Latest / Booker Scott: Truth Be Told / "Trump Meetings: UN, XI, Mamdani, Zelensky

Transcript

"Trump Meetings: UN, XI, Mamdani, Zelensky · Booker Scott: Truth Be Told

0:07
Speaker 1: It's 6 Eastern. It's 3 o'clock Pacific.
0:09
Speaker 2: We will draw this city closer together.
0:12
Speaker 1: Coast to coast and around the world from the America
0:15
Speaker 1: Out Loud Talk Radio Studios.
0:17
Speaker 2: We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the
0:20
Speaker 2: warmth of collectivism.
0:22
Speaker 1: It's time for The Truth Be Told with Booker Scott.
0:26
Speaker 3: For years, probably 25 years, I worked for big corporations.
0:30
Speaker 3: Corporations like iHeartRadio and Cumulus Media. And we used to
0:35
Speaker 3: have meetings just to have meetings, I believe. I don't
0:39
Speaker 3: know if you work in the corporate world, but sometimes
0:42
Speaker 3: it has that feeling. We just have meetings to have meetings.
0:45
Speaker 3: You get finished and it really doesn't feel like you
0:48
Speaker 3: learned anything. You picked up on anything new. It was
0:52
Speaker 3: just one of those meetings to have a meeting. There
0:55
Speaker 3: are a lot of meetings taking place this week. In America,
0:59
Speaker 3: with Donald Trump and other foreign dignitaries. I'm Booker Scott,
1:03
Speaker 3: and this is The Truth Be Told. Thank you for
1:05
Speaker 3: joining us tonight and every night. We have a couple
1:08
Speaker 3: of segments coming up a little bit later on abortion.
1:11
Speaker 3: It's a tough subject to deal with, but I think
1:14
Speaker 3: we have a good story here that Jody Smith is
1:16
Speaker 3: going to share with us. It's coming up here in
1:18
Speaker 3: a few minutes, but before we get to that, let's
1:21
Speaker 3: get to the meetings.
1:22
Speaker 1: Meetings.
1:23
Speaker 3: Gotta have a meeting. Always having a meeting. Well, Donald
1:27
Speaker 3: Trump is met with Mamdani already this week. The UN
1:31
Speaker 3: General Assembly was on Tuesday where he talked about artificial
1:35
Speaker 3: intelligence and wars in general, which there are a lot
1:39
Speaker 3: of them going on. The United Nations has been around
1:42
Speaker 3: since 1948. It came out of the League of Nations.
1:44
Speaker 3: And since 1948, 39 million people have been killed in wars.
1:46
Speaker 3: And today there are 122 conflicts going on around the world.
1:56
Speaker 3: It seems to me that the UN is useless. It
2:00
Speaker 3: doesn't seem like they really matter about anything. It seems
2:03
Speaker 3: like most nations completely ignore anything that the United Nations
2:08
Speaker 3: comes up with. So I don't know what we expect
2:11
Speaker 3: out of this. You have Chairman Xi in town and
2:14
Speaker 3: that's another meeting and I'll get to that in a
2:15
Speaker 3: few minutes. But before we get to that, let's get
2:18
Speaker 3: to Ma'am Donnie, everybody's favorite target, the socialist mayor in
2:23
Speaker 3: New York City. He's bringing in free housing. He's bringing
2:26
Speaker 3: in free groceries for everyone. We all like to pick
2:31
Speaker 3: on Ma'am Donnie. Donald Trump met with him and he
2:34
Speaker 3: met with him on Monday. Let's go to a little
2:36
Speaker 3: bit of the beginning of this press conference. One of
2:38
Speaker 3: the first questions was this.
2:40
Speaker 4: Mayor, to you first, what's your response to President Trump
2:43
Speaker 4: banning outlets from the White House grounds? Did you challenge
2:48
Speaker 4: him at all about this in your meeting with him?
2:51
Speaker 4: Historians and legal scholars have called it textbook authoritarianism.
2:54
Speaker 2: And Mr.
2:54
Speaker 4: President, are you banning outlets like MSNOW, CNN, and Politico
3:01
Speaker 4: in order to distract from the Iran war and high
3:03
Speaker 4: gas prices?
3:05
Speaker 3: OK, let's stop right there. Let's get back up to
3:07
Speaker 3: what she asked of Ma'am Donnie. It was an interesting
3:10
Speaker 3: question because Donald Trump has thrown out ABC, NBC, CBS, Politico.
3:15
Speaker 3: You hear some of the names there from that reporter.
3:18
Speaker 3: And she says, is this authoritarianism by Donald Trump? And
3:22
Speaker 3: a lot of people are arguing that and it's going
3:24
Speaker 3: to go to court. The interesting part is Donald Trump
3:27
Speaker 3: is not the first president to do this. In 2023,
3:31
Speaker 3: Joe Biden threw out over 400 members of the press
3:34
Speaker 3: with credentials and got rid of their credentials. So Donald
3:38
Speaker 3: Trump isn't the first. Barack Obama did it as well.
3:41
Speaker 3: Donald Trump has, you know, he's picked the ones that
3:44
Speaker 3: have not been good to him, not been nice to him.
3:47
Speaker 3: He's picked out the mainstream media that he calls the
3:50
Speaker 3: fake news. Well, it's an interesting question, though, isn't it?
3:54
Speaker 3: The First Amendment gives us the right to have the
3:57
Speaker 3: freedom of the press and It doesn't really matter what
4:00
Speaker 3: the press says. That's not freedom if we're selecting those
4:04
Speaker 3: that can or cannot cover us. So it's going to
4:07
Speaker 3: be interesting to watch as it goes through court. Fox
4:10
Speaker 3: News was not pointed out by Donald Trump, but Fox
4:13
Speaker 3: News did leave the pool there in the White House.
4:18
Speaker 3: So we will not see anything from the White House
4:21
Speaker 3: for a while because those five or six that are
4:24
Speaker 3: in the press pool are the ones that go into
4:26
Speaker 3: the Oval Office and Donald Trump answers the questions from.
4:30
Speaker 3: So it's going to be interesting to watch that from
4:32
Speaker 3: all directions, from the direction of the courts and what
4:36
Speaker 3: they say and what they decide and whether ABC, NBC,
4:40
Speaker 3: and CBS is allowed to go in there. There is
4:42
Speaker 3: a case from 1979, the Sherrill case, that says they
4:46
Speaker 3: are allowed. So is Donald Trump and his administration here
4:50
Speaker 3: trying to force the issue to take this to the
4:52
Speaker 3: Supreme Court to have the Supreme Court either change that
4:56
Speaker 3: precedent that was set in 1979 or not. It's going
5:00
Speaker 3: to be, like I said, it's going to be interesting
5:02
Speaker 3: to watch. Now let's get back to the answer here
5:05
Speaker 3: from Ma'am Donnie. If you remember the question, it was
5:07
Speaker 3: about the press and the press being there covering them.
5:11
Speaker 2: I told the president that we're going to have all
5:14
Speaker 2: of the members of the press here on the lawn,
5:16
Speaker 2: and that is something that I believe in as everyone,
5:19
Speaker 2: no matter the opinion or the critique, that we engage.
5:22
Speaker 3: I don't know, Mr.
5:23
Speaker 5: President.
5:24
Speaker 6: Interesting because they said they were going to boycott me,
5:28
Speaker 6: but they never boycott me. So I wasn't very worried
5:31
Speaker 6: about that. Look at all that press. But no, I'm not.
5:34
Speaker 6: I'm only doing it because I think the press also
5:37
Speaker 6: is an obligation. And, you know, I won in a landslide.
5:40
Speaker 6: I won the election in a landslide. I've done great things.
5:43
Speaker 6: I've done a lot of great things.
5:45
Speaker 3: And Donald Trump is upset because he doesn't feel like
5:48
Speaker 3: they're reporting the great things.
5:50
Speaker 1: And Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
6:09
Speaker 3: Everything is going great, with the exception of what's happening
6:12
Speaker 3: in the Iran war, driving energy gas prices up, and
6:15
Speaker 3: then also what's happening in Russia with Ukraine and diesel.
6:19
Speaker 3: Diesel is at an all-time high. That is going to
6:21
Speaker 3: create more inflation, which is why you saw the interest
6:25
Speaker 3: rates raised last week by the Fed. And one thing
6:28
Speaker 3: about this press conference is they were both very friendly
6:31
Speaker 3: with each other. I think it is in both men's interest,
6:35
Speaker 3: both men's city and country interests. that they be, you know,
6:40
Speaker 3: nice to each other and try to get along and
6:42
Speaker 3: try to do what's best for the people that live
6:44
Speaker 3: in the city and in the country. America, their biggest
6:48
Speaker 3: city is New York City. It is the city of
6:51
Speaker 3: the world for financial things. And, you know, it's going
6:54
Speaker 3: to be important that the city of New York survive Mandani,
6:58
Speaker 3: whatever that means.
6:59
Speaker 2: The conversation the president and I have been having is.
7:03
Speaker 2: About the possibility of building more housing here in New
7:06
Speaker 2: York City. We've spoken about Sunnyside Yard. And it's a
7:09
Speaker 2: real pleasure that just today we've agreed to set up
7:13
Speaker 2: a new level of that conversation between our housing and
7:16
Speaker 2: operations team at City Hall and the White House team.
7:20
Speaker 2: Because what we're speaking about is 12,000 homes, 30,000 jobs,
7:24
Speaker 2: the prospect of an entire new neighborhood in a city
7:27
Speaker 2: where housing is the number one cost. And I appreciate
7:30
Speaker 2: the president, his interest in this. And we also know
7:33
Speaker 2: the president, not just as the leader of the country,
7:36
Speaker 2: but also as someone who has built quite a lot
7:38
Speaker 2: of housing here in our city.
7:39
Speaker 3: I don't know, Mr.
7:39
Speaker 2: President.
7:40
Speaker 3: As I said, they were both friendly to each other.
7:42
Speaker 3: I don't know what else you expect. Ma'am Donnie's ideas,
7:45
Speaker 3: we'll have to wait and see how they work. They
7:48
Speaker 3: are socialist ideas, Democrats, Socialists of America. Another meeting that
7:52
Speaker 3: is taking place is Chairman Xi from China. He is
7:56
Speaker 3: meeting with Donald Trump. He also went to the UN
7:59
Speaker 3: General Assembly this week. But he is meeting in a
8:02
Speaker 3: state dinner on Wednesday night with Donald Trump. And according
8:06
Speaker 3: to Scott Besant, the Chinese are working with America with
8:11
Speaker 3: the secondary sanctions that have been put on Iran, which
8:14
Speaker 3: is good to hear because China has been helping Iran
8:18
Speaker 3: in that war and targeting U.S. soldiers in places like
8:21
Speaker 3: Afghanistan and other places there in the Middle East. So
8:26
Speaker 3: it sounds like China may be playing both sides of
8:29
Speaker 3: the fence as they always do, don't they? We'll have
8:32
Speaker 3: to wait and see what happens with Xi and Trump
8:35
Speaker 3: this week. Another meeting is that of Zelensky in Ukraine.
8:39
Speaker 3: I don't know if you know this, But there has
8:42
Speaker 3: been no legislation passed since 2024, before Donald Trump came
8:46
Speaker 3: back into office, to give Ukraine any money. It was
8:50
Speaker 3: $ 175 to $ 195 billion that America sent in support of
8:55
Speaker 3: Ukraine and the war that they've been fighting against Russia
8:58
Speaker 3: now for almost five years. February will be five years,
9:02
Speaker 3: longer than World War I, not quite as long as
9:04
Speaker 3: World War II. That's how long that's been going on.
9:07
Speaker 3: Nothing is happening. Matt Palumbo and I talked about it
9:09
Speaker 3: on Monday night. And I'm not going to get too
9:12
Speaker 3: deep into it now, but Zelensky and Ukraine, $ 175, $ 195
9:18
Speaker 3: billion from America that has been appropriated through Congress and
9:22
Speaker 3: signed into law by Joe Biden. Donald Trump said, we're
9:25
Speaker 3: not doing that anymore. And when it comes to cash
9:28
Speaker 3: to Ukraine, because there's a lot of misinformation about that,
9:31
Speaker 3: but enough dust has cleared now that you can actually
9:34
Speaker 3: tell what happened yesterday. with the amount of money and
9:37
Speaker 3: cash to Ukraine. It's about $ 37 billion that we gave
9:42
Speaker 3: to Ukraine, and that was to be used for social
9:47
Speaker 3: programs within Ukraine because their income, their GDP, dropped as
9:51
Speaker 3: a result of the war. And then America also made
9:54
Speaker 3: a $ 20 billion loan. The rest of that money, which
9:57
Speaker 3: would be about $ 140 billion, was in the form of munitions.
10:02
Speaker 3: When Donald Trump came into office, he changed all of that.
10:06
Speaker 3: We haven't sent any more money, but what we have
10:08
Speaker 3: done is sell munitions to the United Nations, who then
10:13
Speaker 3: gives them to Ukraine. Ukraine used them over the weekend
10:16
Speaker 3: to bomb a refinery. And that is one of those
10:19
Speaker 3: reasons why diesel is up so much, because the number
10:23
Speaker 3: two producer of diesel in the world is Russia. And
10:27
Speaker 3: when they can't produce the diesel for every other country
10:31
Speaker 3: in the world, then it puts demand on America's diesel
10:35
Speaker 3: and Canada's diesel. And America actually produces a little more
10:39
Speaker 3: diesel than we consume. Not much, but a little bit.
10:44
Speaker 3: And that oil on the global market is being taken
10:46
Speaker 3: all over the place. So as a result of that,
10:49
Speaker 3: we have diesel costing, what, $ 6. 50 a gallon? I've seen
10:53
Speaker 3: it high as $ 9 in some places. But that will
10:56
Speaker 3: trickle down to inflation because everything that you buy in
10:59
Speaker 3: a store is being delivered with diesel. So watch for
11:04
Speaker 3: that coming. And I believe that's why the Fed reduced
11:07
Speaker 3: those rates. Another meeting that is happening in Washington, D.C.
11:10
Speaker 3: that we'll watch this week is Netanyahu with Donald Trump.
11:15
Speaker 3: And Donald Trump has been talking about the possibility of
11:18
Speaker 3: escalating things in Iran again. He says he may wipe
11:21
Speaker 3: them off the face of the earth. He said that before.
11:24
Speaker 3: But he's also said that we're close to a deal.
11:26
Speaker 3: We're going to make a deal, he says. I'm not
11:29
Speaker 3: so sure about that. I've heard deal so much at
11:32
Speaker 3: this point, it just goes right over my head. I
11:35
Speaker 3: don't pay any attention when Donald Trump says we're going
11:37
Speaker 3: to make a deal because he has said it so much.
11:40
Speaker 3: And he's also said we're going to wipe them off
11:41
Speaker 3: the face of the earth so much. But here we are.
11:44
Speaker 3: We have these financial restraints on Iran, and they're having
11:48
Speaker 3: a difficult time inside that country. Scott Bassett, as I
11:52
Speaker 3: mentioned a few minutes ago, he says that China is
11:54
Speaker 3: going to work with them in secondary sanctions with Iran.
11:57
Speaker 3: So Iran may have a reason to make a deal
12:01
Speaker 3: at this point. But the problem is, any deal that
12:04
Speaker 3: Iran makes is never any good. They lie every time,
12:08
Speaker 3: and they continue to draw this war out, this conflict,
12:12
Speaker 3: whatever you want to call it. by saying we're going
12:14
Speaker 3: to come to the table. We'll come to the table now.
12:17
Speaker 3: We'll have a deal with you. But we all know,
12:20
Speaker 3: because Iran has been clear in saying this, they are never,
12:24
Speaker 3: ever going to give up their right, they say, to
12:27
Speaker 3: have a nuclear weapon. Donald Trump says you're never going
12:30
Speaker 3: to have one. So I am, like I said from
12:33
Speaker 3: the very beginning of this conflict, there's no deal to
12:37
Speaker 3: be here. There's nothing to talk about. The two sides
12:41
Speaker 3: are very strong in their convictions about the nuclear weapon.
12:46
Speaker 3: Iran says we can do it. Donald Trump says you're
12:48
Speaker 3: never going to do it. So I don't know what
12:50
Speaker 3: deal is there. I've been consistent on that for seven months,
12:53
Speaker 3: and I'm going to stay there. I just pay no
12:55
Speaker 3: attention when Donald Trump says we're going to have a
12:57
Speaker 3: deal with Iran. I think the only thing to do is,
13:00
Speaker 3: as I've said for a while, drown them out, cut
13:03
Speaker 3: them off financially in every way possible. Inflation is over
13:07
Speaker 3: 200% in Iran today. You have unemployment that's 4 million
13:11
Speaker 3: people have lost their jobs since the beginning of this.
13:13
Speaker 3: The rial is $ 2 million to $ 1. It's worthless. The
13:19
Speaker 3: rial is worthless. So the financial sanctions are working on Iran.
13:24
Speaker 3: How long can the Iranian people sit and do nothing
13:30
Speaker 3: without food, without money, without gas? There are gas lines
13:34
Speaker 3: there when people can find gas. even in Iran, where
13:38
Speaker 3: they pump oil as much as anyone else. Last story
13:42
Speaker 3: I want to get to before we get to a
13:44
Speaker 3: conversation with Jody Smith is that of AOC. AOC says, well,
13:49
Speaker 3: Robert Kraft in New England, the owner of the New
13:52
Speaker 3: England Patriots, we're going to go after him now. We
13:56
Speaker 3: have to apply the pressure because of the First Amendment.
14:00
Speaker 3: This is over the Macklemore thing, the rapper that was
14:03
Speaker 3: going to warm up Ed Sheeran. He was going to
14:05
Speaker 3: sing the only two songs that he has. And then
14:08
Speaker 3: Ed Sheeran would come out. And I don't know if
14:10
Speaker 3: you saw, but Ed Sheeran had a concert in Philadelphia
14:14
Speaker 3: on Saturday night, I guess. Had some friends that their
14:18
Speaker 3: children went to it. But he was there alone. And
14:22
Speaker 3: he spoke for about five minutes about it. And he
14:24
Speaker 3: put his support behind the Palestinians, sadly. So that's where
14:29
Speaker 3: Ed Sheeran stands. But back to Macklemore. And Robert Kraft,
14:33
Speaker 3: Robert Kraft says you cannot come to Gillette Stadium. And
14:36
Speaker 3: that's where a lot of this got started. Now, AOC
14:41
Speaker 3: says Robert Kraft can't do that because of the First Amendment.
14:45
Speaker 3: AOC needs to understand when you can use the First Amendment.
14:49
Speaker 3: Robert Kraft owns the Gillette Stadium. Robert Kraft can do
14:53
Speaker 3: anything he wants to on his own stadium. Free speech
14:57
Speaker 3: isn't everywhere. We talked about free speech a few minutes
14:59
Speaker 3: ago with the press and Donald Trump. But that doesn't
15:04
Speaker 3: take away Robert Kraft's right when he has ownership of
15:07
Speaker 3: the stadium to say what can and cannot be there.
15:11
Speaker 3: I guess the city of Boston, they could buy Gillette
15:14
Speaker 3: Stadium from him at a price, at a profit, whatever.
15:18
Speaker 3: That's the way America works in the free enterprise system.
15:22
Speaker 3: But there is a distinction there on free speech. You
15:26
Speaker 3: can't come into my house and say what you want to.
15:29
Speaker 3: I'll ask you to leave. Well, what about my free speech? Well,
15:32
Speaker 3: it's my house. Same thing, Robert Kraft in there. But
15:35
Speaker 3: AOC is going to make this a political thing. Watch
15:37
Speaker 3: that going forward. And the last thing is gas prices
15:43
Speaker 3: and how much money our oil companies are making. I'm
15:46
Speaker 3: seeing a lot of this on social media that somehow, someway,
15:50
Speaker 3: Donald Trump should do something about the oil prices. What
15:54
Speaker 3: are you suggesting there exactly? Are you suggesting that we
15:58
Speaker 3: have a state-run oil company like socialist country Venezuela had?
16:04
Speaker 3: I'm really confused about the Trump supporters coming at this
16:09
Speaker 3: in this direction and then also with the $ 5, 000 handouts.
16:12
Speaker 3: It's going to cost America $ 1. 2 trillion while we have
16:16
Speaker 3: $ 40 trillion in debt. Are those not the socialist things?
16:23
Speaker 3: Where are the conservatives that stand for limited government, for
16:28
Speaker 3: cutting down the debt, for cutting down the deficit spending
16:31
Speaker 3: that is at a record at $ 2 trillion this month.
16:35
Speaker 3: Where have they all gone? Do we not stand for
16:37
Speaker 3: the convictions that we believe in, or we just easily
16:42
Speaker 3: go from one thing to another based on what Donald
16:45
Speaker 3: Trump says? I think it's important, don't you? Have the
16:51
Speaker 3: convictions of your heart of what is best for this country,
16:54
Speaker 3: and $ 40 trillion in debt is not spending $ 2 trillion
16:58
Speaker 3: more than we bring in every year, that's not good
17:01
Speaker 3: for this country, regardless of who is in power in
17:06
Speaker 3: the White House. Jody Smith is coming up next. We're
17:10
Speaker 3: going to have a discussion about abortion. We'll talk about it.
17:12
Speaker 3: Most people don't like to talk about it, but we do,
17:15
Speaker 3: and we're going to next.
17:17
Speaker 1: More truth in minutes on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
17:20
Speaker 7: Tired of struggling with low energy?
17:22
Speaker 1: We get it.
17:23
Speaker 7: That's why we created Organic Energy Juice. You'll have natural
17:27
Speaker 7: energy all day and you'll never struggle with low energy again.
17:32
Speaker 7: In just two minutes, you can restore your natural energy
17:35
Speaker 7: without chemicals, without stimulants, no toxins, and there is no crash.
17:40
Speaker 7: You shouldn't have to struggle with low energy and with
17:43
Speaker 7: Organic Energy Juice, you won't. So if you're struggling with
17:47
Speaker 7: low energy, buying organic energy juice is the right decision.
17:51
Speaker 7: Go to ChemicalFreeBody.com, use the discount code PBJ, and get
17:57
Speaker 7: your organic energy juice today.
18:00
Speaker 1: The Roe v.
18:02
Speaker 3: Wade decision really doesn't It controlled everything about abortion for
18:15
Speaker 3: 50 years in this country. Elections, it seemed like every
18:19
Speaker 3: election cycle, it was all about abortion or the border.
18:23
Speaker 3: And then the Dobbs decision came along in the Supreme Court,
18:26
Speaker 3: and they sent it back to states so that states
18:29
Speaker 3: could make their own determination and own laws around abortion.
18:34
Speaker 3: I guess it's helped in a lot of ways, but
18:36
Speaker 3: in some ways it hasn't. We see... A lot of
18:38
Speaker 3: blue states that have gone radical and far in full-term abortion.
18:43
Speaker 3: And then we see states on the right, the red states,
18:46
Speaker 3: that have pulled back. And in some cases, they've made
18:48
Speaker 3: it illegal completely to have an abortion. And in all
18:53
Speaker 3: of that discussion, whether it's Roe v. Wade, Dobbs, or
18:56
Speaker 3: the states making their own laws, the question that comes
19:00
Speaker 3: to mind is, what about the young ladies that get pregnant?
19:04
Speaker 3: What about the decisions they are making? Who is there
19:07
Speaker 3: for them to help them in a time of need
19:10
Speaker 3: where they may not have a place to go? I
19:12
Speaker 3: think it's an interesting question and one we should get into,
19:15
Speaker 3: and we are here in this segment. We have a
19:17
Speaker 3: guest with us now. Her name is Jody Smith. She
19:20
Speaker 3: is the director of community partnerships for a group called
19:24
Speaker 3: Life Centers in Indianapolis, Indiana. They have several different locations.
19:28
Speaker 3: I'll let her talk about that. But Jody, welcome to
19:31
Speaker 3: the program. It's great to have you.
19:33
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me, Booker, and what
19:35
Speaker 5: a great way to segue into abortion in America today
19:40
Speaker 5: versus when Roe versus Wade was the law of the land.
19:44
Speaker 5: I've got lots of things to share with you about
19:47
Speaker 5: how things have changed and maybe how that's need to
19:50
Speaker 5: change more.
19:52
Speaker 3: Well, you know, Indiana, where you are, was one of
19:55
Speaker 3: the first states that outlawed abortion. Missouri was the very
19:58
Speaker 3: first one, and they got a lot of flack for that.
20:02
Speaker 3: You guys followed them along pretty quickly. What have you
20:05
Speaker 3: seen in your work since you guys outlawed abortion completely?
20:10
Speaker 5: Well, we really haven't outlawed it completely. And really, there's
20:13
Speaker 5: not a single state that has because everybody allows for
20:19
Speaker 5: the life of the mother. So we have certain reasons
20:24
Speaker 5: that you could have an abortion, certain exceptions, and life
20:28
Speaker 5: of the mother in every state is an exception. So
20:31
Speaker 5: I want to be sure and clarify that because a
20:34
Speaker 5: lot of people get hung up on the fact that
20:36
Speaker 5: you can't have an abortion for any reason. And an
20:40
Speaker 5: abortion is removing, is killing a baby and removing a
20:44
Speaker 5: live child. And so some people call abortion, for example,
20:48
Speaker 5: if you have a tubal pregnancy, they'll try to call
20:51
Speaker 5: that an abortion or ectopic pregnancy. And those children cannot
20:55
Speaker 5: live in that type of pregnancy. And so that really
20:59
Speaker 5: isn't considered an abortion. So if someone has an ectopic
21:02
Speaker 5: pregnancy or tubal pregnancy, that also is allowed. If the
21:06
Speaker 5: life of the mother is between the life of the
21:08
Speaker 5: mother and the life of the baby, the doctor and
21:10
Speaker 5: the woman make the decision in that situation. So I
21:14
Speaker 5: want to be sure and clarify that.
21:16
Speaker 1: In Indiana.
21:17
Speaker 3: Because if you listen to the left, they don't say that,
21:21
Speaker 3: do they? They just say it's completely outlawed.
21:24
Speaker 5: And they say you can't have a miscarriage or you can't,
21:27
Speaker 5: you know, if you have a miscarriage in the state
21:30
Speaker 5: of Indiana, there'll be all kinds of questions and you'll be,
21:34
Speaker 5: you know, you'll be told you're having an abortion and
21:36
Speaker 5: it's illegal. None of that is true. That's really, truly
21:40
Speaker 5: a bunch of nonsense. A miscarriage is a child that's
21:43
Speaker 5: already deceased being eliminated from the woman's body, not an abortion.
21:50
Speaker 5: So we do have a couple of other, in Indiana,
21:53
Speaker 5: we have a couple of other reasons why you can
21:55
Speaker 5: have an abortion. And whether I think they're right or wrong,
21:59
Speaker 5: the law of the land is that up until 10 weeks,
22:03
Speaker 5: you can have an abortion for rape or incest. So
22:06
Speaker 5: if a woman decides she cannot carry that baby because
22:09
Speaker 5: she was raped, as long as she comes within 10
22:12
Speaker 5: weeks of having been raped, then that is a reason
22:16
Speaker 5: she can have an abortion. Another one is what we
22:19
Speaker 5: call a lethal fetal anomaly. And that is something that
22:23
Speaker 5: is going to kill the baby within weeks. of two
22:27
Speaker 5: months of the time the baby would be born, like not, oh,
22:31
Speaker 5: the baby has Down syndrome or the baby has a
22:33
Speaker 5: heart defect or, you know, something like that. But this
22:36
Speaker 5: is a lethal fetal anomaly. That's also a reason for
22:40
Speaker 5: an abortion in Indiana. So I just like to make
22:45
Speaker 5: sure people know that, even though I may not think
22:48
Speaker 5: that both of those reasons are great reasons to have
22:51
Speaker 5: an abortion because there may be other alternatives or other options.
22:56
Speaker 5: In Indiana, that's the law. We are lucky in a
23:00
Speaker 5: way in Indiana because the way that we're structured in
23:03
Speaker 5: our state constitution, we can't do a constitutional amendment. It'll
23:09
Speaker 5: take two full cycles in order to do something like that.
23:13
Speaker 5: And the chances of it ever being passed would be zero.
23:18
Speaker 5: So in some states where they literally had a heartbeat law,
23:22
Speaker 5: like Missouri, for example, They had a heartbeat law where
23:25
Speaker 5: it said you could not abort a baby after you
23:27
Speaker 5: could hear the heartbeat. They passed a constitutional amendment and
23:34
Speaker 5: then were able to have abortion. Now they're trying to
23:36
Speaker 5: reverse that. So there's been a lot of fighting and
23:40
Speaker 5: a lot of challenges. But in Indiana, it's very clear.
23:43
Speaker 5: The law is very clear. They've issued guidance from the
23:46
Speaker 5: health department. And I would say that if a doctor
23:51
Speaker 5: wanted to know and understand when and how they could
23:54
Speaker 5: do an abortion, they have all the information they need.
23:57
Speaker 5: Sometimes they like to pretend they don't know or that
24:00
Speaker 5: it's challenging, but in all honesty, it's very, very clear cut.
24:05
Speaker 5: So we are faced with, okay, now we've got this
24:09
Speaker 5: situation where we went from 8,000 abortions a month down
24:14
Speaker 5: to like 126 abortions. We were able to get rid
24:18
Speaker 5: of 99% of those that were done in our state.
24:22
Speaker 5: And in Indiana, all abortions must be done in a hospital.
24:26
Speaker 5: We got rid of all of our abortion clinics, and
24:29
Speaker 5: now it has to be done in a hospital setting.
24:32
Speaker 5: So that was pretty radical. And it was time for
24:35
Speaker 5: us to think about what can we do for women. Now,
24:40
Speaker 5: I just back up just a tiny bit. I've worn
24:42
Speaker 5: a lot of hats in the pro-life world. And I
24:46
Speaker 5: was lobbyist for Indiana Right to Life when we had
24:49
Speaker 5: our special session that overcame Roe versus Wade and or that,
24:54
Speaker 5: you know, came on as soon as Roe versus Wade
24:56
Speaker 5: was overturned. And that's when they said we banned abortion.
25:00
Speaker 5: That's what they say about Indiana. But again, it's not
25:02
Speaker 5: exactly true. That's not 100 percent true. but I will
25:06
Speaker 5: tell you that it was the hardest fight I have
25:09
Speaker 5: ever been involved in, in my life. And it was, uh,
25:12
Speaker 5: so demonic and so crazy. We had so many things
25:16
Speaker 5: going on. For example, we had groups that were dripping
25:19
Speaker 5: blood in our state house. If you can imagine such
25:22
Speaker 5: a thing, we had sacrifices being offered on the steps
25:26
Speaker 5: of the state house by demonic and satanic groups. And
25:32
Speaker 5: all of those kinds of things were happening. And it was, um,
25:35
Speaker 5: It was really crazy. We had legislators that had always
25:39
Speaker 5: said they were pro-life, but now they needed to make
25:41
Speaker 5: a stand, and it was hard for them to make
25:43
Speaker 5: a stand. They had a difficult time determining that they
25:47
Speaker 5: would stand up and really do what they said they
25:51
Speaker 5: would always do, which is be to fight for life.
25:55
Speaker 5: So when that was over, when that was done, I
25:57
Speaker 5: moved into a little bit different position, though I'm still
26:00
Speaker 5: a lobbyist and still work on laws. We had passed
26:02
Speaker 5: every law imaginable in the state of Indiana to try
26:05
Speaker 5: to give women the very best chance and give them
26:09
Speaker 5: the opportunity to have a safe pregnancy, to have choices,
26:15
Speaker 5: to be able to understand and know what was happening
26:19
Speaker 5: to them. even if they chose abortion, we wanted them
26:22
Speaker 5: to at least know what the consequences could be and
26:25
Speaker 5: what some of the challenges were. We had passed a
26:27
Speaker 5: coercion bill. So if a woman was being coerced, you know,
26:31
Speaker 5: just tons and tons of legislation. And now we've got
26:35
Speaker 5: women who need our help. Now, I want to just
26:39
Speaker 5: clarify one other thing. Just because they can't have an
26:42
Speaker 5: abortion done in Indiana doesn't mean that they don't go elsewhere.
26:47
Speaker 5: We have abortion clinics right over the The line in Illinois,
26:52
Speaker 5: we have them right over the line in Ohio. You know,
26:57
Speaker 5: they can just go all the way around us to states,
27:00
Speaker 5: except Kentucky, and have abortions anywhere they want. And in fact,
27:04
Speaker 5: we've got groups that try to pay them to go
27:06
Speaker 5: and have abortions in other states. So that's pretty gross
27:10
Speaker 5: and awful.
27:11
Speaker 3: Jodi, if I can interrupt you real quick.
27:13
Speaker 7: Sure, absolutely.
27:14
Speaker 3: I want to ask you a couple of questions that
27:16
Speaker 3: you have brought to my mind since we started talking.
27:19
Speaker 3: One is the Missouri Constitution. You said they changed it.
27:23
Speaker 3: Now they are going to change it back. Do you
27:26
Speaker 3: know exactly what they are doing and what the pushback
27:28
Speaker 3: has been since they changed the Constitution?
27:31
Speaker 5: Well, of course, you know that the pro-lifers are just
27:34
Speaker 5: devastated because of all the years of working so hard
27:38
Speaker 5: to change. get Missouri to the place and get rid
27:40
Speaker 5: of the abortion facilities and so on. But they actually have,
27:45
Speaker 5: they're calling it, I believe, something like a reverse constitutional amendment.
27:49
Speaker 5: I could absolutely have someone come on and talk with
27:52
Speaker 5: you in another program.
27:54
Speaker 2: About exactly what that looks like.
27:57
Speaker 3: They changed it and now they're going to change it again.
27:59
Speaker 3: So I was curious if you had that. And then
28:01
Speaker 3: you mentioned the number 8,000, Indiana 8,000. Was that, What
28:06
Speaker 3: is that, a month? Was that monthly that they were
28:08
Speaker 3: doing 8,000 abortions?
28:11
Speaker 5: Well, that would be a year we would do 8,000.
28:15
Speaker 3: And now you're down to 126 is the number I remember.
28:19
Speaker 3: So that is effectively doing away with abortion in the
28:23
Speaker 3: state of Indiana.
28:24
Speaker 5: Basically.
28:24
Speaker 2: Yeah. If you went from 8,000 to 126.
28:25
Speaker 3: 99% is the way we usually tell people we got
28:26
Speaker 3: rid of.
28:33
Speaker 5: You know, 99 percent of the abortions. And what's really
28:35
Speaker 5: interesting in that is most of those are not rape
28:38
Speaker 5: and incest, which was the biggest challenge. We have just
28:42
Speaker 5: a couple rape and incest a year. So, yeah, we've
28:46
Speaker 5: done a good job.
28:47
Speaker 1: That was totally political.
28:48
Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah.
28:49
Speaker 3: No doubt about that. Now, when I did some research
28:54
Speaker 3: on abortions, it's probably been about a year. And what
28:57
Speaker 3: I could find was that abortion since 1984 to today
29:01
Speaker 3: really hasn't gone down much.
29:03
Speaker 5: Correct.
29:04
Speaker 3: Now, I know there's a little math problems there because
29:09
Speaker 3: I think Illinois and California, neither one of those states
29:12
Speaker 3: report abortions anymore. So it may be higher, but I
29:16
Speaker 3: think with the population growth percentage-wise, it's probably the same.
29:19
Speaker 3: And I think that's where we finally need to get
29:22
Speaker 3: this conversation to is, How do we change those hearts
29:24
Speaker 3: and minds more than anything? And that's some of your
29:26
Speaker 3: work with the Life Center. So let's kind of talk
29:30
Speaker 3: about that.
29:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's where I'm going to jump into. Just remember
29:33
Speaker 5: that the reason that we can't really tell how many
29:35
Speaker 5: abortions we really don't know is because of the pills.
29:38
Speaker 5: The pills are being shipped all over the place. the country.
29:41
Speaker 5: They can be shipped into any state. They're mailed. The
29:45
Speaker 5: girls don't even have to be pregnant. They don't have
29:47
Speaker 5: to have any kind of medical exam. And it's very,
29:53
Speaker 5: very hard. Everything with the numbers of abortion just are
29:57
Speaker 5: sort of made up. Because we have no way of
30:00
Speaker 5: tracking exactly. So whenever we do talk numbers, we don't
30:04
Speaker 5: know for sure. But I will tell you that I
30:08
Speaker 5: am the director of community partnerships for five centers called
30:13
Speaker 5: Pregnancy Choices in Indianapolis. Life Centers is our public-facing name.
30:17
Speaker 5: We've been around for about 42 years. So we've been
30:20
Speaker 5: in this business a long time of changing hearts and minds.
30:24
Speaker 5: and trying to reach out to women and make sure
30:26
Speaker 5: that they do understand. We're called Pregnancy Choices for a reason,
30:30
Speaker 5: because when a girl comes in, she's got to feel
30:32
Speaker 5: safe to ask questions. Most of the girls, when they
30:37
Speaker 5: come in, they don't know anything about pill abortions. They
30:41
Speaker 5: have no idea that one in five girls will end
30:43
Speaker 5: up in the hospital after a pill abortion, but even
30:46
Speaker 5: potentially bleeding out. There are lots and lots of complications
30:50
Speaker 5: and emergency rooms.
30:51
Speaker 3: Can you explain that? Because I don't know what you're
30:53
Speaker 3: talking about there. I've never heard that. So that's new
30:55
Speaker 3: to me. I would assume that people listening to this
30:58
Speaker 3: have probably never heard that one in five women who
31:01
Speaker 3: take the abortion pill end up in the hospital. That's 20%.
31:04
Speaker 3: It's a big number.
31:05
Speaker 5: It's a huge number. And we're finding out that it
31:08
Speaker 5: may even be more than that. The girls, when they
31:10
Speaker 5: get their pills, they're told that if they have a
31:13
Speaker 5: bleeding problem or if they have a problem after they
31:16
Speaker 5: take the pills, that they're to tell the emergency room
31:20
Speaker 5: people they're having a miscarriage. And never admit to taking
31:25
Speaker 5: the pills, especially in Indiana, because it's illegal for the
31:29
Speaker 5: pills to be shipped into Indiana. It's illegal to take
31:33
Speaker 5: the pills without a doctor giving them to you and
31:35
Speaker 5: having a... I mean, they're giving girls are taking pills
31:39
Speaker 5: even when they have tubal pregnancies, which, of course, can
31:42
Speaker 5: kill them. So there are.
31:45
Speaker 3: So the NGOs, the NGOs or organizations, whoever it is
31:48
Speaker 3: that is encouraging people to take the pill and then
31:51
Speaker 3: supplying the pill is also telling them if you happen
31:55
Speaker 3: to bleed or you have any pain and you have
31:56
Speaker 3: to go to the hospital, tell them this, not the truth.
32:00
Speaker 5: Correct.
32:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay. Keep going, please.
32:02
Speaker 5: Because we've got to keep the complications reporting down so
32:05
Speaker 5: that we never do know, because, of course, the flip
32:09
Speaker 5: side is they tell women taking the pill, the abortion pills,
32:13
Speaker 5: mifepristone and misoprostol, is as safe as taking Tylenol, which
32:20
Speaker 5: is really a very profound lie. And so the doctors
32:24
Speaker 5: are now beginning to try to to fill out some
32:28
Speaker 5: level of complications reporting in some states. In Indiana, we
32:32
Speaker 5: have complications reporting laws. So if they think that it
32:37
Speaker 5: is an abortion and they have any reason to be
32:42
Speaker 5: able to prove that or, you know, it's up to
32:46
Speaker 5: the doctor because if the doctor just says, Oh, she
32:49
Speaker 5: said I was having a miscarriage. I'm not going to
32:51
Speaker 5: write a complications report. We know that many, many complications
32:54
Speaker 5: reporting does not happen. You know, many of the cases
32:58
Speaker 5: aren't reported. The other problem is a lot of the
33:01
Speaker 5: states have shield laws. So even if we could prove
33:04
Speaker 5: that somebody sent in pills to Indiana where it's illegal,
33:08
Speaker 5: we can't do anything because the states say like New York, Massachusetts,
33:12
Speaker 5: there's a lot of them. They say we'll shield the
33:14
Speaker 5: doctors or the people that sent those out or the
33:17
Speaker 5: organizations that sent those pills out. We'll shield them, and
33:21
Speaker 5: you won't.
33:21
Speaker 3: Be able to expedite them.
33:22
Speaker 5: I was going to ask that question.
33:24
Speaker 3: Did Indiana make a law to make it illegal for
33:28
Speaker 3: the abortion pill to be used in Indiana?
33:30
Speaker 1: Yes.
33:31
Speaker 5: Well, it's not illegal for them to be used. They
33:34
Speaker 5: just have to come from a doctor. It has to
33:36
Speaker 5: be for one of the three reasons that we talked
33:38
Speaker 5: about earlier— They have to have a physical exam. And,
33:42
Speaker 5: you know, that used to be for every single person
33:45
Speaker 5: ever taking those pills. It had to come from a doctor.
33:49
Speaker 5: It had to be, you know, after an exam because
33:52
Speaker 5: there's certain times you can't take the abortion pills, like,
33:56
Speaker 5: for example, with an ectopic pregnancy. So it used to
34:02
Speaker 5: be the norm for the FDA. And then during COVID,
34:05
Speaker 5: Biden took all those restrictions off. And now we're trying
34:09
Speaker 5: to get the FDA to put those restrictions back on
34:13
Speaker 5: because it had a black box warning. There's all kinds
34:16
Speaker 5: of things with these particular abortion drugs that are very
34:19
Speaker 5: dangerous and they were always known to be very dangerous.
34:23
Speaker 5: It's just that, you know, again, abortion is a very
34:26
Speaker 5: politicized measure and, you know, there's back and forth and
34:30
Speaker 5: back and forth about whether or not, you know, we'll
34:34
Speaker 5: ever get the FDA to pull back on some of the,
34:38
Speaker 5: the lack of restrictions that they have now. But there's
34:43
Speaker 5: a big move for that. Our Senator Jim Banks is
34:45
Speaker 5: working really hard on that right now.
34:47
Speaker 3: I like Jim Banks a lot. I really do. I'm
34:51
Speaker 3: impressed with him. Every time I hear him and see
34:53
Speaker 3: him talk, I'm impressed with Jim Banks a lot.
34:57
Speaker 5: He's working hard and he's always been pro-life and always
35:00
Speaker 5: been staunch. And Especially about protecting women because this isn't
35:03
Speaker 5: just about stopping abortions about protecting women These women are
35:07
Speaker 5: desperately hurt during this situation We also have a law
35:11
Speaker 5: in our state that if you take an abortion pill
35:15
Speaker 5: You have to be given the information about reversal because
35:18
Speaker 5: you can reverse the effects of the abortion pill if
35:21
Speaker 5: you only take the first pill if you haven't taken
35:24
Speaker 5: the second pill and then you can work with an OBGYN.
35:28
Speaker 5: And we have lots of OBGYNs in Indiana that will
35:31
Speaker 5: work with women to reverse it by giving progesterone. And
35:36
Speaker 5: I have been so blessed. In fact, when we passed
35:38
Speaker 5: that legislation, I was so blessed to hold a baby
35:42
Speaker 5: and bring a mom in who did a pill reversal
35:45
Speaker 5: after Planned Parenthood got up there and stood up there.
35:47
Speaker 5: This was before Euro versus Wade was overturned and we
35:50
Speaker 5: didn't have abortion facilities in Indiana. but say it was
35:53
Speaker 5: junk science, couldn't happen, never had been done, and I'm
35:57
Speaker 5: holding a baby with all of the medical documentation, was
36:00
Speaker 5: so fun. Because it really does, I mean, women can
36:05
Speaker 5: change their minds, and we've seen lots of women change
36:07
Speaker 5: their minds, but the most important thing is that a
36:10
Speaker 5: woman be told the truth. And, you know, she'll have
36:13
Speaker 5: to make up her mind.
36:14
Speaker 1: Well, let's get into that.
36:15
Speaker 3: We are up against a break, and we're going to
36:16
Speaker 3: take that break now and come back and continue the conversation.
36:20
Speaker 3: And let's get into the conversation about the hearts and minds,
36:23
Speaker 3: because that's where the real battle is when it comes
36:26
Speaker 3: to abortion. We want you to stay with us. You
36:28
Speaker 3: are listening to Jody Smith. She is the director of
36:30
Speaker 3: Community Partnerships of Life Centers in Indiana and specifically Indianapolis.
36:36
Speaker 3: We'll be back with more. Someone asked me the other day,
36:39
Speaker 3: how do you even get a sense of what's going
36:41
Speaker 3: to happen next?
36:42
Speaker 1: It's hard.
36:43
Speaker 3: I don't know that we can, the way the news
36:45
Speaker 3: moves so fast. But you know what I told them?
36:48
Speaker 3: I said, I've been checking out Poly Market a little bit.
36:52
Speaker 3: It's extremely insightful. You're basically watching how thousands of people
36:56
Speaker 3: are betting on outcomes. Political elections, big policy moves, even
37:02
Speaker 3: events you wouldn't expect. It's kind of like a live
37:05
Speaker 3: pulse on what the public actually believes. And you can
37:09
Speaker 3: see trends before they even happen and before they even
37:13
Speaker 3: make the mainstream news. For me, it's not about gambling.
37:18
Speaker 3: It's about understanding the probabilities and where the momentum is shifting.
37:23
Speaker 3: If you like or love the news like I do,
37:26
Speaker 3: maybe you're a news junkie, but you want to take
37:28
Speaker 3: a little deeper look at what people really think, go
37:31
Speaker 3: to Polymarket. It's a fascinating tool. Polymarket.com. Jodi Smith is
37:54
Speaker 3: our guest, and she is with Life Centers, and we're
37:57
Speaker 3: talking abortion. It's not an easy subject to talk about.
38:01
Speaker 3: People get emotional about it. And if you look at
38:04
Speaker 3: polls in this country, it's easy to see that 70%
38:09
Speaker 3: of the people in this country believe there should be
38:11
Speaker 3: some form of an abortion. And that's a big number
38:14
Speaker 3: to overcome. And, you know, I had a conversation with
38:17
Speaker 3: Mike Termod on the air probably about three years ago, Jodi,
38:21
Speaker 3: And he ran for president for the Libertarian Party and
38:25
Speaker 3: then became a vice president nominee in 2024. And I
38:30
Speaker 3: was questioning him when he was running for president about
38:32
Speaker 3: his stance on abortion. And he is a pro-life guy.
38:35
Speaker 3: And he really opened my eyes and made me start
38:38
Speaker 3: thinking a little bit differently about abortion. Instead of thumping
38:42
Speaker 3: people over the head with a Bible, that's probably not
38:45
Speaker 3: going to work when 70% of Americans still believe there
38:49
Speaker 3: should be some form of an abortion. There has to
38:51
Speaker 3: be a changing of one's heart and mind to see
38:55
Speaker 3: things a little bit different. And I know that's what
38:57
Speaker 3: you do on a daily basis with women, young girls
39:01
Speaker 3: there in Indianapolis. And I think we need to shift
39:04
Speaker 3: our conversation a little bit to that, that heart and
39:07
Speaker 3: mind battle that we have when it comes to abortion.
39:11
Speaker 5: Yes, indeed. And in America, it's just so critical because
39:15
Speaker 5: we've changed our ideas. When I grew up, it was
39:18
Speaker 5: we're going to be overrun, overpopulated, there won't be enough food,
39:22
Speaker 5: there won't be enough medical care, etc. And now we
39:26
Speaker 5: are at a population deficit. We need to be birthing
39:31
Speaker 5: children a whole generation don't even want to have kids
39:35
Speaker 5: so we have that as well But what we try
39:38
Speaker 5: to do with the girls that come in, we serve
39:41
Speaker 5: the poorest zip codes in Indianapolis area. We have four centers, north, south, east,
39:46
Speaker 5: and west. So we cover the whole city. And when
39:49
Speaker 5: you're covering a city as big as Indianapolis and with
39:53
Speaker 5: a lot of poverty and a lot of folks from
39:56
Speaker 5: other countries, we are bilingual in every one of our centers.
40:00
Speaker 5: We're dealing with a great variety of people that are
40:04
Speaker 5: coming in for a variety of reasons. But I will
40:07
Speaker 5: tell you that the biggest reason that women want to
40:11
Speaker 5: have an abortion or come in thinking that they have
40:14
Speaker 5: to have an abortion is finances. They don't think that
40:18
Speaker 5: financially they can have another child if they already have
40:22
Speaker 5: more than one or they're not in a position where
40:25
Speaker 5: they feel like they can care for a child, especially
40:28
Speaker 5: if they're a single mom and dad isn't a part
40:30
Speaker 5: of the, you know, the father of the baby isn't
40:33
Speaker 5: a part of the story. So we start with what
40:37
Speaker 5: is prohibiting you or what would cause you to not
40:40
Speaker 5: want to have this child if that's where they come,
40:42
Speaker 5: you know, they come in and they fill out some forms,
40:45
Speaker 5: they talk and we meet them right where they are.
40:47
Speaker 5: And so, for example, we offer, I always say we
40:50
Speaker 5: offer hope and we offer help. And that help comes
40:53
Speaker 5: in the form of resources, right? One of the first
40:57
Speaker 5: things we can do is to help the other children.
41:00
Speaker 5: Maybe they need diapers, they need clothing, they need shoes,
41:04
Speaker 5: they need help with food. We can provide those kinds
41:08
Speaker 5: of resources. And of course, we do everything at no cost,
41:12
Speaker 5: you know, to the moms. And lots of times that
41:15
Speaker 5: takes a load off. They can't come in every day
41:17
Speaker 5: and get new clothes, but they can come in once
41:20
Speaker 5: a quarter and we can help them to have other
41:22
Speaker 5: resources for whatever they need. Because, you know, in the
41:26
Speaker 5: United States of America, we have a lot of resources.
41:29
Speaker 5: We're very kind and we provide a lot of things
41:32
Speaker 5: for people that truly need help. And we can help
41:35
Speaker 5: them with that. We've worked very hard to make sure
41:37
Speaker 5: that we have resources for everything. You know, even with
41:41
Speaker 5: jobs and all of that, we can meet that need.
41:45
Speaker 5: And then we begin to talk to them about some
41:47
Speaker 5: of the other reasons. Maybe they made a mistake and
41:50
Speaker 5: they're pregnant with a child that they don't necessarily want
41:53
Speaker 5: to have because they didn't have a relationship with that
41:56
Speaker 5: father or, you know, there's lots of challenges in that
42:00
Speaker 5: realm of things that have happened. Maybe it was a rape.
42:03
Speaker 5: But one of the things that we can do is
42:05
Speaker 5: we can help them with an adoption. And you know,
42:08
Speaker 5: far and above the majority of adoptions in our country
42:11
Speaker 5: are open adoptions. And so moms have a lot of.
42:15
Speaker 3: What does that mean, Jodi? Explain open adoption. I think
42:18
Speaker 3: a lot of people listening probably don't have any idea
42:22
Speaker 3: about how you go through it. I have friends in
42:25
Speaker 3: my past that they went through the state and they
42:29
Speaker 3: were on a list for 10 years. They finally got
42:31
Speaker 3: a phone call and by then they were 45 and
42:33
Speaker 3: they were like, we just don't want to do this
42:35
Speaker 3: at this point. And so, so talk about the different
42:38
Speaker 3: ways people can go about adopting a child.
42:41
Speaker 5: An open adoption is really exciting because that's when the
42:45
Speaker 5: mom actually gets to have some say and choose the
42:49
Speaker 5: parents and meet with parents and have an opportunity to
42:55
Speaker 5: set the boundaries the way she would like to have
42:58
Speaker 5: them set. In other words, you know, I would like
43:01
Speaker 5: to be able to communicate with my child at some
43:04
Speaker 5: point with a letter or pictures, or I would like
43:06
Speaker 5: for you to send me photos so that I can
43:09
Speaker 5: see this child growing up. Or I would like not
43:13
Speaker 5: to have any communication with you. I want you to
43:15
Speaker 5: take this child and I don't want to hear about
43:17
Speaker 5: it ever again. But mom sets those boundaries. And also,
43:22
Speaker 5: you know, mom is taken care of as far as
43:26
Speaker 5: with a private adoption, you know, the costs and so on.
43:30
Speaker 5: We have also a safe haven law, which is really
43:33
Speaker 5: pretty exciting as well. Some people may be listening have
43:37
Speaker 5: heard of safe haven baby boxes, which actually originated in Indiana.
43:43
Speaker 5: And safe haven baby boxes in the safe haven law
43:46
Speaker 5: says that a parent can place their child in a box.
43:49
Speaker 5: We have boxes in almost all of our fire stations.
43:52
Speaker 5: We have them all over the place. And there are
43:55
Speaker 5: no consequences. They can also hand the baby to a
43:59
Speaker 5: fire station or a hospital without any consequences. because they
44:04
Speaker 5: don't feel they can care for that child. So it
44:07
Speaker 5: can go lots of different directions with adoptions. All those
44:12
Speaker 5: babies from the safe haven boxes are also adopted immediately
44:17
Speaker 5: and placed in their forever homes. In Indiana, they're placed
44:19
Speaker 5: in their forever homes. Some other states, they may have
44:22
Speaker 5: to go through foster care. We also, in Indiana, had
44:25
Speaker 5: the largest number of adoptions from foster care to adoption.
44:29
Speaker 5: We were given an award by President Trump for that
44:33
Speaker 5: a few years ago. And what we try to do
44:35
Speaker 5: with that, of course, is moms can decide, I can't
44:40
Speaker 5: do this. I'm going to place my child with the state.
44:44
Speaker 5: And they go through our Department of Children's Services and
44:47
Speaker 5: are placed in the foster care situation pending adoption. And
44:52
Speaker 5: we've been working on legislation and ways to make that
44:54
Speaker 5: adoption process quicker and and easier. And we also have
44:59
Speaker 5: a lot of financial helps. In other words, tax deductions,
45:04
Speaker 5: college funds, healthcare that are provided for those children that
45:10
Speaker 5: are adopted. It's really true that every child that is aborted,
45:15
Speaker 5: every single solitary one could be placed for adoption and adopted.
45:20
Speaker 5: That's how great the need is, especially for babies. Like
45:23
Speaker 5: you talked about your friends being on a list for ever.
45:26
Speaker 5: And by the time they finally have the opportunity, they're
45:29
Speaker 5: too old to even consider it. The desire for babies
45:34
Speaker 5: in America is absolutely unbelievable. So many women can't, you know,
45:39
Speaker 5: infertility has become such an issue and they can't have
45:43
Speaker 5: children and they would, you know, do anything to be
45:46
Speaker 5: able to adopt a child.
45:48
Speaker 3: I think there's questions too about the COVID vaccine and
45:52
Speaker 3: how that may be affecting people right now, and that's
45:55
Speaker 3: something to consider. When you were talking about those boxes,
45:58
Speaker 3: those baby boxes, it made me think of these children
46:02
Speaker 3: that are born in a toilet and thrown in a
46:07
Speaker 3: trash can. You have these young girls that are having
46:11
Speaker 3: these babies, and you kind of have to feel for
46:14
Speaker 3: them in some ways, but every time I see one
46:17
Speaker 3: of those stories on the news, it crushes my heart.
46:20
Speaker 3: This child was born that way and then just discarded
46:24
Speaker 3: into a dumpster behind a building or in a trash
46:27
Speaker 3: can in a bathroom. And that doesn't have to happen.
46:31
Speaker 3: And with these baby boxes, it allows someone to carry
46:35
Speaker 3: that baby to full term, possibly then have the child.
46:39
Speaker 3: And instead of putting it in a dumpster, they can
46:41
Speaker 3: put it in a baby box and leave it. And
46:43
Speaker 3: not have any charges coming to them for doing that.
46:47
Speaker 5: And it's completely anonymous. You do not have to ever
46:50
Speaker 5: take personal responsibility, though help is offered to you if
46:55
Speaker 5: you would like help. In other words, we can help
46:58
Speaker 5: with counseling. We can help with making sure that you
47:02
Speaker 5: are medically okay. Because a lot of times what happens
47:05
Speaker 5: with the baby boxes is literally the babies are just born.
47:09
Speaker 5: Sometimes they're a few days old, you know, sometimes they
47:13
Speaker 5: mom just says, I can't do it and puts them
47:16
Speaker 5: in the boxes. But what just incredible, incredible stories about
47:22
Speaker 5: the children that have been placed in the boxes and
47:24
Speaker 5: the adoptions. And I was so blessed to see many
47:28
Speaker 5: of these children and hear their stories after they've been
47:31
Speaker 5: placed with the family's. Um, it's a, it's an amazing thing.
47:34
Speaker 5: And in Indiana, what we have done is we make
47:36
Speaker 5: certain that all children, all kids, high school kids and,
47:41
Speaker 5: and middle school kids know about safe Haven law and
47:45
Speaker 5: know about baby boxes because a lot of times these
47:48
Speaker 5: are students and young girls, they don't even know they're pregnant.
47:53
Speaker 5: They find out they're pregnant. They, they, they just, you know,
47:56
Speaker 5: they deliver at school, they deliver all different crazy situations and, And,
48:03
Speaker 5: you know, they're able to know that that is an
48:06
Speaker 5: option for them. And, of course, knowing that somebody wants
48:12
Speaker 5: your baby for some women changes their heart and their mind,
48:16
Speaker 5: especially if it's a situation where they wish they could
48:19
Speaker 5: want the baby, but they can't. And that would be
48:22
Speaker 5: the emotional, you know, situations. Maybe they've been coerced. Maybe
48:25
Speaker 5: they've been trafficked. Maybe they've been raped. just all those
48:32
Speaker 5: kinds of things that can be, you know, just devastating
48:35
Speaker 5: for a woman. She doesn't have to blame her child
48:38
Speaker 5: for that. She's able to again say, yeah, I want to,
48:42
Speaker 5: you know, I want to do the right thing and
48:44
Speaker 5: I want to give my child life, but I don't
48:46
Speaker 5: want to be the parent of that child. I'm not
48:49
Speaker 5: ready or I can't or, you know, whatever. So that's
48:52
Speaker 5: changing a heart and a mind by just giving options.
48:56
Speaker 5: And then the other thing, Oh, go ahead.
48:58
Speaker 3: Real quick. You're listening to Jody Smith. Life Centers is
49:01
Speaker 3: the name of the organization. Multiple locations around Indianapolis. She
49:06
Speaker 3: is the director of community partnerships. And you brought up
49:09
Speaker 3: counseling a couple of minutes ago. And one of my
49:12
Speaker 3: pastors at my church, his wife, she had an abortion
49:18
Speaker 3: and it's part of her, you know, mission now in life.
49:21
Speaker 3: She is plus 60 years old, and she walked around
49:25
Speaker 3: with this burden of for a very long time. She
49:28
Speaker 3: was in her late 50s before she even admitted to
49:31
Speaker 3: anyone that it had ever happened when she was in
49:34
Speaker 3: her teens. And she was the daughter of a pastor.
49:37
Speaker 3: She married a pastor, and she kept that hidden. And
49:42
Speaker 3: she finally went through the process of grieving that child,
49:46
Speaker 3: I believe, when she was about 58 years old. And
49:48
Speaker 3: she had to carry around a baby, and it was
49:52
Speaker 3: heavy on her. It was hard on her. And I
49:54
Speaker 3: don't think that so many people that are listening to
49:57
Speaker 3: this right now, people like myself, we just don't understand
50:01
Speaker 3: and probably will never understand what that part is about.
50:05
Speaker 3: But that's where you come in to this scenario to
50:09
Speaker 3: help people grieve the loss of this child.
50:13
Speaker 5: We have a program called Spiritually Oriented Abortion Recovery or SOAR.
50:19
Speaker 5: And when we have a woman who's had a prior
50:22
Speaker 5: abortion or when someone comes to us from a church,
50:25
Speaker 5: we help churches with this. We have women that have
50:29
Speaker 5: had abortions that know, that really understand, that take women
50:33
Speaker 5: through about a 10 week. It can be sometimes a
50:37
Speaker 5: little longer, a little shorter, depending on. you know, the
50:40
Speaker 5: person and what their needs are, but about a 10-week
50:42
Speaker 5: recovery period where they name their baby, they accept responsibility.
50:48
Speaker 5: This is a spiritually oriented one. They receive forgiveness, but
50:52
Speaker 5: not just forgiveness. They receive freedom. They're able to let
50:57
Speaker 5: go because a lot of times women can feel that
51:00
Speaker 5: they've been forgiven and for what they did, but they
51:03
Speaker 5: never ever feel free. They never have that weight taken off.
51:07
Speaker 5: And this is when they literally talk to their child
51:12
Speaker 5: or write a letter to their child. They know that
51:15
Speaker 5: they will see them again in heaven. They are able
51:18
Speaker 5: to really let go of that weight, just horrid weight
51:24
Speaker 5: that they've been carrying around for years. And I've watched
51:27
Speaker 5: so many women go through this process and see the
51:30
Speaker 5: difference that it makes in their life. And they say
51:33
Speaker 5: in our churches, I mean, there are stats that say
51:36
Speaker 5: one out of three, but somewhere between one out of
51:38
Speaker 5: three and one out of five women have had abortions
51:42
Speaker 5: in our churches. So it does make a huge difference.
51:47
Speaker 5: And when someone is ready to go through that process,
51:50
Speaker 5: it can literally take them from drug abuse, alcohol abuse.
51:56
Speaker 5: The things that happen after an abortion, emotionally with a woman,
52:00
Speaker 5: maybe not right away, but eventually it gets them and
52:04
Speaker 5: it starts really interfering with their life and their ability
52:07
Speaker 5: to parent other children or to be monogamous in a relationship.
52:14
Speaker 5: All kinds of things that there are statistics for after
52:19
Speaker 5: an abortion are things that can be dealt with and
52:21
Speaker 5: that you don't have to carry that forever.
52:24
Speaker 3: It's so simple, but It's not simple at all. It's
52:28
Speaker 3: not simple, exactly. No, it's very, very difficult work that
52:32
Speaker 3: you do. Jodi, tell people that are listening to this
52:35
Speaker 3: how they could help you and your mission and the
52:37
Speaker 3: Life Centers in Indianapolis.
52:39
Speaker 5: Oh, that's so kind of you to say. The most
52:42
Speaker 5: important thing, the most important thing is prayer. We believe
52:46
Speaker 5: that it's God that changes hearts and minds. And we
52:49
Speaker 5: don't shove God down people's throats and we don't pray
52:51
Speaker 5: for them if they don't want us to. But when
52:53
Speaker 5: they can understand that a loving Heavenly Father created them
52:58
Speaker 5: and created the life that they're carrying, that's another thing
53:02
Speaker 5: that changes everything. Most of the men have never known
53:07
Speaker 5: a father, so they say, Dad, what? I don't know
53:10
Speaker 5: what you're talking about. I never had a dad. Moms,
53:13
Speaker 5: all they've known oftentimes from men is abuse. And you
53:17
Speaker 5: say your heavenly father, and it's like their earthly father
53:20
Speaker 5: was crummy. The guys they've known have been crummy, and
53:23
Speaker 5: they don't have any desire to understand or know a
53:27
Speaker 5: heavenly father. So prayer is the most important thing because
53:31
Speaker 5: we are looking for changed hearts and minds. And if
53:35
Speaker 5: you're in a church and you're someplace, because people are
53:38
Speaker 5: listening from all over, is work with your local pregnancy
53:42
Speaker 5: centers to receive women and families and guys and gals
53:47
Speaker 5: who may not be married yet. Marriage doesn't happen in
53:50
Speaker 5: a minute. A lot of times it takes time to
53:53
Speaker 5: get there. But accept these families and work with these
53:57
Speaker 5: families and love these families. Because we have very few
54:01
Speaker 5: places that we can send people that may not look
54:05
Speaker 5: like the church right in the beginning. They may have
54:08
Speaker 5: had issues, maybe drugs, maybe alcohol, maybe, you know, poverty,
54:14
Speaker 5: whatever it might be. If you can work and you
54:17
Speaker 5: can see this as truly kingdom work, you will be
54:22
Speaker 5: so surprised at how people respond to love and they
54:26
Speaker 5: respond to prayer and they respond to kindness. And that's
54:31
Speaker 5: how we can, any pregnancy center across the whole country. Now,
54:35
Speaker 5: of course, we need money because we have to pay
54:38
Speaker 5: for everything. It's free. Everything we do is free to
54:40
Speaker 5: the clients. It's just not free for us. So if
54:44
Speaker 5: you can support your local pregnancy center, a lot of
54:47
Speaker 5: times we need things. We provide clothing and toys and
54:51
Speaker 5: a book. And, you know, moms want to give good
54:53
Speaker 5: gifts to their kids. So in every, we call them.
54:58
Speaker 5: Toddler bundles we put a book and a toy so
55:01
Speaker 5: that moms can give something just even beyond just clothing
55:04
Speaker 5: and shoes and so on so there's practical needs there's
55:08
Speaker 5: monetary needs but the most important need is to pray
55:11
Speaker 5: and to pray in America that we would honor children
55:15
Speaker 5: again that we would think that children are a blessing
55:18
Speaker 5: and not a curse and that we would come back
55:21
Speaker 5: to understanding that this next generation is who's going to
55:24
Speaker 5: take over and they're going to be the ones caring
55:26
Speaker 5: for us in old age etc and we we've got
55:31
Speaker 5: to know that that's god's way and that that is
55:34
Speaker 5: how he has perpetuated you know humanity and it's.
55:38
Speaker 3: An important work it takes a village to raise a
55:41
Speaker 3: child they say And consider us all in this village
55:45
Speaker 3: of America and in what really has been not a
55:49
Speaker 3: good thing for American history, and that is abortion. And
55:53
Speaker 3: we need to reach out and help these people. That's
55:56
Speaker 3: what Jodi does. And maybe you can find it in
55:58
Speaker 3: your heart to also help some of these people. But Jodi,
56:02
Speaker 3: thank you so much for coming on the program, talking
56:04
Speaker 3: about life centers, talking about this difficult subject, abortion. Thank
56:09
Speaker 3: you so much. I appreciate it.
56:10
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me.
56:13
Speaker 1: There is only one truth. You've been listening to The
56:16
Speaker 1: Truth Be Told with Booker Scott on America Out Loud.