Rebecca Stern: 

Solutions and the way that we innovate around trying to support these populations comes from actually talking to them and hearing what they need. And I felt like that was missing. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

That’s Rebecca Stern, today’s guest on Everywhere Radio. Everywhere Radio is a production of The Rural Assembly, and I’m your host, Whitney Kimball Coe. Each episode I spotlight the good, scrappy and joyful ways rural people and their allies are building a more inclusive nation. Today on Everywhere Radio, I’m thrilled to reconnect with Rebecca Stern, someone I came to know and admire over the course of the last summer while Becca served as an intern here at Center for Rural Strategies. 

Throughout her time with us, Becca jump started at least two new projects for The Rural Assembly, and wrote several articles for The Daily Yonder. She traveled around southeastern Kentucky interviewing community leaders about everything from Appalachian musical traditions to climate change. And before she headed back to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she’s working on a degree in public policy and global gender studies, Becca created an online platform for the Rural Assembly that spotlights the voices of rural young people as they reflect on reproductive justice in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobb’s Decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade in May. 

The Rural Assembly is eager to release Becca’s project this month alongside this episode. And I’m excited to talk with Becca today about her passion for advancing gender equity and reproductive justice in our communities. Becca is originally from Malvern, Pennsylvania, and her work in activism goes back to her early days in high school, where she co-founded a nonprofit mentorship program for young girls grades four through six, called Girls Together. 

During her junior and senior years of high school, she was also president of the Girl Up PA Coalition, and helped lead a successful advocacy campaign for menstrual products and dispensers in her high school’s womens’ and gender neutral bathrooms. Becca is also a member of the prestigious Robertson Scholarship Leaders Program, a community of leaders within Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, striving to make transformational contributions to society. 

So yeah, Becca, you’re kind of a big deal. Thank you for joining us at The Rural Assembly this summer, and for being here on Everywhere Radio with me today. 

Rebecca Stern: 

Well, it’s an honor to be here with you, and I’m so excited to get to talk and reflect on everything that’s happened in the past year. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Yeah, oh man. And there’s just so much. In fact, some of what I wanted to talk to you about is reflecting on the big events over the last year, and you happened to be with us at Rural Strategies in Whitesburg, Kentucky for some of the big bigger events over the last year. But where are you calling from today? 

Rebecca Stern: 

I’m currently in Chapel Hill, in a building on campus. And yeah, I’m in North Carolina and I go to UNC, as you said, and I’m preparing for a semester at Duke in Durham as part of the Robertson Scholarship Program. So usually between these two places. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Awesome. And what year are you in school? 

Rebecca Stern: 

I’m a sophomore, so a second year. That’s right. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

So I did give this big introduction about you because you are a rockstar, and I feel like it’s important to name all the incredible things that you’ve accomplished already in your young life. But again, looking back on this last summer, it just occurred to me that you were here with us for two really monumental events, at least two monumental events. One was national, and that was the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. And then the other one was literally in your backyard while you were in Whitesburg. You were there for the big flood in July, and we’ve done several episodes with people who were also there, and experienced firsthand the devastation of that flood. So that’s a lot for just an internship, Becca. I wonder, when you look back on your time with us, how are you processing this summer, and all the things that happened? 

Rebecca Stern: 

That’s a really good question because it definitely was a lot. And I think what’s important for me is remembering all of the good parts as well as those really monumental and sometimes really traumatic events for a lot of people in Whitesburg. I remember being at Cowan Creek Mountain Music School, and playing the banjo by the river, when someone came up and said they just overturned Roe versus Wade. And I remember being in our house with my close friends, we were all living together as part of the Robertson Scholars program, we were all there for community summer, and waking up and being like, “Oh, the backyard is currently flooding. We need to move. We need to get our things out and move to higher ground.” 

So I think having this juxtaposition of these really amazing times and these really difficult times that were really stressful and chaotic is important, because it’s not right to only remember the good parts, but it’s also not right and can feel like it undersells, I don’t know if that’s the right word, but it isn’t fair to the entire experience to not talk about these amazing moments. I think for me it’s important to keep all of these things in mind and give each of them their due weight. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Yeah. And you were able to channel all of these events into the work you were doing at Rural Strategies. I wonder if having that opportunity or the platforms that were available to you, was that helpful in integrating your experiences? 

Rebecca Stern: 

Definitely. I think especially with the reproductive justice when the overturn happened, I’m not from Kentucky, and being in Kentucky and feeling a little bit powerless, because I knew at the end of the summer I was going to go back to, I live in Pennsylvania, I go to school in North Carolina. And although a little bit shaky, both of those states, did allow abortion. And I think for me what was important was making sure other young people got their voice heard who were going to be impacted by this, that they were able to speak. And I think having the Rural Strategies be an outlet to give them that voice was really meaningful to me, and I was really grateful that I had that opportunity. 

And then as well with the flood, I’ve been able to continue to work with Rural Strategies. The Robertson Scholars alumni have been amazing. I have been working with some of the students who were there to launch a fundraising campaign and continue to work to support Whitesburg in the recovery from it. And Rural Strategies has been an incredible partner. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

I’m so glad to hear that. I want to talk more about the project that you launched with us, but first I really wanted to know, who is Rebecca Stern, beyond the incredible bio that I just read? What are some ways that you describe yourself and think about yourself in this time and place in this country? 

Rebecca Stern: 

I think the main identifier I’ve kind of clung to in the past year of my life, two years, has been being a sister. And I think that that is the way I try to lead both in my personal and professional lives, is professional, in whatever sense a college student can say that. But I have a really close relationship with my two sisters, and a lot of that relationship is tied up in my favorite things, whether that’s music, spending time outside. 

And in college, I think my fun fact is always an acapella group, and I’m in a historically female acapella group, and that is like a family. So I think treating people like family and having that kind of sister relationship, where you know that you’re there for them and that they can come to you and you’re treating them with kindness and with empathy. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

I was looking at an informational interview that you gave for the Robertson Scholars program, where they asked you, how would you go about creating transformational change in communities? And you mentioned right at the top, listening and empathy as two of the tools that you feel are most important. Do you think that comes from this bond that you share with your sisters? Is it family-based, is it place-based? What has influenced your thinking to make you feel like those are the essential tools for transformational change, listening and empathy? 

Rebecca Stern: 

I think a lot of it comes from my sisters. And I think also it comes from, I think, friendship. I think the people I’ve grown the most from and the places I’ve grown, have all come from that place of, able to have a conversation with someone that makes you maybe rethink the way that you are living your life, and the way that you want to lead. And I also think all of the trainings and things I’ve had in the past 19 years have always centered on those, listening and empathy, as being the main ways that we connect with each other, that we act like the best versions of ourselves, and can create the most beneficial change. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

And I’m struggling these days myself with those two things, just because of the political environment that we’re living in these days, especially if you’re from a small town, where you know everyone, and you know how they vote, and you know what news they listen to and take in, it can be hard to cross those divides that might exist. Are you hopeful about the future of our country in being able to use empathy and listening as strategies going forward? Are you feeling at all cynical about where we are right now? You’re part of that Gen Z that showed up, by the way, at the polls recently. 

Rebecca Stern: 

Yeah. I was on campus and I saw how many students were out there being like, “Go vote, please.” There was a huge vote thing in our main center on campus, the pit, I think it was a unicorn just saying vote. And I think I’ve seen that hate doesn’t usually work. Also on campus, we had a pro-life group, I guess, came and put up these huge really disturbing graphic images of abortion, they were antisemitic. It was bad. And I remember seeing students just stand in front of it and hold signs being like, “I’m here for you. Abortion is healthcare, and healthcare is a human right.”And the way that they coalesced around it to block students from having to see this thing that was incredibly disturbing on their way to class. 

I think that it’s difficult when you see that listening and empathy can only go so far sometimes, when you’re begging politicians to make the choices that let you and the people that you care about and people that you don’t know, people that you know that don’t have so many of the things that they need, when politicians refuse to make the choices and the votes that allow them to have access to basic human necessities. I think it’s hard when you know that no matter how many calls you make, sometimes that that’s not going to change, and that you try your hardest, but what story can you tell that will make them change their mind? And some people just won’t. 

But I also think that I’ve seen people change, and I feel like being at school and a little bit, coming a little bit more south, I have friends who are more conservative than I am. And I think I’ve seen that that is when you spend time with people, you see them as a human being first, but beyond their politics. And I think that’s really powerful that we get so caught up in like, “Oh, are they conservative? Are they liberal? That’s why I can’t be with them if they are.” 

But I have many close friends who have different politics than I do. And I think as long as we agree on the same human decency standards, which sometimes is not the case for everyone, you can still listen to their point of view and you might not agree, but you can still listen. And I think by telling stories sometimes is the best way we can help each other understand things from a different perspective, and sometimes change our minds and sometimes not. But I don’t think changing minds is always the goal. I think it’s coming a mutual… 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

That’s interesting. 

Rebecca Stern: 

Yeah, I think that we get really caught sometimes in trying to force someone to be on our side, or it’s a competition. But I think sometimes just being able to respect someone else and help them respect and understand someone else’s life or lived experience can maybe not change their mind in that moment, but reframe the way they think about something, or add a different perspective that helps them maybe make choices at that moment or down the line that are good. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Well, thinking about all these big concepts we’re talking about, compassion and honoring the full human experience, I wanted to ask you about your advocacy around menstrual equity, period poverty and menstrual equity. I wonder if our listeners are really familiar with that area of focus. It seems to be something that’s gaining traction in communities of all sizes. I know even here in my own community, we have a ministry called Love Period, which provides period products to people across the community through all kinds of institutions, from schools to libraries, to the YMCA, free products. So how did you jump on that work and become really interested in menstrual equity? 

Rebecca Stern: 

Yeah, and I also want to say I was able to visit your town Athens, and I saw free menstrual products in bathrooms, and it made me so happy. Yeah. I remember it was a very random kind of occurrence. So I was on Instagram, as any Gen Z person is, I think I was in 10th grade. And I saw that my friend who also did Girl Up, Girl Up is an international organization actually, and we had a chapter at our school, and my friend was the president of her chapter at her school, and she posted a picture with a tampon and Pat Spencer being like, “We just got free menstrual products for our school.” 

And I was like, “I think that’s cool. I want to know how you did that and what that’s about.” And went down this wormhole of the internet, and just learned all about what menstrual equity means and the impact of menstrual inequity. And I think for me it comes down to being able to have access and the ability to go about your normal life, being able to go to school, going to work, and living safely, and in a healthy way when you’re having your period. 

And so I think that’s how I got interested in it. And it has a lot of different contexts, both in low middle income developing countries, menstrual and equity happens, but it also happens in the US, and it was happening in my school. I was talking to students and realizing they were leaving class and they were going home, or they were sitting in the nurse’s office, because they didn’t have menstrual products. And no one should have to leave class and lose out on education because they don’t have access to a tampon or a pad, or whatever menstrual product they choose to use. 

I was talking to students also, and realizing that students who were LGBTQIA+ were also struggling to get access to menstrual products. And I think when we were working on this project, trying to make sure that they were also having their needs met, because it isn’t just a woman’s issue. And I think it’s important that they’re not just called female products or female sanitary products, they’re just menstrual products. I think a lot of our work was just trying to normalize it, and help people get access to products they needed. 

I was working with a teacher at our school who also ran something called the Comfort Closet, which had a bunch of other bodily care products as well as menstrual products, and students would get referred there by their teachers. And I wanted to make sure that we had that, and that was fully stocked with menstrual products, as well as normalizing that anyone might need this at some point during the day, and having those available. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

That is so inspirational. And it helps me even think about here locally, pathways that we could be on with Love Period in serving our community. And the expansiveness of your definition about who are menstrual products for, that it’s not just a women’s issue, that threads from that are definitely evident in your work at Rural Strategies around reproductive justice in this project that we’re going to be sharing with the Rural Assembly audience in the coming weeks that you jump started for us. 

So I want to go there now and talk about right after the Dobb’s decision, how the Rural Assembly staff, we were all sitting around on a Zoom I think, or something like that, wondering what is the best way we could step in in this moment? And your idea was to tap young people and talk to them about their experience of not just abortion access, but about reproductive justice more broadly. And again, expanding that tent and that definition. You want to tell us about the genesis of this project? 

Rebecca Stern: 

Being in that meeting, I think it gets very divisive when you get to older people, but at the end of the day, young people tend to be sometimes most disadvantaged by not having access to abortion and contraceptives. And especially in rural areas. I was able to talk to young people, and a lot of the things they struggled with are things that are very unique, I think, to rural areas too. And I felt like there was a missing voice in this conversation. 

And it kind of came down to this one quote. And I was looking up every day, rural reproductive justice, or rural abortion access, or rural contraceptive access, rural Roe versus Wade after the overturn. And I remember it always would come down to, clinic closures and all these things always impact low income people, people of color, and rural populations. 

And that’s kind of where it ended. And I felt like there was more to say than that. And I think solutions and the way that we innovate around trying to support these populations, comes from actually talking to them and hearing what they need. And I felt like that was missing. And I was happy to be in Kentucky, and be able to have friends who were young people that I could talk to. I remember the first round of interviews I did, I had two friends who were working at Apple Shop for the summer, and basically they just were inviting their friends over, and all of a sudden we had four people sitting around talking about abortion, and it was great. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Yeah, so you immediately employed the listening and empathy skills, but I love what you were saying there about how so much of the national coverage about this has stopped at the point at which it says rural populations, people of color and underprivileged populations are the ones that will feel the effects of this most keenly. And your response was, “And what and why, and how do we innovate around that?” Your takeaways from these interviews, I think you were able to do a really good job of summarizing some of the key insights and takeaways, do you want to share some of those here? 

Rebecca Stern: 

Yeah, for sure. And I also want to say there’s so much more people I didn’t get to interview, I’m sure more things I would’ve learned. And even talking to people in the rural south versus rural north, there’s a lot of different perspectives. And I think it’s important to see that this is not all encompassing, but these are the experiences of the couple people I did get to interview. 

So the main things were, in rural areas, sex education is not as comprehensive nor inclusive of LGBTQIA+ or disabled people. And listening to these folks, I learned a lot about that, and how that makes them feel when they’re living in these areas and they don’t feel seen or respected in their curriculum. There’s also a big religious influence of Christianity in rural areas that was deeply felt by rural youth in reproductive healthcare matters, especially ones who aren’t Christian or religious at all. 

I remember one of my favorite interviews was with Phoebe Wagner, who talked about being Jewish in a rural area, and having to abide by Christian moral codes, but that’s not really what you believe. I’m also Jewish, and the way that our religion is felt and treats abortion can be very different than Christianity. So it was really interesting to talk to her about that, and what it’s like navigating that as someone living in a rural area that can feel dominated by Christianity. Rural youth who are LGBTQIA+ and disabled face even greater barriers to access necessary healthcare, both in their education, actual treatment, and the autonomy that the justice system has ruled that they have over their own body and their capacity to take care of children. 

Half, I think, of our folks were disabled. And I think that that was really powerful in hearing how that identity intersected with their others, especially their rural ones, to impact their ability to access reproductive healthcare, and how they were thinking about reproductive healthcare, and how society viewed them, and their experiences with sex, and what that meant for reproductive healthcare. 

We also had, in rural small towns, less privacy is afforded to people trying to access reproductive healthcare. Privacy culture also limits what’s allowed in polite conversation. And a big issue that I saw with that was that when you know everyone, trying to get your Plan B or get the pill from your mom’s best friend, it can be a little bit more difficult, and that can impact your ability to access abortion or contraceptives. As well as it not being allowed to be talked about at all, can silence conversations that can be really important and helpful and educational. 

Even with Roe in place nationally, people in many rural communities had to travel long distances to reproductive care. That was something that we talked about a lot with those who lived in Kentucky. At the time of Roe versus Wade overturn, I think there was one, maybe two, and I think they were both in Louisville. So for many people it meant they were traveling three hours each way, maybe more, to get an abortion. So when people start talking about these distances being so much longer than they used to be, for some cases that was what people were already facing before, which I think was really important that, sometimes when Roe versus Wade was talked about, a lot of the time, when you interview people of color, they said, “Well, we also never had access. We didn’t have abortion access before.” 

For a lot of the reasons that play into reproductive justice and seeing an overall framework of what it means, it’s not just about the legal right to have an abortion, but all other factors that impact that, and impact reproductive healthcare, and being able to even raise a child. And I think for many people in rural communities, they had similar problems, where it’s not just about whether you legally have the right to abortion, what are the other factors that impact your ability to get one, and to have control over the ability to have a child or not, and raise that child in the way that you want? 

And then finally, every youth and many youth practitioners I talked to bring up fear and shame in the wake of the overturn of Roe versus Wade, because of all of this fear and uncertainty and confusion, people didn’t know where to go to. So everyone’s afraid. And I think feeling scared was such a common reaction. And you’re relying on social media and sometimes very helpful TikTok advice. But also, you can’t sometimes go to the trusted adults in your community, and you don’t know what the future holds, where in a year, you’ll be able to get an abortion or in a day. So I think that when the world feels like it turns upside down, not having these safe spaces to go to can be really, really scary. That was a very long rundown. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

No, I’m so glad you did. You went through all of those because I think they’re all huge and important and they again, expand our definitions, our understandings, our conceptualization of what’s at stake in rural places, in particular, for young people around reproductive healthcare and justice. How did you feel as you were hearing their story? What did you feel at the close? I don’t know. How did all of that sit with you in you’re listening and empathetic body? 

Rebecca Stern: 

I think for me, thinking about what it is like to live in these communities and be 30 minutes away driving or something around that from a grocery store or gas station, where if you want to get birth control, everyone’s going to know, and every purchase could be reported on. I think that was really powerful in being grateful for the access to resources I have. 

But then also being even more passionate about making sure that everyone has access to these basic things, and making sure that the work that is out there. I think a big thing I noticed was that there are ways to get access to contraceptives and birth control, but people don’t know, even in Whitesburg, the all-access EKY is here. They are for the whole region, and they’re centered in Whitesburg. And sometimes people still don’t know that it’s right in their backyard, and they can get condoms mailed to them, they can get Plan B. And I think when we have all of these resources out there, but the information access isn’t equal, that people can be left out. And I think for me, it felt even more important to make sure people knew what resources they had. 

But overall it was really sad. I think just when you’re talking to someone else who’s feeling impacted by this big decision, that you feel for them. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

So we’ll make this project available on the Rural Assembly site in the coming weeks. And I want to ask you, what is your hope for it, and how can the assembly continue to honor those voices and the work that you started? And that me asking you this question is also a way of me inviting you to help hold us accountable to doing this well. 

Rebecca Stern: 

I think my goal is that if enough people see this or one person sees this, that they’ll be able to take the steps to help the youth of their community have access to the knowledge and tools to have autonomy over their bodies and live their life the way they want. Yeah. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

So Becca, before I let you go, I want to ask you the question I ask all of our guests on Everywhere Radio. What are you listening to or watching or reading, that you would like to share with the Rural Assembly audience? 

Rebecca Stern: 

Such a good question, and I really wish I’d more to say because I’m so bogged down. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Well, you’re a student. I know. 

Rebecca Stern: 

I read so much, but most of it is random articles. But between my classes, I learned so much this semester about global reproductive health, the history of women’s health activism, Land and feminism, which touched on reproductive sovereignty. And also Bio 101, which has also taught me a lot about reproductive health. So I think all the things I’ve read have informed my own self-knowledge of my body, but also the importance to allow me to know the importance of knowing your own body. 

So I encourage everyone to read up on things about reproductive justice, but also about their own bodies, and understand. I think that’s a really powerful version of autonomy and sovereignty in a non-traditional sense of the word. But also I read a really good book that I would recommend recently, called Revolting Prostitutes, about the fight for sex workers’ rights. And it’s been a really good example of what it means to listen, because the whole book is written by two sex workers, and it’s talking about their experience in looking at different models of legalization and criminalization in regards to sex work, and how this impacts sex workers around the world. And having these really anecdotal, anecdotal pieces, but also statistical pieces. And I think that book has served as a really good model of what it means to have a more community informed opinion. 

Whitney Kimball Coe: 

Wow. Thank you for that recommendation. And thank you for this conversation. You’re just wonderful. And there’s so much we didn’t get to cover. Your acapella group, I want to hear more about, of course. So let’s do this again at some point soon. See you soon. 

Rebecca Stern: 

See you soon.