800 Miles to Freedom

Episode 1: Back in 2022, shortly after the fall of Roe, Brittany felt trapped. She was pregnant and stuck in an abusive relationship, totally cut off from her support system. She didn’t see a way out - until she happened to hear a radio story about the Midwest Access Coalition, an abortion fund helping people travel across state lines. We follow Brittany’s harrowing journey as she travels hundreds of miles, with the help of a group of volunteer pilots from Elevated Access.  Looking for resources?  If you’re in a domestic violence situation, you can call 800.799.SAFE. Or go to https://www.thehotline.org/. If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering self-harm or suicide, you can call or text 988 to access a trained crisis counselor. You can find an abortion fund through the National Network of Abortions funds at https://abortionfunds.org/need-abortion/  Learn more about Midwest Access Coalition at https://www.midwestaccesscoalition.org/about. If you need to get in touch with Midwest Access Coalition, please call or text their confidential hotline at 847-750-6224. Learn more about Elevated Access at https://www.elevatedaccess.org/about.   Gloria Riviera and Samantha Bee are our hosts. Muna Danish is our supervising producer. Lisa Phu is our producer. Isaura Aceves and Tony Williams are our associate producers. Ivan Kuraev and Natasha Jacobs are our audio engineers. Music by Hannis Brown with additional music by Natasha Jacobs. Story editing by Jackie Danziger, our VP of Narrative Content. Fact-checking by Naomi Barr. Executive producers are Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs  This series is supported by Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Levi Strauss Foundation. Follow The Defenders wherever you get your podcasts, or listen ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime Membership. You can also get premium content and behind the scenes material by subscribing to Lemonada Premium on Apple Podcasts.  Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.  Want to become a Lemonada superfan? Join us at joinsubtext.com/lemonadasuperfan.   Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and all other Lemonada series: lemonadamedia.com/sponsors. To follow along with a transcript, go to lemonadamedia.com/show/ shortly after the air date.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.