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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Wednesday, April 2nd. I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show saying get out your Rosie the Riveter cosplay, because apparently we’re at war, according to Fox News. 

[clip of Harris Faulkner] Look, when this nation used to go to war, people in this country would support the war effort with with their materials at home and making things for weaponry and all of that. We’ve got to do 100% buy-in over this bumpy period. Just communicate. 

Jane Coaston: To be clear, Harris Faulkner is comparing voluntary tariffs to the sacrifices Americans made during World War II. We are not actually in a global conflict, but grow your own cabbage and smelt steel for Trump. [music break] On today’s show, the White House admits to an administrative error when it deported a Salvadoran man, and fired Health and Human Services employees are told to take their complaints to a dead person. But let’s start today by talking about Planned Parenthood. As you probably know, the Republican Party and Planned Plarenthood do not exactly get along. Defund Planned parenthood, as in cut off federal funding for the organization, has been a rallying cry for the GOP for more than a decade. Here’s the Head of Students for Life, Kristan Hawkinss, on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. 

[clip of Kristan Hawkins] This brings us to today’s historic moment, where the pro-life movement stands unified behind one single message, defund the entire abortion industry, defund their longtime standard bearer of Planned Parenthood, once and for all. 

Jane Coaston: And with a new Supreme Court case, they might get their wish. At issue is Medicaid, a government program that ensures low-income adults and children. Nearly half of the people who use Planned Parenthood for healthcare use Medicaid to pay for it. But back in 2018, the state of South Carolina prohibited Planned Planned from receiving Medicaid funding. Why? Abortion. Now, the actual question before the justices is a little bit of a technical one and not explicitly about abortion. At issue is whether Medicaid patients can sue the state over a legal provision that says they have the right to choose the healthcare provider they want, even if that provider is Planned Parenthood. People in South Carolina already can’t use Medicaid to pay for an abortion in most cases. But the state argued in a brief to the Supreme Court that the money Planned Parenthood gets from Medicaid to cover birth control or sexually transmitted infection testing could be used for the procedure, so you shouldn’t be able to sue the state to let you go there. The state writes, quote, “because money is fungible, giving Medicaid dollars to abortion facilities frees up their other funds to provide more abortions.” So even if Medicaid doesn’t pay for abortions in South Carolina, the state of South Carolina is arguing it just does anyway. So if a patient on Medicaid wants to see a doctor at Planned Parenthood in South Carolina, even to just get a checkup, the state says no bueno. A Supreme Court ruling in favor of South Carolina could be devastating for Planned Plannedhood, not just in that state, but in red states across the country. And that would be a big win for the anti-abortion movement and a big loss for millions of patients nationwide. So to talk more about the Supreme Court case, I had to hear from Alexis McGill Johnson, the president of Planned Parenthood. Alexis, welcome to What a Day. 

Alexis McGill Johnson: Thank you for having me, Jane, I’m happy to be here. 

Jane Coaston: So can you tell us a little bit more about the case that’s in front of the justices today? What’s at stake here? 

Alexis McGill Johnson: Yeah, so the Supreme Court is about to decide whether or not people who use Medicaid can fight against politically driven, legally driven policies that want to take away access to their right to use government based insurance to decide which provider they want to have. Right? So to be clear about this, through this case, it is clear that the court is trying to pave the way for lawmakers to try to defund Planned Parenthood by trying to take away access to the insurance that 50% of our patients use in order to get the care, if they elect for us to be their preferred provider. 

Jane Coaston: I think that something that’s interesting about this case is that South Carolina already bans abortions after six weeks and federal law bans Medicaid from paying for abortions except in the cases of rape, incest or life endangerment. But South Carolina is saying like, no, no, no any Medicaid money going to Planned Parenthood for STI testing, for basic health care services somehow pays for abortion. So what services would be hit hardest if the court sides with South Carolina? Because again. Planned Parenthood does a ton of other things besides abortion. 

Alexis McGill Johnson: Yeah, and Planned Parenthood, look is a nation’s largest sexual reproductive health care provider, right? We provide access to birth control, to STI testing, to wellness exams, to breast cancer screenings, um gender affirming care. 

Jane Coaston: My mom found out she was having me at a Planned Parenthood. That was her primary care provider back in 1987. 

Alexis McGill Johnson: Oftentimes the first point of entry into the healthcare system, period, right? And so, you know, as you know that Planned Parenthood provides life-saving affirming care and all of those things would be under attack if our patients in South Carolina would not be able to walk through Planned Planned Health Center and use their insurance with Planned Parenthood as their preferred provider. And it’s just clearly a political attack, right? You have Governor McMaster, who has taken it upon himself to drive his own political agenda to say, you know we don’t want any money going to Planned Parenthood because of abortion. So we’re just gonna take away access for hundreds of thousands of patients who walk through the doors every year. 

Jane Coaston: And to be clear, other states have barred Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid money, what has that meant for patients in those states? 

Alexis McGill Johnson: Yeah, I mean, obviously when you deny access to people by taking away their ability to pay for care, um you are opening up yourself you know to the idea that people may not actually seek access to the care that they want. So in states like Texas, we’ve seen tens of thousands of women not being able to get care, traveling out of state, as you know, since not just the Dobbs decision, but before that. In Tennessee, we saw, I think almost a 1400% decrease in services because patients weren’t able to get that care. We are already in a public health care crisis right now because of the Dobbs decision and the impact on many providers choosing not to work and operate in banned states, and Planned Parenthood is still there opening their doors, even with um you know not being able to um to get reimbursed by Medicaid in some instances. So like my message is clear. Like Planned parenthood is here. We are here every day, opening up doors, opening up health centers, walking through protesters, walking patients through protesters in order to provide high quality sexual and reproductive health care that we believe our patients deserve. And um and on the other side, we see these lawmakers like Governor McMaster um trying to use their political agenda to to rip away that access in their own communities. 

Jane Coaston: To what extent are you bracing for a bad outcome here? I know the conservative supermajority on this court has been hostile to advocates of abortion rights. And even though this case isn’t explicitly about abortion, I think everybody on kind of the anti-abortion side thinks it’s about abortion. And this court has been no friend of Planned Parenthood. 

Alexis McGill Johnson: I think that’s right. I mean, look, you know, our job at Planned Parented is to be professional scenario planners. And you are absolutely right. The Supreme Court has not been uh particularly friendly to Planned Parenthood, but certainly not friendly to access to abortion. The concern here is that if South Carolina prevails, that other states will follow suit and find ways to remove Planned Parenthood as a provider of choice in state after state, which would jeopardize access for healthcare for millions of patients across this country. 

Jane Coaston: Could Planned Parenthood as an organization survive if, say, half the states restrict Medicaid payments? 

Alexis McGill Johnson: It’s going to be a very tough road. Obviously, the Medicaid defund threat is looming incredibly large. You know it could impact as much as 300 health centers across the country. It’s a little more than half of all of our health centers. And it would be, obviously, a very devastating impact, again, not to Planned Parenthood, right? Not just to Planned Parenthold, but to the millions of patients that are seen at Planned Planned Health Centers across this nation. Um, and that’s where I think we have to, we have to center the impact on the people who are being attacked through these policies. 

Jane Coaston: Prohibiting Planned Parenthood from getting Medicaid funding is included in Project 2025, the super conservative policy agenda that Trump disavowed on the campaign trail because he did not want to talk about abortion. He like wanted to get keep as far away from abortion as he could, but he appears to be implementing Project 2025 anyway. So how could a decision in South Carolina’s favor embolden the Trump administration to further attack Planned Parenthood? 

Alexis McGill Johnson: Well, I mean, as I said, the attacks are already moving. Right? Just yesterday, the Trump administration used an executive order in order to deny access to funds under the Title X program to several Planned Parenthood affiliates. Right, Title X is the nation’s largest family planning, contraception, public policy funding that many of our affiliates rely on to provide that basic level sexual and reproductive care, state after state. We have already seen the attacks coming. through Congress with these attempts to engage in a Medicaid defund that would that would impact so many people across this country. And obviously, we’re sitting here at the Supreme Court today waiting to you know to hear the justices’ questions about whether or not a governor can use a politically-motivated agenda to deny people the right to choose their own provider. Right, I cannot think of anything more actually antithetical too. Conservative or libertarian ideology. And yet here we are, which goes which shows you, right, that they are willing to pull out all the stops to attack Planned Parenthood and all of the patients that Planned Plannedhood serves. 

Jane Coaston: Will Planned Parenthood sue over those title ten cuts? 

Alexis McGill Johnson: You konw I am not at liberty to talk about any um any potential litigation and legal actions right now, but I will tell you we are going to fight and fight and fight like hell to ensure that we can continue to provide the care and receive the resources to do so. 

Jane Coaston: Now, this is all very hard to hear, for people who care about reproductive rights or for people just care about people being able to see their doctor. I seem to remember something during the fight over Obamacare about conservatives being very mad that you might not be able to see the doctor you want to see, and apparently that’s not true anymore. But I want to know what can our listeners do to help? 

Alexis McGill Johnson: I think the most important thing right now is that this is the moment, right? This is the moment when the policies of this administration, when the threats that we are seeing before our nation’s courts, when we are seeing the impact um of the conversations that are happening all throughout Congress around taking away access to healthcare. This is the moment that we actually have to show up and show up strong. and we’re not going anywhere. We’re definitely not backing down from a fight and we are not backing from providing the services that we think are critical for our communities. 

Jane Coaston: Make America healthy again, indeed. Alexis, thank you so much for joining me. 

Alexis McGill Johnson: Thank you. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson. We’ll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines.

[clip of Cory Booker] This is when the most precious ideas of our country are being tested with the Constitution and the question is being called, where does the Constitution live? On paper or in our hearts? 

Jane Coaston: Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey broke the record for the longest individual speech in Senate history Tuesday after holding the podium for more than 25 hours. The previous record stood at 24 hours and 18 minutes. Here’s Minority Leader Chuck Schumer telling Booker he made history Tuesday night. 

[clip of Chuck Schumer] Would the senator yield for a question? 

[clip of Senator Cory Booker] Chuck Schumer it’s the only time in my life I can tell you no. 

[clip of Chuck Schumer] I just want to tell you a question, do you know you have just broken the record? Do you know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you now how proud America is of YOU? 

Jane Coaston: It all started Monday evening, around 7 p.m. Eastern, when Booker took to the Senate floor and told his colleagues he would stay there and speak for as long as he was, quote, “physically able,” and stay he did. Booker talked through the evening and well into Tuesday night, taking his sweet time to rail against President Trump and his administration’s policies on everything from immigration and healthcare to the economy. Here he is on the floor Tuesday. 

[clip of Cory Booker] He promised to lower your grocery prices, they’re higher. He promised, I’ll be a better steward of the economy. It’s worse than we inherited. Over and over, he’s breaking promises and doing outrageous things like disappearing people off of American streets, violating fundamental principles of this document, invoking the Alien Enemies Act from the 1700s that was last used to put Japanese Americans in internment camps? Do we see what’s happening? 

Jane Coaston: Senate Democrats chimed in here and there to ask Booker questions or make remarks so the New Jersey senator could take a break from speaking while keeping the podium. Some House Democrats stopped by to show their support for Booker from the sidelines of the Senate floor, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Booker’s speech technically isn’t a filibuster since he wasn’t blocking a piece of legislation or a nomination. 

[clip of unnamed news reporter] Now that the administration has conceded that there was an error of one Salvadorian national, will there be any reviews conducted? And does the president express any thoughts on the one error that was disclosed in court last night? 

[clip of Karoline Leavitt] Well, first of all, the error that you are referring to was a clerical error. It was an administrative error. 

Jane Coaston: Okay, so that’s, um, still an error. White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, Tuesday, defended the Trump administration’s deportation of a Maryland man with protected legal status to El Salvador last month. Administration officials admitted to the mistake in a court filing Monday. They said Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who is Salvadoran, was deported because of a quote, “administrative error,” but they’re not exactly keen to fix the mess they’ve created. In the same filing, Justice Department lawyers said federal courts lacked the authority to have him sent back. Basically, the TLDR version of the White House’s stance is, oops, too bad. So what actually happened? According to a complaint filed by his lawyers, Abrego Garcia was arrested in March by immigration officials. He was then sent to El Salvador on one of those deportation flights carrying alleged gang members. But in 2019, an immigration judge awarded Abrego Garcia protection from being deported back to El Salvador, on the grounds that he would likely be targeted by gangs there. But none of that is stopping the administration from pushing the narrative it wants. Vice President JD Vance posted on Twitter Monday night that court documents showed Abrego Garcia was a, quote, “convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here.” They didn’t. Only that an informant claimed he was an MS- 13 gang member and that a judge once held him in detention on evidence supporting that claim. That’s not even close to a conviction. Abrego Garcia disputes those claims. His lawyer said he’s never been charged or convicted of any criminal charges in the US or any other country. That wasn’t the only oopsie the Trump administration made. The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, began laying off employees Tuesday. And surprisingly, that’s not the mistake. The department announced last week it would cut 10,000 jobs at key federal health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. You know, the departments that study human health, track disease outbreaks, and make sure our food and medicine are safe. That’s bad. According to CNN, More than 100,000 federal workers have been fired by the Trump administration, and the Department of Government Efficiency plans to cut tens of thousands of more jobs. And as if we needed more evidence that these cuts are haphazard and not inclusive of folks who actually work in these offices and know what the hell is going on, the agency apparently made a major fuckup in a notice it issued to workers who were laid off. The Washington Post reported that employees who felt they were discriminated against in their firing should submit complaints to Anita Pinder. As of our recording Tuesday night, Pinder is listed on the HHS website as the director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. But there is just one problem. Pinder Is Dead. She passed away last year. Karen Shields, a government health employee who worked with Pinder, commented on the error. She told the Post, quote, “There is just a better way to do this.” Couldn’t agree more. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday she’s directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering United Health Care executive Brian Thompson. Thompson was fatally shot outside a hotel in Manhattan in December. In a statement, Bondi says she made the decision to pursue the death penalty after careful consideration. She said Mangione’s alleged murder of Thompson was, quote, “a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.” Mangione was arrested in December. He pleaded not guilty to state charges. He’s also facing a federal indictment in which Bondi is asking prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Bondi said her directive is in line with President Trump’s agenda to quote, “stop violent crime and make America safe again.” On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order directing the attorney general to pursue the death penalty depending on the severity of the crime. Mangione’s lawyer said in a statement that by seeking the death penalty quote, “the justice department has moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric.” And that’s the news. [music break] One more thing. I know the last few days and weeks and months in American politics have been um absorbing. Yes, that’s the word I’ll use, absorbing. Insane making also works, but it’s important to take a look around the world to see how other countries have responded to rulers who seem to believe that they have permission to do pretty much anything they want. Case in point, Turkey. Over the past week or so, Turkey has been engulfed in massive protests, the biggest in a decade. After Turkey’s president, Recep Erdoğan, had the mayor of Istanbul, his biggest political rival and perhaps the person best positioned to beat Erdoğan at the ballot box, arrested last week. He was imprisoned on charges of corruption and bribery. Charges, which the Istanbul mayor rejected in an opinion piece he wrote for the New York Times, from prison. The Turkish government even revoked his college diploma, which matters because presidential candidates in Turkey are required to have a university degree. Erdoğan has been in power since 2003. And under his control, Turkey has seen a gradual erosion of individual liberties. And civil liberties have even been threatened by Turkish authorities outside of Turkey. Back in 2017, when Erdoğan visited the White House during Trump’s first term, his bodyguards brutally attacked protesters in DC, leading the late Senator John McCain to demand the expulsion of the Turkish ambassador. 

[clip of unnamed news reporter 2] You could call it a bodyguard riot, security men guarding Turkey’s President Erdoğan, kicking and pummeling protesters outside the Turkish embassy Tuesday in one of Washington’s fanciest neighborhoods. Eleven people injured, two seriously, two protesters arrested. 

Jane Coaston: And in case you’re wondering, the Trump administration’s relationship with Erdoğan is um complicated. Back in January, Trump said, quote, “President Erdoğan is a friend of mine. He’s a guy I like, respect. I think he respects me also. But Erdoğan and the Turkish government are not a huge fan of Israel. He allegedly called for the destruction of, quote, “Zionist Israel,” during Eid prayers on Sunday. And as you know, the US and Israel have very, very close ties. But then there’s the comments Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff made on Tucker Carlson’s podcast late last month. 

[clip of Steve Witkoff] I think the president has a relationship with Steve Wittkopf, and that’s going to be important. And I think that um there’s some good coming, there’s some just a lot of good positive news coming out of Turkey right now as a result of that conversation. So I think you’ll see that in the reporting in the coming days. 

Jane Coaston: Those comments were made just before the Istanbul mayor’s arrest, which raises some questions for me. But Trump has a way of overpowering everything and anything. And I think it’s important not to let him do that here, because the Turkish people are standing up to Erdoğan in the hundreds of thousands, even after the arrest of more than 1500 people and the detention of several journalists, including a BBC journalist who was deported because he was quote, “being a threat to public order.” Even after the government banned protests altogether. The Turkish people are still protesting. [clip of crowd cheering]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, celebrate people who say the quiet part out loud, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, well, just listen to him. 

[clip of Senator Bill Cassidy] Well, let’s look at Medicare. Is there some way that we can cut Medicare so that it’s, excuse me, reform Medicare so the benefits stay the same, but that it’s less? 

Jane Coaston: Like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston, and sometimes people just say things out loud, don’t they? [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Fohr. Our producer is Michell Eloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.