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Feminists Around the World: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to Steff. I never told your production by I
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  Speaker 2: heard you.
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  Speaker 3: For today's Activists around the World, we are doing an
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  Speaker 3: organization and that's not strange for us, I know, I know,
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  Speaker 3: but this one it's because they made a pretty interesting
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  Speaker 3: decision and we wanted to talk about it. I did
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  Speaker 3: go back and forth about whether or not to do
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  Speaker 3: this as a Monday Mini but I decided to do
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  Speaker 3: it as activists around the World because I think we
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  Speaker 3: need to talk about this as an actual stance and activism.
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  Speaker 3: So we're talking about the American College of Obstetricians and
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  Speaker 3: guy Tocologists or the ACOG. So what we are specifically
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  Speaker 3: talking about is an announcement that happened this month August
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  Speaker 3: of twenty twenty five, that one of the largest OBGYN
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  Speaker 3: organizations in the US has rejected federal funding as a
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  Speaker 3: response to the current governmental policies, so they've decided to
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  Speaker 3: skip away.
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  Speaker 1: From receiving any funds on their own free will.
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  Speaker 3: So just I feel like that's really significant in this conversation,
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  Speaker 3: and it seems that they may be one of the
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  Speaker 3: first medical organizations to have done so, and it's sparking
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  Speaker 3: a lot of conversation. So again I say this as
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  Speaker 3: like an alleged because I think people in organizations and
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  Speaker 3: news organizations and fact checkers are trying to actually go
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  Speaker 3: back through lots of history to see if this has
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  Speaker 3: been done before. But as it stands as of today
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  Speaker 3: again August fifth, twenty twenty five, they're kind of at
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  Speaker 3: the first to reject and do such a thing. So again,
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  Speaker 3: before we talk about the significance of this, let's talk
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  Speaker 3: about the organization in itself. So this is from their
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  Speaker 3: site acog dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Quote.
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  Speaker 3: Founded in nineteen fifty one, ACOG is the premier professional
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  Speaker 3: membership organization for obstetricians at Guynecologists. The college produces practice
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  Speaker 3: guidelines for healthcare professionals and educational materi for patients, provides
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  Speaker 3: practice management and career support, facilitates programs and initiatives to
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  Speaker 3: improve women's health, and advocates for members and patients. And
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  Speaker 3: on their site they go on to state their mission
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  Speaker 3: and vision and core values, which talks about bettering families
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  Speaker 3: and communities that are seeking opgy in care with accessibility
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  Speaker 3: to all, and that is a very big point of
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  Speaker 3: importance for them, and in their core values they respect
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  Speaker 3: and equity as a part of that. And with that,
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  Speaker 3: they also talk about their inclusion of DEI in their practice,
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  Speaker 3: and they are standing firm in that, which it's nice
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  Speaker 3: to see. And though they aren't a perfect organizations, I
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  Speaker 3: think when I was going through trying to figure out
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  Speaker 3: exactly who they were what they were doing, they did
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  Speaker 3: have some controversies and they did come back with like,
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  Speaker 3: this is our response to this, and this and this.
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  Speaker 3: They have worked to push back against this administration, specifically
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  Speaker 3: especially when it comes to.
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  Speaker 1: The downfall of the Roe v ways.
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  Speaker 3: So they were real upfront about how they felt about
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  Speaker 3: as well as the attack on reproductive care at large.
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  Speaker 3: So in twenty seventeen, they were outspoken about the way
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  Speaker 3: the government rescinded a prior ruling that have help actually
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  Speaker 3: women have more access to affordable health care. That is
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  Speaker 3: specific to Title ten. We've talked about this before, go
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  Speaker 3: back and listen to some of our other episodes. But
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  Speaker 3: at the time of the rescinding of the bill, it
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  Speaker 3: cut funding to help people with birth control, breast cancer screening,
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  Speaker 3: and even STD and SDI testing and counseling. Yes, that
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  Speaker 3: was a really targeted attack against planned parenthood.
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  Speaker 1: If you don't remember.
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  Speaker 3: We were very sad and it was caused chaos and
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  Speaker 3: it still has caused chaos. And it should be noted
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  Speaker 3: that Title ten has never been able to be used
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  Speaker 3: for abortion, which is kind of how they were going
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  Speaker 3: after all of this and saying this doesn't need to happen,
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  Speaker 3: this is against the law, you're killing babies. All that
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  Speaker 3: both rhetoric that we are very tired of. But they
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  Speaker 3: were really at the forefront of talking about this and
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  Speaker 3: how they were very much against this and what this
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  Speaker 3: could do to healthcare with the can do to women
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  Speaker 3: and those who need these types of screening.
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  Speaker 1: So it was a lot. So they've been there. They've
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  Speaker 1: been there in.
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  Speaker 3: Twenty thirteen that had a whole other article and whole
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  Speaker 3: of publishing about needing more medicaid access. I'm telling you,
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  Speaker 3: like the things that I've read, they've definitely been on point.
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  Speaker 3: And with the current state of the AHHS and the government,
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  Speaker 3: the ACOG took a fairly significant stance in protesting against
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  Speaker 3: this administration. So this is from an Axios article. They
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  Speaker 3: say quote. ACOG sent an email to members last week
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  Speaker 3: notifying them that it will stop accepting federal funding for
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  Speaker 3: current contracts quote. After careful deliberation, ACOG has made an
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  Speaker 3: organization wide decision to stop accepting federal funding for all
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  Speaker 3: ACOG programs and activities for current contracts. The organization set
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  Speaker 3: in a statement shared with Axios, they want recent changes
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  Speaker 3: in federal funding laws and regulations significantly impact ACOG's program goals,
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  Speaker 3: policy positions, and ability to provide timely in evidence based
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  Speaker 3: guidance and recommendation for care. We remain fully committed to
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  Speaker 3: this critical work and will allocate our own resources to
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  Speaker 3: continue it in a way that is centered on patient's
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  Speaker 3: needs and grounded in evidence. The organization will continue to
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  Speaker 3: engage with the federal government on policy advocacy, ACOG said,
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  Speaker 3: so they're still working.
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  Speaker 1: With the government.
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  Speaker 3: They do talk about that and that they will try
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  Speaker 3: to work with Trump administration, but they don't want to
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  Speaker 3: be tied down by those funds. So there are several
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  Speaker 3: aspects to this decision. Again, it makes it really impactful,
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  Speaker 3: and one of the most noted things is a response
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  Speaker 3: to the HS and Secretary Kennedy's current policies and implementations.
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  Speaker 3: Again from the Axios article quote, ACOG is one of
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  Speaker 3: a few medical associations vocally pushing back against President Trump
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  Speaker 3: and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior's health policy shifts.
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  Speaker 3: Healthcare during pregnancy has become a flashpoint. Kennedy has removed
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  Speaker 3: the recommendations that pregnant people will get COVID nineteen vaccinations,
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  Speaker 3: and a recent advisory panel to the Food and Drug
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  Speaker 3: Administration casts out on the safety of antidepresses during pregnancy.
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  Speaker 3: ACOG said deav afterward that the composition of the panel
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  Speaker 3: was quote alarmingly unbalanced, and that there's a robust evidence
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  Speaker 3: showing the medications are safe during pregnancy. The American Academy
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  Speaker 3: of Pediatrics has also publicly opposed recent HHS actions. The
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  Speaker 3: group boycotted a June meeting of Kennedy's handpicked vaccine Advisory Committee,
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  Speaker 3: saying a June purge of the panel's seventeen advisory compromise
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  Speaker 3: its credibility. So they were definitely going after this, and
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  Speaker 3: they're making a stance because of all these types of changes.
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  Speaker 3: Something of note as well is that they have been
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  Speaker 3: very vocal about expanding healthcare access for all women, including
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  Speaker 3: expanding and protecting Medicaid for women. Their ACOG Committee Committee
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  Speaker 3: on Healthcare for Underserved Women wrote this opinion quote. Medicaid,
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  Speaker 3: the state federal health insurance program for individuals with low incomes,
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  Speaker 3: serves as a safety net for women throughout the lifespan. Historically,
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  Speaker 3: expansions of Medicaid have been associated with improved access to
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  Speaker 3: healthcare less than laid, obtaining health care, better self reported health,
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  Speaker 3: and reductions in mortality. This Committee opinion has been revised
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  Speaker 3: to emphasize the importance of medicaid to improve women's health,
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  Speaker 3: the history and growth of Medicaid, including the ACA's Medicaid expansion,
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  Speaker 3: and the mechanisms by which changes to the Medicaid program
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  Speaker 3: can occur. It includes relevant examples for each So some
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  Speaker 3: of the recommendations and examples, they include our protections for
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  Speaker 3: Medicaid benefits, extending pregnancy related Medicaid coverage, and of course
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  Speaker 3: it opposes decreasing Medicaid services for women's health. So they're
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  Speaker 3: doing a lot and they've I think this original article
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  Speaker 3: was written I want to say, like two thousand and seven,
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  Speaker 3: so about twenty years ago, and they just reempted because
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  Speaker 3: they're like, no, really, we've been studying this for years.
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  Speaker 3: We know what we're talking about. They need more services,
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  Speaker 3: not less, which is not happening, and if you're wondering,
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  Speaker 3: the response from the administration ranges from the president is
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  Speaker 3: protecting people from un leveled policies like DEI, which in
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  Speaker 3: one article does talk about the fact that they beat
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  Speaker 3: ACOG was not accepting funding because of this.
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  Speaker 1: Specifically they're saying, no, we're going to keep our DEI.
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  Speaker 1: It is important.
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  Speaker 3: And also the administration going, oh good, they're saving the
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  Speaker 3: government money. And not that our listeners need this reminder,
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  Speaker 3: but no, these grant cuts are not giving us money back.
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  Speaker 3: That's that's not how this works. They're redistributing it to
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  Speaker 3: things like funding war funding, private equities and corporations. I know, again,
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  Speaker 3: I'm preaching to the choir, so I know no one
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  Speaker 3: really needs to know that, but just a quick reminder.
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  Speaker 3: If someone were to pop in and be like, what's
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  Speaker 3: this about and they don't know what we're about, there
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  Speaker 3: you go. And I haven't read if any other organizations
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  Speaker 3: are taking these types of stands. Obviously, we did read
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  Speaker 3: one that said that they are literally protested that I
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  Speaker 3: don't know if they're like, no, I don't want the money,
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  Speaker 3: but it is interesting to note who is doing what
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  Speaker 3: during this weird like apocalyptic fill time, and so we
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  Speaker 3: do want to talk about the fact that that is
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  Speaker 3: really important. Now. I think they said they receive around
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  Speaker 3: nine hundred thousand dollars in grand Es So no word
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  Speaker 3: as to how they're reshifting and trying to find funds
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  Speaker 3: that they are depending on this fund so these funds specifically,
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  Speaker 3: So it is something that we need to know. But
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  Speaker 3: it is also good to know that organizations aren't being
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  Speaker 3: bought out and they realize how dangerous these policies really are.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and listeners, as always, please let us know if
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  Speaker 2: you have any organizations or any other examples of this happening,
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  Speaker 2: any thoughts about this. You can email us at Hello
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: at Stuffmondever Told You dot com. You can find us
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• 9:40
  Speaker 2: super producer Christina or exacted prucer My and a contributed Joey.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
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