in.
03:19In a week, they had organized a protest.
03:22I think our role is to push people to think bigger.
03:25I think we need to start thinking about this movement as not just one that centers around women, not just
03:31one that centers around white women.
03:33Under a blazing Missouri sun, hundreds turned out.
03:37School's over, but the pressure is on.
03:43Jesse works out of the clinic.
03:45One of the features of our neighborhood is we have these folks out here in vests on the sidewalk.
03:51And these are protesters from the Coalition for Life.
03:55It's a local organization, anti-choice organization.
03:58Now, they're part of an internship program.
04:01They get paid $8, $9 an hour to stand out here.
04:03And what they're basically trying to do is stop traffic on the way in.
04:09He tells me that they use cameras to surveil the clinic's staff and intimidate patients.
04:13Their organization claims it's there for their own protection.
04:16And what they want to do is they want to hand them pamphlets, hand them information about services that they
04:21can get in other places.
04:23So their goal is to get the cars to turn around and go somewhere else.
04:27So it's an illusion of choice.
04:28That's exactly right.
04:30They will use the word choice very deliberately.
04:34And what they say is they empower people to choose life.
04:41I haven't really tried to do much direct confrontation because I think that the people that protest in front of
04:48abortion clinics are just so set in their ways that you're just going, they're just going to take a defensive
04:54stance.
04:57And not really, like, nothing you say is going to change their mind.
05:01I'm pretty convinced.
05:02There are teens, too, on the other side.
05:05Hi there.
05:06Would you mind giving me another pamphlet?
05:08Yeah, I'd love to.
05:10Also, I didn't get to give this to you earlier because I couldn't find it in my pocket.
05:13Gotcha.
05:14But these are also coupons.
05:15There's a couple in here.
05:16Yeah, here, take three.
05:17Okay, thank you.
05:18Yeah, let us know we can help anything, okay?
05:20Okay.
05:20All right, you have a great day.
05:21You too.
05:23Yikes.
05:25It's surprisingly quiet and cordial, but apparently that's part of the strategy.
05:30These are free resources through Women's Care to Connect.
05:37This is a fake clinic.
05:38This is a fake clinic.
05:39This is a fake clinic.
05:40This has religion in the name.
05:42It's a fake clinic.
05:43Oh, my gosh.
05:44These are all clinics that dissuade women from getting abortions.
05:52For those stuck in abortion deserts, there's organizations that bridge the line between activists and clinics.
06:00Gateway is the only organization of its kind in Missouri.
06:03It helps women pay for and access abortions.
06:08The first battle that I wake up to fight every single day is to get people safe access to abortion
06:17care.
06:18And whatever that looks like, that's what I want to do.
06:22The terror of having no options is something that every patient has felt.
06:27And when it comes to abortion, that terror affects more people than you think.
06:32I asked her, you know, where she, where she came from, how far she had to drive, just kind of
06:36icebreaker questions.
06:38And she mentioned that she lived very close to the Planned Parenthood in St. Louis.
06:43And I asked her, well, you know, can I ask you why you didn't choose to get an abortion there?
06:48She said that she had been protesting outside of that Planned Parenthood, but, you know, just wanted to reassure me
06:59that the only reason she was here doing this was because it wasn't the right time for her.
07:05And I still supported her, and I made that clear to her.
07:10I supported her decision, and I held her hand.
07:14But I also, you know, just mentioned that, you know, everyone else in this waiting room and everyone else that
07:20seeks an abortion, it's not the right time for them either.
07:25What's happening in St. Louis is happening all over the country.
07:28But the doctors, the lawyers, and the activists, they see a strategy within the mess.
07:34Our role is to try and make sure that abortion is not only legal, but accessible.
07:40So we, in order for abortion to still be accessible, we definitely need those lawyers championing the clinics in court.
07:51We need the doctors and the activists.
07:54We need everyone, everyone's voice is so important, and we're all so intertwined.
07:59The folks who are running the clinics, the people who are helping our patients get in the front door, right?
08:05Everybody is part of this, and really everybody should be part of this, right?
08:08We thought Roe v. Wade was, like, cemented, but eventually, like, things started changing, and Michael Brown happened, and all
08:15of a sudden, like, things that we thought were not problems were problems again.
08:20Or maybe they just never stopped, but we stopped realizing it, and I think that, like, I think that's what's
08:26up for grabs with everything.
08:27Like, I think that, like, one issue leads to another issue, and we can't stop, because if we stop, like,
08:35what's going to happen to our world?
08:36Somebody has to fight it.
09:01Somebody has to fight it.
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