In this episode of Scaffolding, we examine what happens when the language of “protection” becomes a tool of surveillance, punishment, and control.
We begin with recent reporting from Jessica Valenti on mothers investigated by CPS and police after helping their teenage daughters seek abortion care, including cases where family separation and coercion allegations were used to delay or threaten access. From there, we look at the fight over mifepristone — the medication used in many early abortions — and why efforts to restrict telehealth, mail, and pharmacy access are really about controlling the pathways to care.
We also discuss the recent CBP cruise ship story, where federal authorities made serious allegations involving child sexual exploitation material while offering limited public transparency around charges, evidence, or prosecution. Together, these stories raise a larger question: when the state says it is protecting women, children, families, or the public, who is actually being protected — and who is being watched, punished, separated, or disappeared?
This conversation connects reproductive surveillance, family policing, immigration enforcement, media responsibility, and institutional betrayal — and asks what it would mean to build systems rooted not in fear and control, but in care, transparency, due process, reproductive freedom, and real safety.
Thank you Cat: Poli-Psych, Letters from a Feminist, Mandy Ohman, Courtney, The Biological Imagination, and many others for tuning into my live video with Jenn Budd! Join me for my next live video in the app.
