Reproductive Rights Deep Dives
Care Is a Right: Rep. Sarah McBride on Grief, Courage, and Change On My Body. My Pod. Episode 7
Politics is personal—and storytelling is a strategy in the movement for reproductive freedom and LGBTQIA+ equality.
Watch & Listen
Rep. Sarah McBride joins My Body. My Pod. to break down why personal storytelling builds empathy, shifts stigma, and helps people understand abortion and gender-affirming care for what they are: health care.
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Meet Rep. Sarah McBride
Rep. Sarah McBride represents Delaware’s at-large district in the U.S. House—making history in 2025 as the first openly transgender member of Congress. Before that, she served in the Delaware State Senate and worked in national LGBTQIA+ advocacy, including with the Human Rights Campaign.
On reproductive freedom, McBride is crystal clear: every person deserves dignity, privacy, and control over their own body and health care. And she’s putting that into action. So far in Congress, she has cosponsored landmark bills like:
- The Women’s Health Protection Act of 2025, which would lock the right to abortion into law;
- The Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act, which would lift existing coverage bans for those who receive their health insurance through the federal government;
- The Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, which would protect the right to travel for abortion care;
- The Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act, which would provide financial support for people traveling to access abortion care; and
- The Right to Contraception Act, which would protect an individual’s ability to access contraception as well as provider’s ability to provide them.
She has also voted against:
- A bill threatening abortion providers with criminal penalties
- Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” which defunds Planned Parenthood and is the largest attack on Medicaid and health care access in U.S. history
In Delaware, she delivered:
- Paid family and medical leave
- Expanded contraceptive access
- Insurance coverage of abortion without cost barriers
- Medication abortion expansion
- Repeal of the state’s pre-Roe abortion ban
This is the record of someone who doesn’t just talk about reproductive freedom—she champions it.
🔎 Closer Look: Storytelling as a Superpower
Politics is personal—and few people embody that more than Congresswoman Sarah McBride. In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Rep. McBride joins Mini to share how caregiving for her late husband, Andy, shaped her belief that access to health care should never depend on luck—it should be a right.
From coming out as trans as student body president to publicly sharing her grief for her late husband, Rep. McBride shows how honesty moves people—and motivates change.
Together, she and Mini connect the dots between:
- Abortion bans
- Attacks on trans people and LGBTQIA+ rights
- Cuts to Medicaid, Medicare & Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage
- Defunding Planned Parenthood
It’s all the same playbook—stripping people of bodily autonomy and freedom to control their futures.
🔑 Key Take Aways: Real Stories Cut Through the Noise
“I just do not believe that in the wealthiest, most developed nation on earth, the ability to get care should be a matter of luck. I think it should be the law of the land.” —Rep. Sarah McBride
The 2025 elections made one thing clear: voters want leaders who protect health care and personal freedom. While Republicans poured millions into anti-trans and anti-abortion attacks—and lost—Democrats won by leading with what matters most.
Mini and McBride points to what worked:
- Affordability first. Meet people where they feel the stakes—in their wallets and in their lives.
- Curious, not judgmental. Listen first. Invite people into the conversation.
- Place-based. Local values rooted in community and local issues.
- No retreat on rights. Answer attacks. Defend vulnerable people. Defend our shared values.
When people hear real stories from real people? They vote for real freedom.
Hope lives in organizing—and in stories that stick. The path forward runs through winning back Congress, yes, but also through everyday organizing: talking to friends in key states, mobilizing with groups like Reproductive Freedom for All, and amplifying human stories that cut through the noise.
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🤿 Dive Deeper
Here’s the rundown of more topics we discussed with Rep. McBride:
- Reproductive rights and LGBTQIA+ rights are inseparable. The same forces, the same money, the same legal arguments tie our fights together. Attacks on abortion, gender-affirming care, and even basic health coverage all spring from the same belief: that your role in life is dictated at birth.
- Court decisions link our freedoms. The same attacks on privacy risk everything from abortion to marriage equality.
- Republicans’ health care cuts are catastrophic. From ACA premium tax credits to historic Medicaid and Medicare cuts and Planned Parenthood defunding, Rep. McBride and Mini how Republican lawmakers’ policies are shutting down clinics, driving up costs, and literally cost lives—especially in red states.
ABOUT THE PODCAST
MY BODY. MY POD. WITH MINI TIMMARAJU.
The fight for reproductive freedom is more urgent than ever.
That’s why we’re bringing you My Body. My Pod. with Mini Timmaraju, a reproductive freedom podcast.
If you’re into building a nationwide movement to protect and expand health justice, reproductive equity, and the power of people to control their own lives, this show is for you.
Hear from leaders and changemakers who share wisdom from the front lines, stories of the real struggles people are facing every day, and a vision for the future we’re determined to win.
Hosted by Mini Timmaraju, President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All. Available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Reproductive Freedom for All is made up of members across the country who believe that everybody should be free to control their own bodies and lives—and we want you to be a part of it.
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