*Note: This episode was recorded before the US Supreme Court in Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine unanimously rejected a lawsuit challenging the FDA's rules for prescribing and dispensing the abortion medication mifepristone on the issue of standing.

American University School of Public Affairs professor, lawyer, and reproductive rights and policy expert Jessica Waters joins Big World to discuss the status of abortion access and bodily autonomy in the US. The discussion takes places two years after the Supreme Court overturned the nearly 50-year precedent established in Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, authored by Justice Samuel Alito.

Waters begins our conversation by discussing global abortion access (1:57 ) and explaining the impact of “heartbeat bills” that several states have implemented (3:26 ). She also describes the importance of protecting access to abortion medications such as mifepristone and misoprostol (5:41 ).

What is fetal personhood and how does it affect other reproductive healthcare like IVF (8:45 )? What is the rationale for restricting abortion medications (18:53 )? Waters answers these questions and ends our discussion by highlighting the impact that limited abortion access and the need to travel—often long distances—for reproductive care has on women across the country (22:24 ).

In the “Take 5” segment (14:33 ) of this episode, Waters answers this question: What are five policies the government can enact to protect reproductive health?