In partnership with Texas Monthly, Mimi Swartz’s “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives” is now available as an audio download, where the length and timeliness of a podcast meets the high-quality production of a full-length audio program.
Many Americans today feel they don’t hold the reins to their own healthcare; for American women, healthcare is nothing less than a Trojan horse. With women’s healthcare politicized more than ever, it’s impossible not to wonder how we got to now. Mimi Swartz’s “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives” is a vital snapshot of this history for fans of Hulu’s adaption of The Handmaid’s Tale or listeners of the podcast, “Pod Save America.” Told with immense levity and grave understanding, this article – available for the first time as an audio program – details a turning point in women’s health care legislation.
In 2011, Texas’s state legislature went as far as any body of government has gone before in restricting women’s reproductive rights. The legislature passed a sonogram law – forcing women to have an invasive sonogram 24 hours before a scheduled abortion – and cut the family planning budget from $111.5 million to just $37.9 million. To explore this moment, Swartz dips into the nuances of Texas politics, from the gritty in-fighting of a one-party state to the fight between two of Texas’s most powerful women: Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood and Nancy Brinker of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. What results is a portrait of a time and state that rings like a premonition for the future of the country.
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