Blind Plea - Listen Now: The Defenders

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

We are dropping in your feed to share Lemonada Media's newest series, The Defenders. On Friday, June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Since then, it's been a barrage of bad news and bleak headlines. But for every restriction, there are many more acts of resistance, and a growing network of activists, clinic workers, faith leaders, and everyday people working to expand access to care.This is the story of the fight for freedom in a post-Roe America, co-hosted by Samantha Bee and Gloria Riviera.  Episode One of The Defenders features Brittany, Back in 2022, shortly after the fall of Roe, Brittany felt trapped. She was pregnant and stuck in an abusive relationship, totally cut off from her support system. She didn’t see a way out - until she happened to hear a radio story about the Midwest Access Coalition, an abortion fund helping people travel across state lines. We follow Brittany’s harrowing journey as she travels hundreds of miles, with the help of a group of volunteer pilots from Elevated Access.  To hear more of The Defenders, head to : https://lemonada.lnk.to/DTc0CrfdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This message is sponsored by Colorguard. Colorguard offers control of your colon cancer screening by screening how you want and when you want. So if you're 45 or older and at average risk, ask your health care provider about screening for colon cancer with Colorguard. You can also request a Colorguard prescription today at colorguard.com slash podcast. Do not use Colorguard if you've had adenomas, having flammatory bowel disease, and certain hereditary symptoms, or a personal or family history of colorectal cancer. False positive and negative results may occur. Any positive result should be followed by a colonoscopy, not a replacement for colonoscopy

in high-risk patients. Colorguard is available by prescription only. than me, laugh along with Elise Myers as she and her guests play a rapid fire questions game on funny cuz it's true and continue to uncover new ways to make life suck less through our exclusive subscriber audio. Check out a free trial of Lemonada Premium today in the Apple Podcast app by clicking on our podcast logo and then the subscribe button. Lemonada Hey listeners, I'm excited to let you know about the defenders, Lemonada Media's newest podcast. In 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. Since then, it's been a barrage of bad news. But behind the bleak headlines, there are people working to protect our right to control our future. The defenders is a new ten-part series about the fight for freedom in a post-Romerica.

Co-hosted by Samantha B. and Gloria Riviera, the show will examine ways people are still accessing care, from crossing state borders to self-managed abortion. You'll hear from activists, providers, and everyday people doing the work to expand reproductive freedom. We're here to tell you anyone can become a defender. You're about to hear the first episode of The Defenders. After you listen, search for the Defenders and your podcast app to hear the second episode. You can also find a link in the show notes that will

take you there. This episode contains content about abuse and suicidal ideation. Please take care while listening. We're following breaking news out of Washington, D.C., a leaked opinion draft appearing to show that by this summer, a majority of the justices will overturn Roe vs. Wade. In court today, five justices ended the right of American women to choose a portion of human abortion access from the current 20-weeks to just six.

Abortion trafficking, try to file. And that will show many women in the future. Which, I would find, where's the viola? Where's the viola? OK, OK, OK, OK. Wow! That was... leak. Yeah, hearing everything back to back like that.

It was like a super cut of the end of our rights as we knew them. But you know what, Gloria? Something tells me that our listeners don't need a scary montage to feel a sense of hopelessness. Nope. Sam, hopelessness is basically the default setting at this point. Hi, welcome. If you are listening to this podcast, you probably already know the stakes. It is not looking good out there. In the year in change since Roe was overturned, states all over the country have been attacking reproductive rights from every ankle possible. There is so much to be mad about.

But it's impossible to be sad and angry 24-7, I mean believe me. Like I have tried. Being angry is practically my love language. Mine too. Since Roe fell, and for quite a while before that, we've been angry. Dobbs was not the beginning of this. Anti-abortion forces have been trying to chip away at the right to abortion for decades. Oh yes they have. I actually think that's their love language.

But for every restriction, there was also a form of resistance. So that today, there is a community of people all over our country fighting for bodily autonomy, risking their own safety to make sure others are getting the healthcare and the support they need. And I am happy to say hope does exist. Stop it.

There's hope in a conversation about abortion in America? Yes, I promise. Sometimes in the most mundane of places. One of the chances I turn on the radio instead of hearing some country station, because I'm in the country, you know, I'm hearing about a place and a coalition and a whole group of people that are looking to help someone in my situation. Today we're going to tell you Brittany's story. It's a story of feeling trapped and finding your way out despite the odds.

There's now someone to try to call. There's actually hope there was something that I could actually do. There are people all over the country going above and beyond to maintain access to life-saving care. That's who you're going to hear from in this series. People who have been standing up and speaking out long before Roe vs. Wade was overturned. This is The Defenders, a show about the fight for freedom in a post-row America. I'm Samantha B., I hosted the show Full Frontal from 2016 to 2022, and it was among the first to be unapologetic about covering abortion on late-night television. And I'm Gloria Rivera.

My first show with Lemonada Media was about child care during COVID. By our second season, Roe vs Wade fell, and we were talking about abortion. Why? Because a lot of parents need access to abortion. Behind the bleak headlines, there are people who are fighting every day for us to maintain our rights. We are going to be uplifting that work on this show, shining light on the people who are helping and letting you know how to help them. This week, we're sharing Britney's story of how an abortion fund changed her life. A Borschen Funds They probably sound pretty familiar

to you by now. You may have already donated to one. I don't know, maybe at 3 o'clock in the morning after doom scrolling for hours. These funds, they're not actually new. Community care, people taking care of each other, has always been a part of abortion. But before we get into Brittany's story, we want to dig a little more into how these funds came to be. For the type of formalized abortion funds we have today, the rubber really met the road

in 1976. That is when the hide amendment passed, a short three years after Roe v Wade made abortion legal. By design, it was like, well, we can't ban abortion now because there's this federal protection, but what we can do is make it hard for poor folks, for black folks, for indigenous people of community, rural folks. We can make it harder for them to access abortion. Oriaku and Jaku is the executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds. So the high-demandment and similar restrictions prohibited the

use of federal funds for abortion, which means things like Medicaid, any federal health insurance, even the Peace Corps, they all stopped funding abortions. And that impacted Black and Brown folks disproportionately. The postural reality that folks were so deeply afraid of was actually the lived reality of folks from bi-pop communities for so long. So after the high-demandment, more abortion funds

started to form to fill the gaps in access to abortion. In 1993, several funds decided to organize together and founded the National Network of Abortion Funds. Today, the network partners with around 100 organizations. It's a number that has been growing as the need grows. Look, a lot of people were already traveling across state lines before dobs, but now, with abortion restricted in so many states, you might have to travel a thousand miles to get an appointment where abortion is legal. If you're coming from a state like Texas where abortion is essentially illegal, the reality is that you will be

traveling across several state lines to a place where you can get care. Traveling that far increases all costs. A bus ticket becomes a plane ticket, a day trip becomes a three-night stay. There are so many considerations, and the sheer logistics of it all can be debilitating. And that's by design. If people are so overwhelmed, they might just give up and be forced to carry these pregnancies to term. But abortion funds are here to tell you. No one can force you into a decision about your body. These folks will help you find options. And they're not just doing it for a pat on the back, they're doing it because it's the right thing to do. It's not charity. This is like co-inspiring with folks in the communities to make sure they get

the services that they want and need. So, you know, majority of our funds don't come at this work with this sort of like, savior complex. It really is because people in our communities deserve what is best for them and their families and abortion access and reproductive justice is one pathway towards getting to our collective liberation. So we've got to show up for our folks. I like that you're saying co-conspirering. Oh yeah, yeah, no, I'm like, I don't need folks to just be allies in Sanlo.

I need you to jack stuff up with us. I need you to be in here and do the work with us. Yeah, yeah. Jack stuff up with us. I get it, I'm out the door. I know, it's a real spirit of collaboration, of showing up for each other. So today, it makes sense that we are kicking off this series

with a woman who goes above and beyond to show up for someone, a co-conspirator of the highest order. Gloria, I'm gonna leave it to you. Thank you, Sam. An important thing to know about Britney is she's a pet person, not a baby person. I never wanted children. I'm sure they're great.

I just never had that instinct. I'll fight you for a kitten, but when it comes to babies, like I'll, I never, never had the interest. We're using only Britney's first name to protect her safety, and we are not being specific about her location. We're going to start with Brittany's story just after she met her boyfriend. They were both playing Pokemon Go in a park.

In the beginning, things were good. He seemed super sweet, very affectionate, very intelligent, more sweet than normal, but it was refreshing, I guess, which kind of made me let my guard down. After several months of dating, they decided to move to the southeast together. And everything was fine and loving and sweet, and as soon as we got there, everything turned. Brittany says he took away her phone, her wallet, so she had no form of identification, and he didn't allow her to use the internet when he was home, taking the modem with him when he left the house.

He would even take the cord to the TV, the plug-in cord, and I'm plugging it from the back, so that I couldn't even watch TV. He tracked any time she even stepped out of the house with an outdoor camera. He took all the food with him, so she couldn't even eat when he was gone. Even the windows upstairs were painted shut. This is an old place. I even tried windows upstairs. There was no escaping without him knowing. I didn't even know where the police department was because I didn't have phone to look that up to even know which direction to run if I did run.

It just got to be hopeless and depressing. Brittany was trapped. She was also pregnant, and she didn't want to be. She was a couple of months along, she guessed. She really didn't know. Tell me about that. Did he know you were pregnant? When did you suspect that you were pregnant? Oh, he knew immediately. He was hoping for it.

It came up in arguments that, well, you can't get away from me now. I mean, you got me forever, so we need to work this out. This was another way her partner tried to trap her. Literally weaponize my own body against me. To keep me under his thumb, he thought I would become more willing to take the abuse and the control. I thought that he would take my child

that he was going to obviously force me to have. Brittany's partner wanted to use her pregnancy to control her. This is unfortunately common. So common, there's actually a phrase for it. Reproductive coercion. And rates of this kind of abuse have been on the rise since Roe fell. Abortion bands give abusers even more power.

Brittany was in panic mode. I was thinking about suicide on a daily basis because even if I could get actual phone service, there was no one to call. There was no family, there was no one. If I had this man's child, I would have to deal with him forever. You were trapped, you were feeling helpless and hopeless and thinking about suicide every day. Every day. Every day. And it got to the point where that was calming to me.

Brittany did have one thing that kept her going, a callico kitten, about four to five months old. One of the times that I was in the yard, there was a super tiny little fluff ball kitten that I had found and I wouldn't really stand in up for myself But I threw a complete fit to make him go get a bottle and and everything for it because she wasn't gonna make it She was super dehydrated and sick and stuff. I was determined that it was gonna be me and her and I was getting us both out I'd stay awake all night to make sure that I didn't fall asleep and she get out because I was worried that he would hurt her killer when I was asleep. She definitely gave me something else to care about besides myself because I had gotten to the point that I wasn't caring about myself.

Sam, I know you're a caperson, so I feel like this is a good place to pause. How are you doing so far? I'm very thankful for the kitten in this scenario. Yes. Sometimes you need an outside force to help you muster the strength to act. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, hearing her talk about it, it made me feel good that she had something to care for

and she will put her foot down for that little kitten when she has no power elsewhere in that dynamic. Yes, like it brought mission or it brought like it brought purpose. Yeah, yeah, and drive. Yeah, it was just like a little cat, like a little cat, a list. I said it. Yeah, yeah, and drive. Yeah, it was just like a little cat, like a little cat a list. I said it. Yeah, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed that I said it. So aside from taking care of her little catalyst, Brittany was unable to do much else. She had no phone, no internet, no TV. She couldn't leave the house without it resulting in a huge fight.

But her partner didn't think of everything. Brittany had access to a radio, remember radios. It was built into an old record player. Brittany turned it on to listen to something besides the silence, something to give her a break from thinking about her life or ending her life. I honestly wasn't looking for music or anything. I just wanted noise, just something. And I turned it on and I walk away.

I go to the bathroom, and it takes me a second to realize what they're even talking about because they were already in mid conversation. What they were talking about that day, that minute was the Midwest Access Coalition, an abortion fund. When you listen to that story about the Midwest Access Coalition, what did you hear? What do you remember taking away from hearing that story? It was specifically the travel part. They were talking about, of course, you know, Roe vs Wade and all the new abortion laws

and everything, and about how women were having to travel out of their states and how small towns, you know, they wouldn't have access to it or people without enough money wouldn't be able to travel out of state and they were having to wait to be further along with there's more complications and what they were talking about was my situation and that they could help me get out of there. She couldn't quite believe what she heard, but Midwest access coalition planted a seed that would become her actual escape plan. I wrote down the email and the phone number. Brittany had hope. One of the chances I turned on the radio instead of hearing some country station because I'm

in the country, you know, I'm hearing what I needed to hear about a place and a coalition and a whole group of people that are looking to help someone in my situation. It was unreal and it took hours to stop crying, but out of the hope of my only way out isn't suicide, that there is a chance that despite having no one to call, there's now someone to try to call. There's actually hope there was something that I could actually do. There was a step that I could take to try to save myself. Brittany had to wait until her partner left the house before she could attempt to contact Midwest access coalition. That would

be her only chance. It took another week before he was gone long enough. Remember Brittany's boyfriend had taken her phone, but she had an old cracked phone hidden away that she had kept for contacts. She didn't know if it would even turn on. Thankfully, it did. I took that phone and I ran to a hearty's about the only thing in that town and used their Wi-Fi and sent the Midwest Access Coalition an email with a short paragraph just glazing over the situation I was in because the whole time,

my heart's racing, I'm just like, he's gonna come home before I'm back. Do you remember what you wrote in that first message? It was just that I have no access. It was mainly telling them that you send me emails and everything, but I won't be able to respond, but that is not mean that I'm okay. It does not mean that I don't need the help. I need the help and you're the only, the only help I can think of, the only help I can find. That was your SOS. Yeah, 100%. Brittany got an automatic reply email back. It was like, we're very busy, but we received your email.

An advocate will be getting back to you as soon as we can. After sending that first email, it was another week before Brittany was able to get back to Hardies. And it's just a stressful, I'm just as freaked out. When I get to Hardies and I open the emails, she's sent two, maybe three at that point. I just said this is absolutely not your fault. Of course we can help.

Is it safe to reach back out to you? I'm gonna take your case. Like how can we move forward from here? Who was that person? That was Allison. With Midwest Access Coalition. Allison Dreathe was emailing Brittany from home, a pigme goat farm in the rural Midwest. She bought the farm as a form of self-care after years of working in the abortion field, which she's been doing now for about 15 years. So, Alison was

ready when Brittany emailed her. It was a Sunday. I was on my way to have brunch with a friend and I got an email from Brittany and she said, can you come get me tomorrow? And that felt really fast, but it also felt really definitiveitive like something was going on. She said that her former partners Behaviors had changed and she felt like now she was in danger like immediate danger So she's told me she herself was flying out and going to come and pick me up. She writes to you You read the words in an email. I'm gonna come get you. I'm going to come and pick me up. She writes to you, you read the words in an email, I'm gonna come get you, I'm going to help you. What is your reaction when you read those words?

Loud crying in the middle of a hearties, with a bunch of strangers looking at me and I do not care. I couldn't believe that there was not just hope that there was somebody. And I don't know why I trusted it but the way she said she was coming, I knew she was going to do everything she could to get there.

There was no, well, as long as this works out or we'll try this, it was, I'm coming to get you. Tell me how to get you. And so that's when I dropped all of my plans and I told my husband, I called my lawyer, I called people at Midwis-Exas Coalition to let them know what was happening and I just booked a flight.

Allison flew out that same afternoon. After this short break, we'll hear what happens when Allison helps Brittany escape. This message is sponsored by Colorguard. Hi, I'm Kate Boller, and you might know me from another Lemonade and Media show called Everything Happens. If you listen to my show, you know that a lot of it is inspired by my experience with Colorguard. So, of course, increasing awareness around Colorguard is really important to me.

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have inflammatory bowel disease, and certain hereditary symptoms, or a personal or family history of colorectal cancer. False positive and negative results may occur, any positive result should be followed by a colonoscopy, not a replacement for colonoscopy in high-risk patients. This episode of Blind Plea is brought to you by Huggie's Little Movers. Huggie's knows that babies come in all shapes and sizes, and that having a diaper that fits properly is priority number one. You need a diaper you can trust.

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Huggies are the best and there's good reason they know what they're doing They know kids aren't going to sit still They're going to move around and so we need a diaper that can move with them They also will offer up to 12 hour protection against leaks, which is a game changer Get your baby's butt into Huggie's best fitting diaper. Huggie's little movers. We got you, baby. As soon as I was in Lurne, Brittany needed immediate help. Within that same day, she bought a ticket and got on a plane. Brittany lived in a rural part of the southeast. They had an auto part store and a hearty use and that was about it you know from what I saw I was

driving past a lot of fields of cotton that looked like hay barrels and then I pulled up to the house and there was a lot of cars outside and I was worried about that and she wasn't out there and I couldn't see like any you know movement or anything and then Brittany had figured out the Wi-Fi code after watching her partner put it in though he didn't know that. So she was able to communicate with Alison during these crucial moments. I got an email from her and she said he's here. I need like 15 more minutes and so I drove around to the partiesies and like scarfed down a cheeseburger and went to the bathroom and meanwhile Brittany was planning a quick exit. My heart's just pounding, just don't mess this up, don't let him see the phone, don't check it

too many times, like he walks out of the room for a second. I check it to make sure nothing's changed, that she's still gonna be there at that time, and I'm just scared of death that he's gonna pop in the door and see the phone and take it before, you know, I can get to her. Her shoes and bags were ready to go. And of course, she planned to bring her kitten. I didn't have a carrier for.

I had a little zip up cooler. One of the big ones like you like you put like a bunch of sandwiches or something in. So with her cat and a cooler, Brittany was officially ready to run for her life. But there was a problem. On her way back to Brittany, Allison realized she'd driven over a piece of metal

that was now lodged in the tire of her rental car. And so I pulled up to like the dollar store to like try to deal with this metal thing in the tire. Oh my God. These two Jehovah witnesses came over and helped me pull it out and told me where a car shop was, which was right across the street. And he looked at it and no air was leaking so like all these weird things were happening that were like intensifying and then you know it was time to go back. She goes I'm doing circles around you. Okay come out whenever you're ready and I said

I'm coming now with exclamation points and I put on my shoes and he stands up and I grab the kitten and I throw her in the cooler and he starts I don't even hear him at this point I know he's he's asking me what I'm doing and he's getting agitated and I don't hear him at all I'm just doing what grabbing my stuff and I'm leaving pretty much everything and just grabbing what I can run away with and I run down the stairs with the cat and he's right behind me. And I run out the front door and there she is. She's pulling up and I run to the car and she goes,

honey, just put stuff in the car. And I drop a couple things on the way, a couple bags as I'm going because the kitty carry her kind of slips down. And he's trying to talk to her through the window and she's like, search up away from the vehicle. He kind of looked like a sidewalk protester outside of an abortion clinic like he was a young white man and he was carrying a book around and so I was just like reminding me of a

Bible or something which kind of made me chuckle and then he starts in well. I don't know what she's got in those bags like she might be taking things I'm and you have a Bible or something, which kind of made me chuckle. And then he starts in, well, I don't know what she's got in those bags. Like, she might be taking things I'm calling the cops. You know that she has a cat, and that's my cat and blah, blah, blah. And at the time, of course, Allison didn't even know about the cat at all, and she doesn't skip a beat.

And she's like, it's fine. The cat's fine. Just come on, Brittany, get in the car. And Brittany got in the car and I just, you know, drove so fast out of there. I was checking my mirrors constantly, making sure no one was following us. I'm shaking. And she just grabs me by the arm and she's like, it's okay, honey. You're good. We got you. It's like, it's okay, honey. You're good.

We got you. This is astonishing. The way that Allison dropped everything in that scenario, dropped everything. Should go and do what needed to be done. It's my blowing story. It's like moment by moment. I can see it in my mind unfold. and I get angry at him because he says

That's my cat. It's like, you know what? Go fuck yourself, buddy. I feel like Ellison would have put Brittany on her back and crawled across a Redwood forest floor Crawled to the center of the earth to get this woman to help that she needed. Unbelievable. Yeah, she would have done anything and Britney somehow knew to put her trust in Allison. I mean, it's unimaginable actually when you listen to the story, how many things could have gone wrong along the way. And yet somehow she's in the car. She's got the cat. Allison's there, and they drive away.

Allison drives Brittany to an abortion clinic, so she could get an ultrasound. She says her partner never took her to see a doctor. That's when Brittany found out she was 24 weeks long, much further than she thought she was. And the state she was in at the time allowed abortions up to only 20 weeks. Now, 20 weeks sounds progressive, but it's not. An abortion ban at any point in a pregnancy,

whether it's at six weeks or 26 weeks, is still a ban meant to restrict your freedom and deny healthcare. There all BS time limits set in place in large part by uninformed lawmakers. While most abortions happen in the first nine weeks, people need access to abortions later in pregnancy for all sorts of reasons. Maybe you didn't find out you were pregnant until 12 weeks.

Or you learned of a fetal anomaly during your 20 weeks scan. Or maybe you wanted an abortion earlier, but you couldn't get an appointment because your local clinic is overwhelmed with patients traveling from out of state. Whatever the reason, it's none of your state politicians' business. Abortion care should not be restricted based on time. So even though Brittany had just escaped hell, she'd have to get on a plane and fly to a less restrictive state to get care. Allison arranged a flight. But there was a problem. Brittany still didn't have identification. No ID. Remember her abusive partner had taken it.

I was just so anxious that that was going to be the hang up. Yeah. And she just kept reassuring me that everything's fine. Brittany, the way you're describing it, it sounds like at every point at which you felt anxious, Alison had an answer. Yeah. She's like, just don't worry about anything. And then, you know, any questions that I have, well, what have this happened?

So what have that, and she said, we'll deal with it. Nothing's gonna stop us getting you out of here. Nothing's gonna stop us getting you the treatment you need. You're not gonna have to have his baby. I got you the whole time. You are being taken care of. 100%. Like literally I told her I I told her multiple times she needs a cape. When we come back, we'll learn about other superheroes, a group of pilots flying people to abortion appointments for free. We all get busier in the fall, and sometimes that can mean long periods spent away from home. If you're someone who gets a little nervous whenever they have to leave their home empty and you've been meaning to boost your security, check out SimplySafe. SimplySafe's revolutionary home monitoring innovation features 24-7 live-guard protection

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In 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. Since then, it's been a barrage of bad news. But behind the bleak headlines, there are people working to protect our right to control our future. The Defenders is a new 10-part series about the fight for freedom in a post-row America. Co-hosted by Samantha B. and me, Gloria Rivera, the show will examine ways people are still accessing care from crossing state borders to self-managed abortion. You'll hear from activists, providers, and everyday people doing the work to expand reproductive freedom. We're here to tell you, anyone can become

a defender. The Defenders is out now, wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Sam. Where we left off, Alison had helped Brittany escape from her home and her abusive partner. But Brittany still has to now travel across state lines and she doesn't have an ID. That seems like a huge problem. Right? Can you imagine trying to fly in America without an ID? Oh, absolutely not. Last week, I tried to go through airport security with a half-eating yogurt, and I thought that we're going to call the K9 unit on me. Okay.

Okay, I feel like you're about to tell me that Allison had a plan. Correct. Because Allison knows people who know people. So she was able to arrange a flight for Brittany with elevated access to beautiful words. Have you heard about them? No. Okay, so elevated access is a group of

volunteer pilots all over the country. They give their time, their plane, their skills, gas money, everything to help people access the healthcare they deserve. Whether that's an abortion or gender affirming care, these pilots are flying people for free to their appointments and no ID is required. Okay, because it's a private plane. Exactly. But here's another cool fact. The guy who founded elevated access actually volunteered at Midwest Access Coalition

where Allison works. It's a beautiful full circle moment. He started the organization in 2022, in part as a response to what he saw there. People having to deal with all the extreme healthcare bands popping up around the country. So Allison contacted him and found a private pilot for Brittany. We pulled up to the plane, and I didn't realize how small it was going to be.

It was very nice, but it was very small. We're talking small plane. Think of a Honda Civic size thing. It's only four seats. That's Mike. We're using just his first name to protect his safety. You could tell she has just gone through a lot, right? That she was, her mind was in a thousand different places and just trying to

process everything that was going on. And so, you know, my goal was just try to make the flight the easiest part of her day, right? Keep everything calm, make sure she was comfortable. We love you. He could see right away that one way to help Brittany was to help her kitten. At this point, we didn't have a carrier or anything, so she's still in that little zip-up cooler, but she's very well-behaved. So she was just relaxing. I have two cats at home. And so I had an extra cat carrier. I'm like, I'll just bring the cat carrier with me. Who knows what she was able to bring with her? And he brought towels and everything to make the carrier all comfy. With her kitten taken care of, Brittany felt much better. She seemed relatively comfortable when we got up to the plane and getting settled.

He loaded my stuff in the back and he gave me the headphones and he was like, if you want to talk to me during the flight or you have any questions, you can talk. He goes, or if you'd rather not, you can just, you know, turn the volume down. I usually offer them the back seat because it's the most comfortable spot. There's two seats back there. So it's a little more space to spread out. And he goes, you can take a nap if you wanted to. And at the time, I thought that would be ridiculous.

The last thing I'm going to do is go to sleep. And we get everything going and we take off. And again, cats being very well behaved. And it's just, that's when I knew that like with every few minutes, I realized how far they're away from him. I was a farther away from the craziness and how much there was no way he could get a hold of me. Like this wasn't happening. Like I was free. And I'd say within 30 minutes, I was asleep. I slept probably at least an hour. Deep sleep.

Oh yeah. I just had my finger in the carrier on my little kitten because she was holding my finger. And I just, I slept on top of the carrier, like hunched over it and the carrier, the little lines, the little metal on the top of it was actually indented in my cheek for a couple hours. We had just slept and really hard and woke up and felt better than I had felt in months.

During the flight I looked out and we were above the clouds but there were also clouds above that and there was sun shining through and clouds above that, and I was shunned, shunning through, and it was just beautiful. And I was so grateful that I hadn't killed myself, that I hadn't. I never thought I was gonna get out of there, but I'm just so glad that I had just given myself the time to find a way out of there.

There was some building clouds, and as you fly through those you know as the clouds lift so does the plane and so we got some bumps going through a couple of those. And he looked back at I could tell by his face he was like oh she's probably gonna look uncomfortable and I was actually I had just woken up I'm probably from the turbulence and we were surrounded by clouds like you couldn't see past the tip of the I'm probably from the turbulence and we were surrounded by clouds. Like you couldn't see past the tip of the wings and at that point I'd never felt so fearless. I'm like if the plane goes down then that's fine. I'm fine with it.

I'm just happy to be there. Like it was just so much peace but at the same time I knew I was okay. Mike Flubrini roughly 800 miles across several state lines. About four hours later they landed in the Midwest. We got out of the plane, we got her like all the bags into the person who was picking her up, and she came up and she was like, can I give you a hug? And I was like, yes, of course. Because I think she was just like so relieved to have gotten somewhere and to be there.

And you know, you could just tell there had just been like this weight kind of lifted off of her. You know, I think you could just tell there had just been like this weight kind of lifted off of her. Brittany had a two-day abortion procedure and she was so ready. After each day, she got to return to her little kitten in a hotel room that Allison had arranged. This was all happening right before Christmas. Brittany, how did you feel after the procedure? That was my first time to actually take a deep breath and look at what all had happened. It had been so fast and so much stress and so just chaos that I never had a second to really appreciate what all had just went through. And it was a snowstorm and it was Christmas and I was just could not be happier to be in that hotel with my little kitty and

done with it. I cried but it was happiness. It was just relief. It was six months of tears, just six months of stress and pain and just fear and hopelessness, just literally I cried it all out. Brittany spent the Christmas holiday playing with her cat, taking videos of her cat, watching TV, and not consumed with all the things she had been worrying about just days prior. Eventually, Brittany got her ID back. We're not just talking about a driver's license. Brittany was able to get a new birth certificate.

Her former partner had destroyed her old one. She also got a new social security card. She credits Allison for everything. Just the way everything worked out. It was just the way everything worked out. It was just too perfect. Brittany says Allison also gently pushed her to take ownership of her life and help herself. Even though I was still a little shut down, she was like, I'm going to send you numbers to call. And these are people I know with housing and all sorts of assistance, but you need to call them.

Allison and Midwest Access Coalition didn't just help Brittany access an abortion. They helped her out of an abusive situation and gave her a new life. Now Brittany is in her own apartment where she says she has two years of paid rent and utilities. Services and support are being wrapped around her. Things like gift cards to Walmart, vouchers for clothes and furniture, monthly bus passes, on-site counselors and group meals, all the results of that first email that ended up with Allison. Through Allison, I now have two years to actually get my life together.

I have my own apartment with my own key, where my kiddy is safe all day. Within a month of being there, I already had a job. I'm saving money. And by the time two years is up, I'm gonna be able to go back to being on my own in my own place with my own vehicle and everything. So when you wake up every day in Albertany, in this new life, what's it like for you?

Just the simplest things bring me tears of joy. Just my kitten playing on the floor while I'm washing dishes. Like my concern for the day is did I have laundry detergent to do laundry? Not if some psychos going to come in and have a screaming fit for two days and I have laundry detergent to do laundry, not if some psychos going to come in and have a screaming fit for two days and I have this thing growing inside me that I don't want in the, I have nowhere to turn and just constant suicidal thoughts. And to be now crying happy tears while doing dishes in my apartment, I know that I'm there and I'm safe. Throughout my whole conversation with Brittany, she kept saying over and over how Alison was this hero, that she should be wearing a cape,

but Alison doesn't see it like that. It's not my story, it's Britney's, you know, and so she tells me all the time, thank you so much. You're my superhero, you're my hero, and I'm like, you're my freaking hero. You did this actually. You're the one who reached out. You're the one who like made this happen. I just had the resources to get us over the finish line. How critical was it for Brittany to get that abortion? I mean, I it saved her life. She said it. I've said it. You know, abortion movement

says that abortion saves lives all the time. And that's true for my own abortion story. Abortion saved my life. But Brittany, her life was really fucking saved. It was. And Brittany doesn't want anyone else trapped in that situation to stay. Just don't give up. There are other steps you don't have to be ashamed. Despite what somebody might be telling you, you don't have to be. There is a whole community of people who care and want to help you out of the situation and that will literally be superheroes for you. All you have to do is find them and ask. There are people all over this country waiting for you to find them, waiting for that call

or text. Allison was there to respond to Brittany, but Allison's not alone. There is a huge network of helpers making sure everyone has access to the healthcare they need. Okay, so Sam, we started off with a very angry montage. We did, yes. But then we heard Brittany and Allison's incredible story of home. I told you hope exists. How are you feeling now?

Okay, well to be honest, I'm still very mad, but I love this story and I'm so grateful that people like Allison exist. But why the hell does someone need a league of literal superheroes to make it to a doctor's appointment? Also, I'm guessing there are way more Britonies than there are Allison's right now, and that is very scary. Yeah, that is very scary. The need is rising, and the donations are dwindling. So if you can support a fund like the Midwest Access Coalition or the National Network of Abortion Funds,

that is a great place to start. But donations aren't everything. There are so many ways to help. You can volunteer your time to support a fund, or when your friend calls you because they miss their period, you can steer them to accurate information and resources. Okay, maybe you can't fly a plane, but you can offer to put together care packages to support people during an abortion. It can be so simple, a heating

patentee goes a long way. Yes, anyone can become a defender. And that is where this show comes in. We have so many stories for you. Stories that will enrage you, yes. But they'll also inspire you to get out of bed and figure out where you fit in this fight. Because it's going to take every single one of us. And we will win. Here's what's coming up in the defenders. It is all about bodily autonomy.

It is about people's ability to control their own destinies. Tennessee is an oppressed state. Like every individual there has been gerrymandered out of their basic human rights. People who aren't documented and need an abortion are either forced into parenthood or do just try to brisking deportation. You want to get it done as soon as possible but when you don't have the access to do so it makes everything so much harder. I will go out on my own terms. I will not be told that I'm done. We also want to make sure that people know how to contact Midwest Access Coalition. that I'm doing.

We also want to make sure that people know how to contact Midwest Access Coalition since we know what a total lifeline that was for Brittany. If you are traveling to from or within the Midwest to access an abortion, Midwest Access Coalition can be a great resource. Call or text their hotline at 847-750-6224. You can also go to MidwestAxisCollision.org. Find other abortion funds around the country at the National Network of Abortion Fund's website, abortionfons.org. There's more of the defenders with Lemon out of Premium. Subscribers get

exclusive access to bonus content like an unared interview with an elevated access pilot. Subscribe now and Apple Podcasts. The Defenders is a production of Lemonada Media, where your hosts Gloria Riviera and Samantha B. Moona Danish is our supervising producer. Lisa Foo is our producer. Isara Asseves and Tony Williams are our associate producers.

Ivan Karayev and Natasha Jacobs are our audio engineers. Music by Hannah Brown with additional music by Natasha Jacobs. Story editing by Jackie Dancic are our VP of narrative content. Fact checking by Naomi Barr. Executive producers are Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Widdle's Wax.

This series is supported by Charles and Lynn Schusterman family Philanthropies, the William and Flora Hulett Foundation and Levi Strauss Foundation. Follow the defenders wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad-free on Amazon Music with your prime membership. podcasts or listen ad-free on Amazon Music with your prime membership. If you are in a domestic violence situation, you can call 800-799-Safe or go to thehotline.org. And if you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering self-harm or suicide, you can call or text 988 to access a trained crisis counselor.

Everybody check your emails. You never know what's gonna be in your inbox. Could be the most important email anyone ever wrote in their entire life. This message is brought to you by MakerSmart. Hey everyone, I'm Sam B. You might know me from the Daily Show from Full Frontal with Samantha B.

Or maybe from my new podcast Choice Words, which is another Lemonade Media Show as well. Each week on Choice Words, I interview people I admire about the biggest decisions they've made in their lives and what they've learned from those experiences. That's why I'm so excited to partner with Makers Mark on Choice Words. Because just like our show, Makers celebrates those who live life for the curious mindset. And now, thanks to the Makers Mark Personalized Label Program, you can create a custom label for the people in your life who you admire. And best of all, the label program is free.

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On our podcast, Self Helpless, we dig into everything from heartbreak, to career burnout, to the wild stories from our 20s, and the many anxieties we've experienced along the way. We're often joined by guests who range from celebrities to renowned health experts. And together, we'll unpack big topics like deciding whether or not we want kids, building your dream career, strengthening self-trust, and much, much more. So join us every Monday for an unfiltered, entertaining and honest conversation with friends where you don't even have to leave your house.

If you're not wearing pants, we will never know. That's right. So listen to Self Helpless wherever you get your podcasts.