I always say like the Latina community has been perceived as either virginal Catholic

or promiscuous hypersexualized, right? So I say that with all of that and we're none of that, right?

We're a spectrum of experiences, a spectrum of opinions, a spectrum of

perspectives that make us incredibly diverse. Jessica Gonzalez-Hurajas is the executive director

of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. She spent most of her career

fighting to ensure that Latinas have access to reproductive

care and with abortion restrictions sweeping the country, that fight has never been more in focus.

Jessica, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Let's start where we are right now.

A bunch of different states have passed laws to restrict abortion.

When a law dictates that a woman can't get an abortion after six weeks or after a fetal

heartbeat is detected, what does that really mean?

That means that the state legislatures, mostly men, have control over our bodies. So what it means to

is that those who can leave the state, who have the means to do that, can get the care they need.

For those who are low income, who are immigrants, who are women of color, who don't have the access and ability

to leave the states that they live in,

won't get the care that they need. And it could potentially mean criminalization, and it could

potentially mean a death sentence. In Texas, they held a hearing where they could charge a woman

with homicide for having an abortion. So this has gone beyond the scope of narrative.

It is way out of sync with the national understanding of our rights, our body, and our ability

to make decisions for ourselves. So it is extreme and dangerous. What is the perception of how we as a community

view sexual health issues and abortions specifically? We've done opinion polling for the last

eight years. And it's important that we do opinion polling because major mainstream opinion polls leave us out.

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