
Hope is an 18-Hour Drive: Inside Planned Parenthood’s Fight Against a "Backdoor Abortion Ban"
From HIT Like a Girl Pod: Empowering Women in Health IT by Like a Girl Media
October 7, 2025 · 18 min
About this episode
Alexis McGill Johnson discusses the challenges facing reproductive healthcare in a post-Roe America and the importance of hope as a form of resistance.
In a post-Roe America, the attacks on reproductive healthcare are becoming more insidious. Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson reveals how a recent "big, beautiful" bill contains a provision designed to bankrupt providers — and why she sees this moment not as a defeat, but as a call to build an "infrastructure of hope." In this powerful and essential episode of HIT Like a Girl, guest host Dana Trampas, MPH, sits down with Alexis McGill Johnson, the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood, recorded live at the Power of Women in Medicine Summit. Amidst what she calls a "betrayal of unimaginable cruelty," Alexis pulls back the curtain on the deliberate strategy of chaos aimed at destabilizing providers and patients. She explains why separating abortion from other healthcare is a dangerous mistake and makes a compelling case for why hope is not a feeling, but a form of active, defiant resistance. Alexis McGill Johnson shares: The "Big Betrayal" Bill: How a recently passed provision is a targeted, backdoor abortion ban designed to strip Medicaid funding from providers like Planned Parenthood, devastating low-income communities. Chaos as a Strategy: Why the constant whiplash…
People in this episode
Guest: Alexis McGill Johnson
Topics covered
- reproductive healthcare
- abortion
- health policy
- Planned Parenthood
- women's health
Keywords
- backdoor abortion ban
- healthcare system
- Medicaid funding
- low-income communities
- infrastructure of hope
Mentioned in this episode
Products: TikTok
Books & works: HIT Like a Girl, On the Frontlines of Reproductive Justice
Places: America
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