Aborsh Rachel Cairns

Expectant is a six-part audio series that muddies fiction and non-fiction as a woman faces the prospect of becoming a parent during the climate crisis.

Through conversations with climate researchers, parents, mental health experts and childfree families, she grapples with grief, hope, and the biggest decision of her life: should she bring a child into this world?

In the final episode of this season of Aborsh, Rachel ties up loose ends and looks forward. She’s joined by Aborsh story editor Tracey Lindeman to revisit key takeaways from the series and what progress might look like for Canadian reproductive rights and freedom.

Distinguished professor Sarah Kaplan, founder of the Institute for Gender and the Economy, joins Rachel to discuss why reproductive rights is an economic issue as much as it is a human rights issue. We talk about “gendered capitalism,” the wage gap, the care economy, how we measure GDP and the economic consequences of having children.

In this episode, Rachel and guests continue to discuss reproductive justice, or rather the ongoing in-justices and structural racism in the Canadian healthcare system, and specifically in regards to anti-Black racism. Featuring Dr Tunde-Byass, an OB-GYN and president of the Black Physicians of Canada, who connects a throughline between the historical legacies of slavery and segregation to the disparities experienced today. And Dr Ruth Habte, a 4th year OB-GYN resident explains why universal cost coverage for contraception is an integral pillar of reproductive justice and choice.

What’s the difference between reproductive choice and reproductive justice? As it turns out, a whole lot. In this episode, Rachel and guests discuss the fight for abortion access in New Brunswick and how the resurgence of Indigenous midwifery — as an anti-colonial movement — is reclaiming and returning birth to communities across Canada. Featuring guests Jessi Taylor, the spokesperson for Reproductive Justice New Brunswick, and Claire Dion Fletcher, an Indigenous midwife and co-chair of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives.

Rachel takes “the abortion pill” and discovers she was woefully unprepared for it. With guest Dr. Dustin Costescu, an OBGYN in southern Ontario, Rachel discusses the abortion pill (Mifegymiso) and the history of self-managed abortions. She and Dr. Dustin also look at the abysmal state of abortion training in medicine, and what empathetic, inclusive health care might look like.