POPSUGAR: In what capacity have you been covering the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade?
Fabiola Cineas: My focus has been to look at the intersectional impact of the overturn. I've been especially concerned with looking at how it affects poor women, how it affects black women, how it affects other people of color, and trying to get a sense of why this is going to harm certain communities more, and how we need to make sure that the language that we use around this is as inclusive as possible. I've learned so much about how this is an issue that's going to impact so many different pockets and groups of people.
Also just digging into the numbers to try and understand why certain groups of people are going to suffer more. Why is it that, according to the data we have, Black women are the people who are getting abortions at a disproportionately higher rate? A lot of it has to do with poverty. A lot of it has to do with a lack of sex education. A lot of it has to do with a lack of access to contraception. And then there's a whole host of other issues as it relates to maternal mortality as well.
PS: Can you describe your initial reaction to learning the news of Roe v. Wade's reversal on June 24?
FC: While yes, we had the draft opinion, it still didn't sting any less when it actually came down because then things got a little bit more real. Interestingly, when the leaked draft opinion came down, I was actually going in for fibroid surgery the next day. . . . It was just so crazy being with gynecologists and thinking about my own health in that moment and about how the decision would open the door to so many more restrictions on women's bodies.
I feel like with my personal medical history, I could definitely be someone who ends up in a situation where I have an ectopic pregnancy or some other scary situation where abortion would be medically necessary. Having to already deal with something so serious but then also knowing that there are legislators out there who would want to make this even more difficult is such a very scary thing. By the time things happened in June, it still hurt a lot, especially because there are a lot of people in my life who have had to have abortions, and I was thinking about them, and I was thinking about my own health as well.
PS: What has it been like reporting on abortion, an issue that so intimately impacts women?
FC: It further solidifies that journalism is usually never this objective thing that people want it to be. . . . When I'm calling clinics in Alabama to try to understand what it was like when the decision came down, and them having to turn away people who were scheduled for abortions, I feel empathy, and I think that it's OK for me to let that guide my reporting.
"Having less rights than people in generations before, that's a scary thought." — Fabiola Cineas
PS: In a word, what emotion comes to mind when you think about reporting on the overturn of Roe v. Wade?
FC: Maybe vexation. I interviewed Dorothy Roberts, and she talked about how she was doing this kind of work in the '80s and '90s, watching the connection between abortion and poverty, who the government was willing to support, and how abortions weren't available to poor people because of the Hyde Amendment. I just feel vexed; having less rights than people in generations before, that's a scary thought.
PS: Have you been doing anything to protect your mental health the past few weeks?
FC: I think a lot of it is just talking to fellow reporters about how they're doing, talking to other people in my life about how they're doing. For me, talking about it makes me feel better, so being able to find community and people who are also feeling a way about this.
Also pushing the newsroom to think about these stories in a way that feels humane and actually thinking about the language and words we're using, and being careful when we tell people's stories. And then therapy, of course. I remember having a conversation with my therapist when all of this happened. As with any event, there's so much weight there and so much that you have to process. As reporters, we don't get two weeks to write news stories; you need to hop on them immediately. I've been figuring out ways to step away and to not have to be processing through the context of work.
