Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters Podcast

This episode of the SRHM Podcast is an audio recording of the paper, 'Educating ideal neoliberal citizens: discourses of agency and responsibility in comprehensive sexuality education' read by the author, Sarah Lewinger, and published in the SRHM Journal in October 2023.

This paper includes an initial review of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) interventions in the global south and a call to action to reimagine CSE as transformative praxis, "which does not teach students to individually aspire to sexual “respectability” but to demand structural change to ensure more equitable sexual health for all".

Please note that references, citations and tables have been removed from this audio recording for ease of listening.

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In this episode, we explore the urgent impact of HIV funding cuts on trans health—and the ripple effects beyond. We hear from three advocates working at the frontlines of trans health and rights across the globe.

Joining us are:

• Anil Padavatan (he/she), Health Lead at Global Action for Trans Equality, based in South Africa.

• Amanita Calderón-Cifuentes (she/her), HIV Research and Advocacy Officer at Trans Europe and Central Asia, based in Germany.

• Adrian King Kibe (he/him), Programme Consultant at East Africa Trans Health & Advocacy Network, based in Kenya.

Together, they share insights from their work, reflect on the consequences of recent cuts to HIV resources, and highlight what’s needed to ensure sustainable, trans-led responses moving forward.

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In this episode, we’re tackling a pressing issue: the maternal health disparities faced by Black and Latine women—and how systemic barriers within healthcare contribute to these inequities.

We’re honored to have two special guests with us today, Lucia Guerra-Reyes, Associate Professor, and Ruhun Wasata, a PhD Candidate in Health Behaviour, both at the Department of Applied Health Science, School of Public Health, Indiana University Bloomington. We talk to these authors of a compelling new study published in the SRHM Journal: Provider Perspectives on Maternal Care Challenges for Black and Latine Women in Indiana.

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We’re back with another important conversation that demands attention. Today, we’re diving into acrucial yet often overlooked issue: post-partumobstetric violence—and how the pharmaceuticalization of post-partum depression treatment might be contributing to it.

We’re honored to have two brilliant guests with us, the authors of a compelling new commentary in the SRHM Journal: Alicia Ely Yamin – Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and Adjunct Senior Lecturer on Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Lisa Cosgrove – Clinical Psychologist and Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and Faculty fellow at UMas Boston’s Applied Ethics Centre.

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On Tuesday 25 February 2025, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (SRHM) hosted an insightful webinar where we discussed the global impact of the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

The webinar brought together global experts to discuss the far-reaching consequences of the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders on SRHR. The discussion highlighted the devastating impact of funding freezes, restrictive policies, and ideological attacks on sexual and reproductive healthcare, LGBTQ+ rights, and global health programmes.

Moderator

Eszter Kismődi

Chief Executive, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters

Panellists:

Mindy Jane Roseman
Director of International Law Programs and Director of the Gruber Program for Global Justice and Women’s Rights
Yale Law School
SRHM Associate Editor

Onikepe Owolabi
Director of International Research
Guttmacher Institute

Anand Tamang
Director
Center for Research on Environment Health and Population Activities (CREHPA)

Alice M. Miller
Professor in the Practice, Yale School of Public Health; Associate Professor (adjunct) Yale Law School; co-Director, Global Health Justice Partnership of the Yale Law and Public Health SchoolsErika Castellanos
Executive Director
Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE)Allan Maleche
Executive Director
Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network (KELIN)
SRHM Editorial and Advisory Board Member

Luisa Cabal
Director, Regional Support Team for Latin America and the Caribbean
UNAIDS
SRHM Editorial and Advisory Board MemberUseful links:

In this episode, SRHM Associate Editor Nina Sun sits down with SRHM Journal Executive Editor, Emma Pitchforth, to discuss the key highlights from the 2024 Open Issue of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters Journal. They dive into special collections focusing on sexual pleasure and abortion rights, explore the current call for papers on sexual pleasure, war, and armed conflict, and preview an upcoming call for papers related to abortion rights. Tune in for a thoughtful conversation on these critical topics in sexual and reproductive health and rights.

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This episode of the SRHM podcast is a recording of an important webinar hosted by SRHM on the (mis)use of evidence in contested rights on Wednesday 20 November 2024.

On this Friday 8 November 2024, Intersex Day of Solidarity, SRHM is pleased to release a new podcast episode with Morgan Carpenter and Mauro Cabral Grinspan as they discuss the evolution of the intersex rights movement, it's successes and it's current challenges.

Morgan Carpenter is an Associate Professor and bioethicist at Sydney Health Ethics in the University of Sydney School of Public Health and Executive Director of Intersex Human Rights Australia.

Mauro Cabral Grinspan is an Argentinian intersex and trans activist and Principal Consultant, and Project Coordinator for a new international project aimed at dismantling human rights violations in medical settings on people with innate variations of sex characteristics at Intersex Human Rights Australia.

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On 16 October 2024, Eszter Kismödi, Chief Executive of SRHM, spoke to James Yap, Acting Director of the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and Anjli Parrin, Director of the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School about a report which reviews Canada's complicity in violations of women’s rights to maternal healthcare in Gaza.

Both of these institutions jointly prepared a submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) highlighting Canada’s consistent shortcomings in meeting its transnational human rights obligations and following extensive research conducted by the clinics on the grave impact of the conflict in Gaza on women and children since October 7, 2023.

The SRHM Journal has been documenting human rights violations for more than 30 years, with a rich history showing how international human rights law impacts people's lives. As conflicts continue in different parts of the world, SRHM is calling for a wide range of forms of evidence, including perspectives from those involved, service delivery accounts, rapid qualitative and quantitative research, critical analyses and testimonies related to SRHR in conflict. Please read more about this call for papers at the link below. Useful links

This podcast on rights- and evidence-based knowledge in legal action is part of a rights-based knowledge creation series by SRHM. The series includes articles, blogs, podcasts and webinars. There are links to these resources below.

In this episode, SRHM Chief Executive Eszter Kismodi speaks to esteemed colleagues in the SRHR movement about the use of evidence for legal and human rights and SRHR action in their respective situations. Given the ever-changing global, regional and national contexts they discuss how the nature of evidence and knowledge is changing over time and lastly, what we need to effectively use evidence and knowledge for legal and human rights action.

The discussion takes place between:

• Eszter Kidmodi, Chief Executive of Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters (SRHM)
• Mindy Jane Roseman, Director of International Law Programs and Director of the Gruber Program for Global Justice and Women’s Rights. Mindy is also an Associate Editor for SRHM.
• Allan Maleche, Executive Director of Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS. Allan is also an Editorial Advisory Board Member for SRHM
• Dipika Jain, Professor & Vice Dean and Director- Centre for Justice, Law and Society (CJLS), Jindal Global Law School. Dipika is also a Regional Editor for the SRHM South Asia Hub.

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As SRHM gets ready to launch its first Special Collection on Sexual Pleasure, let’s hear from the artist behind the cover of this collection—Samuel Bester. Hailing from Switzerland, Samuel Bester grew up fascinated by art, especially with the emotion, upheaval, and creativity that art evokes in people. While studying in Strasbourg in 1992, Samuel took a keen interest in video art, an art form that is linked to the Fluxus movement. The Fluxus movement strived to bind life and art together—a philosophy that Samuel abides to, till date.

In this episode, SRHM Associate Editor Nina Sun, talks to Executive Editor, Emma Pitchforth and Managing Editor, Pete Chapman, about an exciting new call for papers for the 2024 Open Issue.

SRHM is calling for submissions on all SRHR topics, particularly those which bring a rights focus to neglected and marginalised issues, as well as those whose lead authors are from the Global South. We hope that this year’s Open Issue will bring documentation and analysis of progressive examples of upholding SRHR, as well as addressing critical gaps in the field

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In our latest podcast episode, Associated Editor of SRHM, Nina Sun, speaks to two colleagues from the United Nations Population Fund - Petar Mladenov, a Programme Analyst for youth-led advocacy, comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), and Ilya Zhukov, a Technical Specialist and global CSE focal point. 

Young people living with HIV, young people selling sex, and young people from marginalised backgrounds are often left behind from CSE interventions and there is a pressing need to tailor CSE programs in order to include them, and improve their sexual wellbeing.

In this episode, listen to the panelists engage in an enlightening discussion on how to improve CSE program integrity, quality, and fidelity for left-behind populations and how their work with local partners and research institutions are helping to address research gaps for the success of these programs in different countries. They also discuss how they measure and evaluate facilitators that enhance inclusive CSE programs, and efforts to improve the facilitators' performance in different contexts.

Useful links from the SRHM journal issue:

This episode was co-organised by SRHM and the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, and moderated by the Institute's director and SRHM Trustee, Sofia Gruskin. With an introduction by Nina Sun, Associated Editor of the SRHM Journal, we hear from key actors, including Anne Philpott - Founder of the Pleasure Project, Eszter Kismödi - Chief Executive of SRHM, Kat Lowe - Content Moderation Lead for Medan, a global not-for-profit organisation, and Leeza Mangaldas - India's foremost pleasure-positive content creator, on how information, misinformation, and disinformation in the current digital age impacts sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), with a particular focus on sexuality education, contraception, and abortion.

Listen to the panelists engage in a rich discussion on effective strategies to counter the challenges surrounding SRHR in the digital age, to ensure that the transformative potential of technology reaches those who need it most, and support agency, bodily autonomy, and decision making for all individuals.

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In this 10 minute editor's summary episode we hear from Nina Sun, SRHM Associate Editor, and Emma Pitchforth, SRHM Editor-in-Chief. Emma gives an overview of the 2023 Open Issue, the range of topics and gives a summary of three papers that stood out to her personally. Nina and Emma also discuss what themes will be important for the SRHM journal to publish in 2024 and what makes the SRHM Open issue different to other journal publications.

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In anticipation of the International Conference on Family Planning, this episode focuses on reproductive power and aligning actions with values in global family planning.

The conversation is moderated by Sara Gullo who works as an Independent Consultant. Sara is joined by Christine Galavotti a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Feven Mekuria a Senior Advisor in Community Health systems at CARE.

This conversation is inspired by a recent article on reproductive power and family planning written by Christine and Sara which was published in the SRHM journal. The link to the article is available in the episode description or you can find it at SRHM.org.

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In this episode, four experts discuss the importance of pleasure for health and wellbeing and how it connects to family planning and contraception. They also discuss the pleasure deficit, why it exists and what we can do about it.

This episode is moderated by Anne Philpott who is the Founder and Co-Director of The Pleasure Project - an international education and advocacy organization working to eroticize safer sex. Anne is speaking with Ana Santos, an award-winning journalist who reports on the intersections of sexuality, sexual health, and female migrant labour. She is also a Pleasure Fellow at The Pleasure Project. Anne is also speaking with Mahmoud Garga, Lead Specialist in Strategic Communication, Media Relations and Digital Campaigning at the IPPF Africa Regional Office. He also leads their Treasure You Pleasure campaign across Sub-Saharan Africa. And lastly, Jessica Sanders is also joining the conversion. Jessica is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah in the Division of Family Planning and Director of research at the ASCENT Center for reproductive and sexual health. She received her PhD in Public Health from the University of Utah with an emphasis in Women’s Health.

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On June 24, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade and thus removed constitutional protection for abortion rights in the country. This decision will hurt millions of people – especially those who already face discriminatory obstacles to health care. In response, we recorded this episode of the SRHM Podcast to better understand the situation in the U.S. right now and the implications of this milestone ruling.

The conversation is moderated by Mindy Jane Roseman, Director of International Law Programs at Yale Law, the Director of the Gruber Program for Global Justice and Women’s Rights, and SRHM Associate Editor. Mindy is speaking with Elizabeth Nash, Principal Policy Associate, State Issues with the Guttmacher Institute in Washington, DC, and Rachel Rebouché, Interim Dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law and James E. Beasley Professor of Law.

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In this episode, SRHM Chief Executive Eszter Kismodi speaks with five experts on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in relation to the war against Ukraine. Together, they cover issues such as access to SRHR in Ukraine and in neighboring countries, the complexity of delivering humanitarian aid, the nuances of surrogacy during wars, as well as the importance of humanitarian law, human rights law and criminal law.

Speakers:

Galina Maistruk - Obstetrician-Gynecologist in Ukraine

Wanda Nowicka - Member of Parliament in Poland

Alison Motluk - Freelance Journalist specialized in assisted reproduction

Dr. Henia Dakkak - Head of Policy and Liaison Unit, Humanitarian Office, UNFPA in Moldova 

Christina Zampas - Associate Director of Global Advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights

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Following a call for poetry in September 2021, SRHM published its first poetry anthology on sexual and reproductive justice. To celebrate the release of the collection, we invited five poets and a member of the Selection Committee to read their poems and share what inspired them to write. This episode of the SRHM Podcast is the recording from the launch event.

This episode features Avery Everhart, Blas Radi and A.J. Lowik. Together, they discuss the importance of inclusive language and best practices, how social movements for trans rights and reproductive justice are influenced by geographic contexts, and how the criteria for political participation are too often based on cisnormative logic. The episode concludes with several recommendations on how to be more inclusive.

In this episode, Emily Maistrellis, Senior Program Officer at the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health is hosting a conversation with three colleagues on the impact of US foreign policy on abortion worldwide. More specifically, they discuss the Global Gag Rule, or the GGR, and how even though the policy was rescinded in January 2021, the effects continue to be seen globally.

Speakers:

Patty Skuster, Beck Chair in Law at Temple Law School and fellow with the Center for Public Health Law Research

Anand Tamang, Founding Director of CREHPA, a research organization based in Kathmandu, Nepal

Evelyne Opondo, Senior Regional Director for Africa at the Center for Reproductive Rights

In today’s episode, Mindy Jane Roseman, SRHM Associate Editor, Director of International Law Programs at Yale Law and Director of the Gruber Program for Global Justice and Women’s Rights is speaking with Dr. Marcin Smietana, Research Associate in the Reproductive Sociology Research Group at Cambridge University and Sarojini Nadimpally, Founder of Sama Resource Group for Women and Health and the former Co-chair of People's Health Movement Global.

Together, they discuss the evolution and complexities of surrogacy worldwide. They explore how surrogacy is viewed in different areas of the world, how laws vary, and how to frame the issue from a reproductive justice perspective.

In September 2021, the state of Texas implemented Senate Bill 8 (SB8) banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, including in cases of rape and incest. This is one of the most restrictive state laws on abortion in the country. To better understand what this means, SRHM gathered expert speakers to discuss how SB8 was implemented, the strategies being pursued to stop its enforcement and the ban’s implications for sexual and reproductive health and rights in the US and beyond.

Speakers:

Dr. Kari White - Associate Professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work and Faculty Research Associate at the Population Research Center at The University of Texas

Melanie Fontes - Fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights

Dr. Samuel Dickman - Medical Director for Primary Care at Planned Parenthood South Texas

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in this episode, Rupsa Mallik, Director of Programs and Innovation at CREA, a feminist international human rights organization based in the Global South and led by women from the Global South, is in conversation with Na Young who is the co-founder and representative of the Centre for Sexual Rights and Reproductive Justice or SHARE, in South Korea.

Together, they discuss abortion legal reforms by comparing India and South Korea’s journeys to advance safe and legal abortion.

In this episode, Dr. Ankitha Manohar, a practicing OBGYN from India, interviews her friend and colleague, Dr. Nuzrath Jahan, a Master of Public Health Research Scholar from India. In their conversation, Drs Ankitha and Nuzrath discuss the ongoing effects of the pandemic on menstrual health as well as the link between access to safe water and menstrual hygiene.