25. The Intersection between Reproductive Justice and Immigrant Rights – A Conversation with Juliana Serrano, Vice President of Advocacy & Equity at Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley

On the 25th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Juliana Serrano from Planned Parenthood. Juliana Serrano is the Vice President of Advocacy & Equity at Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley (PPPSGV). In this role, Juliana works to advance their mission through the strategic implementation of electoral and advocacy activities that promote policies favorable to Planned Parenthood at all levels of government. She creates and leads the vision and strategy for community affairs, government affairs, and advocacy work, and she also leads the organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, focused on partnerships for health equity in our communities.

Before this, Juliana was the Senior Associate for Peace & Justice and the Office for Creative Connections at All Saints Church for more than eleven years. She was honored to work on efforts such as police reform; the fight for $15; immigrant rights; homelessness; affordable housing; health care access; reintegration; environmental justice; voting rights and more. To this day, she still serves on The City of Pasadena’s first Community Police Oversight Commission as well as many other positions that have allowed her to advocate for change in Pasadena and greater Los Angeles. Juliana is the daughter of Colombian immigrant parents. Juliana received her B.A. in Psychology, with minors in Sociology and Philosophy, from Loyola Marymount University (LMU/LA). 

In this episode Juliana tells us about her spirituality and life in college and how that ignited her love for social change. She has been an advocate for many communities all throughout her years and eventually landed in Planned Parenthood doing work in reproductive justice. Juliana describes the work she does at PPPSGV and the intersection between immigrant rights and reproductive justice. She also goes into detail about the recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and what Planned Parenthood is doing to fight this. She expresses the way in which these threats to healthcare access affect immigrant and marginalized communities at a higher rate.

You can keep up with the work Planned Parenthood does via their Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. You can find Juliana Serrano directly on LinkedIn. Signup to be a volunteer with PPPSGV via their website. Please consider donating as well!

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Transcript

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Hello, everyone. It's Angeline Chen. Welcome to Immigration Today, where I interview leaders, advocates, experts, and volunteers in immigration and immigrant rights on the issues, their experiences, and how you can make a difference. Today we have Juliana Serrano. Juliana is the Vice President of Advocacy and Equity at Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley. In this role, Juliana works to advance their mission through the strategic implementation of electoral and advocacy activities that promote policies favorable to Planned Parenthood at all levels of government. She creates and leads the Vision and Strategy for Community Affairs, Government Affairs, and Advocacy work, and she also leads the organization's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, focused on partnerships for health equity in our communities. Before this, Juliana was a Senior Associate for Peace and Justice at the Office and the Office for Creative Connections at All Saints Church for more than 11 years. She was honored to work on efforts such as police reform, immigrant rights, homelessness, affordable housing, healthcare access, reintegration, Environmental justice, voting rights, and more. To this day, she still serves on the city of Pasadena's first community police oversight commission, as well as many other positions that have allowed her to advocate for change in Pasadena and greater Los Angeles. She is the daughter of Colombian immigrant parents. She received her BA in psychology with minors in sociology and philosophy from Loyola Marymount University. In 2021, she was a recipient of an award at the YWCA's Women for Racial Justice Breakfast for someone who has made significant advances in eliminating racism and empowering women and girls. I just had to plug that in, you know, Julianna, welcome to the podcast. Hi, it's good to be with you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for being here. I have known you for years now, um, while you were at all saints church. And when I was on the board of the YWCA Pasadena, it's been such a pleasure getting to know you and watching all the work you do. Thank you for always being so involved in the community. Well, likewise, it's good to be in company where, you know, you get to do the work with. Similar like minded people. And, and I consider you among those. Oh, thanks. So Juliana, can we get straight into some questions about you and your work? Awesome. Great. Um, can you tell us a little bit about like your background and your upbringing? Sure. Well, as you mentioned in the bio that you read, I am the daughter of Colombian immigrants, and that's a big part of my story. You know, my parents came here to the United States independently. They came to the United States seeking better life opportunities. My father came alone without any family members, and my mother was following her sister, and they, uh, met in New York, my parents met in New York, married, and started the family there, and we came out to California when I was just about seven months old, so this is really my home, this area, I grew up in La Verne, not too far away from Pasadena, and, um, was really fortunate to, to grow up in a great neighborhood, Um, with my older brother and my older sister and, um, you know, grew up in an environment where my family was constantly encouraging me to pursue my academic life. So I ended up deciding to go to college right after high school and ended up being the first actually in my family to graduate from college. I graduated from Loyola Marymount. Studying psychology and sociology and philosophy. There was a great liberal arts college experience and also a phenomenal one. Um, where my faith, my spirituality was also exercised while I was pursuing my academic, um, education. And so, um, it was actually there that, uh, I think. You know, this community service idea was ignited and, uh, I, I, I think Loyola Marymount for that, um, You know, that, that prompt it was through, you know, community service, um, in a service organization that I became a part of that I realized I want to go out into communities and be part of social change and the way to do that is to get involved with nonprofit organizations. And so that really set up the rest of my career. Wow. So what was it that you did go, go into a little details about what you did at Loyola Merrimount? Um, what kind of service did you work in? Well, I will say that in terms of my academics, I had every intent of doing the whole pre med route. I was very convinced that at the end of college, I would go to medical school and become a doctor. That was, that was really my goal and my vision. Uh, and I realized, uh, In particular, chemistry is really, really hard and was not my thing, which really kind of broke me down in many ways, to be honest, this, this dream that I had had this vision that I had had for myself, it was clear, um, that it might not happen because of the ways in which I was struggling academically in the sciences, right? At the same time, I discovered I was really loving other subjects and, and thriving in other subjects. And so it was at that point that I kind of let go of that dream of medical school and opened myself up to other possibilities. And then in combination with that kind of epiphany that, you know, I, I actually don't have to just. be a doctor to save people and save the world, and that there are other ways of doing that. I, through my service organization, Griffin Circle, was on a weekly basis going out to neighborhoods in Los Angeles and volunteering with nonprofit organizations and seeing the impact that these organizations were having on people's lives. And it was, you know, at the time of my graduation that I, I felt clear, like that's the sector that I need to get involved with. That that's where I need to, to land in terms of my career. And I think what even solidified that further was my senior trip, instead of, you know, kind of going to Cancun or Cabo with a bunch of friends to go have a, you know, a wild, fun time after graduation, a group of us actually went to Tijuana and ended up doing a service project where we helped students there. That's it. Um, build the walls for what would be their school one day. These young elementary school students. And, and I realized in that moment what immense privilege I had had to go to a four year university to, to study, to graduate with a degree. And I had this This diploma. Now that meant something in the world and was going to open doors for me. And I knew that I had to do something with those open doors to help the people behind me come through the doors themselves. Right? And that's what really ignited my interest in the nonprofit sector. And from there, I ended up working with a really important nonprofit organization called NCCJ, the National Conference for Community and Justice. And that started my career. Um, In particular, you know, around what we now call diversity, equity and inclusion work, um, those days, you know, we were calling ourselves really a human relations anti racism organization. That's what we were fighting. Um, and, and that for me then opened, you know, another set of doors to a world of, um, social change and, uh, movements to improve the lives of people. That's so cool. That's so cool. So then, in terms of the issues you're interested in, like social justice, um, you know, anti racism, diversity, equity, inclusion, what brought you then to reproductive justice? So, it's interesting, you know, When I was at All Saints Church, I got to know a lot of community based organizations, including the YWCA, right? And I remember being at an event and the president and CEO of our local affiliate of Planned Parenthood said to me, I'd love for you to come into our health center and get a tour and learn more about all of our offerings. And I will confess, Angeline, you know, it's so weird to all of a sudden be confronted with. A bias. Uh, and I had one in that moment. I realized that growing up Roman Catholic Latina, um, having gone to Catholic high school and a university, I had been fed messages around, uh, an organization like Planned Parenthood and that I had some ideas about abortion that, um, You know, really made me feel uncomfortable about the invitation, quite honestly, I had never been in a Planned Parenthood health center before because I'd never had to, and one of the few people who had always had access to medical care. And, um, you know, again, I had these notions around Planned Parenthood, and I was also incredibly curious. You know, I realized at the same time, I want to know more. I need to learn more. And so I accepted the invitation and went into the health center and was so moved by what I saw. And also then that day met with one of the health educators that was working out in the community. And she shared with me stories about, you know, the work that she was doing with parents at Madison Elementary at that point in time. And. You know, it wasn't too long after that, that the board chair then approached me and said, we'd love for you to join the board of directors. And I said to her, I need some time to think about this. It wasn't an easy yes. And it wasn't an easy yes. Yes. Because I was reconciling my past with my present and what I knew I wanted for the future for myself and for my community members. Right. And so I'll never forget having dinner with a very dear friend of mine and I was telling her about the experience and, you know, I said, Oh my gosh, you know, they do, they do pap smears and they do HIV testing and they do breast exams and, you know, there, there's even some, um, you know, basic primary care work that's happening there because these patients aren't getting to see anybody else. And, you know, and I was speaking about it with such excitement. All right. And, and she just paused and smiled at me and said, it sounds to me that being a part of this organization might be the most life giving thing you could do. And it really just slapped me in the face. I thought. You're right. This is a healthcare organization that's giving life to community members. And I want to figure out how to be a part of that. And so that was really the beginning of my understanding of what Planned Parenthood offers and what we mean when we talk about the reproductive rights movement, right? When we talk about people being able to make decisions for themselves and for their bodies. And, you know, make strategic health care, uh, choices with the advisement of their professional, you know, working on their side. Um, You know, that was all a learning for me that came, I would say later in life, but a valuable one nonetheless, and, um, something that's completely transformed me for the rest of my life. Yeah. That's amazing. That's amazing. And you know, in terms of timing, things just come when they, when they need to come, right? Like you could say it was later in life, but probably the right time for you in, in, in where you were at. And maybe if they came to you 10 years earlier. May not have happened. No, I think you're right. I think you're absolutely right there. There was something about that moment that was really magical. And, um, you know, part of that is about being willing and humble enough to realize I don't know everything and I need to learn, right? And I really put myself in that position by accepting the invitation to a health center tour and and then how, you know, this magical thing happened. Mm hmm. Wow. And so then now, you know, you've been the vice president of advocacy and equity. Um, that's been a little over a year, right? Tell us a little bit more of what you do there. So I am now really honored to be on staff after having been a board member, uh, for several, several years and kind of, uh, you know, serving in that behind the curtain role. Mm-Hmm. of, of support. Uh, now I, I lead the public affairs team at our affiliate, which is a really passionate and dynamic team, and what we do is oversee all of the advocacy efforts. That ensure that our health centers stay open, that the doors of our health centers never close. It's, it's no mystery to anyone listening that, um, you know, Planned Parenthood is an organization that has been under attack always. You know, I, I think maybe, um, for, for many, it's just heightened in the last year, that awareness has been heightened in the last year because of what happened with the Supreme Court, but we have been under attack. under attack under attack for decades. And it is so critical that we make sure that we do everything we can to keep health center doors open so that we can continue to serve patients who need us and have nowhere else to turn. And so we do that by You know, igniting the passion, the energy of the communities that we serve by, you know, engaging volunteers and opportunities to get connected to the organization to organize and mobilize people around critical action times that that occur. Um, it's also about building relationship with our elected officials. All levels of government. So from our school boards, library boards, all the way to our California state Senate assembly, right. Making sure that we have the support that we need from our elected officials to, to keep the work that we know our community needs. Um, happening in our communities. And so that's the work of the public affairs team. And I oversee all of that work in addition to doing the work within our affiliate, uh, to make sure that we're doing everything we can on this journey of diversity, equity and inclusion. So. From, you know, hiring practices to retention, to education and training, to ensuring that our policies and practice are reflective of the kind of inclusionary world that we are hoping to build, um, you know, I, I oversee all of that work as part of the team. Wow, that's a lot. It is. That's amazing. So, you know, in terms of the structure of the organization, I was always curious. Are the you're part of the plant here in Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley. Then there are other ones and there's a national org. Like, how does that how does that all relate to each other? Oh, great question. Thank you for asking this because it is not widely known or understood, and we encounter that challenge, uh, frequently. So, Planned Parenthood is in fact a national organization, and the, the big national organization, the, the sort of mothership, as I often, uh, like to call it, Refer to it is called Planned Parenthood Federation of America. And, uh, we are an affiliate of the federation. So Planned Parenthood Pasadena San Gabriel Valley is it's separate 501 C three organization. We have our own budget. We have our own bylaws. We have our own president and CEO board of directors. Um, so we are for all intents and purposes, our own separate organization. And yet we have this thread of connection to the federation. And one of the things that the Federation, you know, provides us is a lot of guidance about how to engage in the work, and yet we're given a lot of autonomy because the Federation realizes nobody knows our community better than us who is on the ground in our community, right? But they provide a lot of strategic support to us, and they set forth a lot of the standards. Um, so when we think about our health center operations, you know, that is something that the Federation is managing, is overseeing in terms of our quality of care. And every four years, we go through an accreditation process, and that's when the National Office comes in and makes sure that we're adhering to those standards of care. So that's the relationship between PPPSGV and the Federation. I will say in California, we have seven affiliates total. So we are one of seven Planned Parenthoods operating in the state of California. We have six other partners in that work. And we all take up a different geographic chunk of the state of California. And so there are many ways in which we're working with our neighbors. Our other two neighbor organizations include Planned Parenthood Los Angeles and also Planned Parenthood Orange and San Bernardino Counties, for example, right? Those are our two closest partners. There's one in the Southwest, there's one in the Central Coast, and in Northern California as well. And so we all work together strategically to address the needs of Californians. Through our health service and education provision, and we have a statewide organization that helps us do that work, and that's called Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. And so oftentimes we're needing to, to lobby and to do work at that state level. We work in partnership with that statewide organization to do that work. So there's, you know, essentially three entities, you know, between it, there's, there's our very local, there's our statewide, and then there's the national organization. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Because sometimes people don't know. They used to ask me about that as well at the YWCA. Like, are you all related? Is it together? I was like, we're separate, but you know, we communicate with each other. Some communicate better than others. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you're you're talking about this. Uh, I want to get into a little bit about the issue. Uh, you're talking about the Supreme Court decision for some people who really don't know what happened. Um, what in kind of in a nutshell, you know, Roe v. Wade was overturned. What does that mean? So I want to start just by saying that the pro choice movement, the pro abortion movement has been under attack for decades and, um, though again, I mentioned this earlier, we've seen heightened activity in the past year or so, a little over a year, uh, this was a strategic plan by the antis for decades to get us to this point in time. And when we look at what happened in the Dobbs case, you know, a health care provider was essentially challenging an abortion ban in their state. And this court case made its way all the way to the Supreme Court. And when it made its way to the Supreme Court, those of us in the reproductive rights movement, um, those of us who are pro abortion were very aware just what was at risk here, in particular with the shift and the change in the Supreme Court representation, right? We know, um, who, Then president Trump was able to appoint to the Supreme court. We knew that these justices were quite conservative, uh, in their thinking. And while they made promises at the time of their, uh, you know, judicial hearing, um, that they would uphold Roe, that Roe was the law of the land as of the 1973 case. We knew that there was a possibility they would go back on their word. And what we saw in may, uh, was a, uh, leak draft opinion of the Supreme court, and we saw just how bad the situation was, you know, for us in Planned Parenthood, we were, we were expecting, um, bad. Batter worst case scenario. Right. And then all of it, none of it was good. I want to be very clear. Again, we were preparing for really bad news or batter or the worst case scenario. And what we saw in that draft was the worst case scenario was, uh, the Supreme court decision in 1973 and Roe versus Wade essentially being overturned, um, with the decision of the Supreme court in this Dobbs case. And in June, That is inevitably what happened, um, in their decision, the Supreme Court, uh, basically declared that row, um, was always problematic and, um, should have never been decided in 73 and reaffirmed in the ways that it was and following Supreme Court cases never, that should have never happened. And that, um, essentially what needs to happen is for the decisions to be left up to the state to decide whether or not, um, abortion should be legal. And, uh, there were some other deeply problematic, um, comments made in, in other areas of, of social justice, I will say, in the, um, Supreme Court decision as well. Um, but what it, what it affirmed in, in that moment was that, again, we are seeing the collapse. Of bodily autonomy rights in the United States and that, uh, health care decisions made between a person and their medical provider, um, would not be honored and respected at the federal level. And so what we have seen since June and that Supreme Court decision on the Dobbs case and the overturn of Roe is, um, you know. 17 states to date, um, essentially have, um, severe restrictions that are acting as if they're outright bans or outright bans. Again, 17 states in the nation where patients, people with uteruses who do not want to move forward with a pregnancy, who cannot move forward with a pregnancy, maybe because of medical reasons are not able to get access to the abortion that they need or want. And so. We're in a crisis. The crisis is going to continue to unfold over time because more and more states will begin falling as well and You know, California is going to be in a very special unique place to serve not only Californians who live here who work here, but also people who will be coming to us from out of state Yeah, yeah, but it takes a certain type of person to be able to travel to do that, right? Like you have to have financial stability for that. You know, I, when I saw the leaked document, I couldn't, I couldn't believe it. I, I thought, Oh, let's please just let this be fake. Like, and I knew it wasn't and I, I just couldn't believe it. I am. I'm also, you know, I'm still in shock about it, honestly. Um, Transcribed I was also on an event with Vice President Kamala Harris, and she was she had a map of now, like all the different laws of the states on on reproductive rights. And it was completely confusing. So nobody knows, like, you don't even know, like, what your state has, um, what resources what you can't have. And just the, That that part of it is super confusing and so poor these people who are trying to trying to find out what they could do, you know, they just don't even have the access or the resources to find out. And people like us, we don't even know how to find out. Um, I mean, what a mess. It is a mess. It, you know, I will say even in the days following the Supreme Court decisions that California residents were calling, uh, you know, our call center to make appointments for their abortion and we're, we're seeking confirmation that they still could get an abortion in the state of California. Right. Like there wasn't this understanding like, wait, okay, this was. A Supreme Court decision and it impacts all the states, but it doesn't affect California because I'm hearing that I'm safe, but I don't know, you know, there's just lots of questions. And, and as you mentioned, you know, in some states, there may be severe restrictions at a certain, um, time in the gestational period. And so folks don't really understand what that means. Do I still qualify? Can I still get the abortion that I need if I'm at 11 weeks? And, and, you know, these, you know, uh, states may not have outright bans yet, but they have these restrictions that are essentially serving as bands, like for example, again, Texas, and you may recall back in September when SB eight was enacted in Texas, it was a six week ban, right, six weeks, which is. Often, um, sooner than people even realize that they're pregnant, right? Um, but that, that is a restriction that is essentially operating as a ban, right? If you cannot get an abortion beyond six weeks of gestational age in your pregnancy, you are being denied access to what we believe is a fundamental healthcare procedure that everyone should be able to, to, to get access to if they need or want one. It is confusing across the nation. We now have sort of this patchwork operation. And so what it really does is it puts a burden on patients who need the care to not only know exactly where they can get the care, but as you mentioned, an immense financial burden. Yeah, then travel to another state to another community. Um, you know, some of these states have have 24 48 hour waiting period. Imagine if you are already a single mom working a part time job and you now need to not only have a, you know, a, severe, um, you know, travel journey, you know, uh, you know, across state lines. But now you have to stay in a hotel for two nights or three nights, right? Like, this is just outrageous that we're putting patients through this. And it's, it's very burdensome. And, and why, um, you know, in particular, we have We've been really focused on drawing attention to the ways in which this marginalizes people who are already marginalized, right? A lot of these abortion seekers are persons of color. They're black indigenous people of color. They are immigrants, uh, you know, who have come into our country who don't understand the system, may not have a lot of economic power to get themselves the care that they need. This is further marginalizing and oppressing them. Absolutely. It's, it's awful. Um, and yeah, going into that, uh, more deeply, this is, you know, uh, immigration, uh, podcast in terms of your work, how often do you work in the immigrant rights issues as well? Like, what are the intersections between reproductive justice and immigrant rights? And I know, I know you've mentioned, um, some of that, but. Collaborate more, that'd be great. Yes, well we care deeply for our immigrant siblings that are part of our community and we know that we serve many in our health centers. You know, for Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley, we have five health centers in the San Gabriel Valley. And, um, while we don't get any Sort of specific data or information about anyone's immigration status. We know by the storytelling between our patients and our providers that we are seeing, um, immigrants in our health centers, uh, you know, on a weekly basis. Um, and we want to remain a trusted, caring, loving provider to immigrants in our community and want to make sure that again, um, regardless of anyone's immigration status, they have access. To the care that they need and they want and that they deserve, right? And so for us as a bigger organization, Planned Parenthood, we stand in solidarity with immigrants rights movement in the United States. We have actively been working on, um, you know, partnering with immigrant rights organizations to advance policies, um, at the state and federal level to ensure that immigrants are protected. Um, and we want to make sure that again, The immigrant community, just like other communities, aren't further marginalized and oppressed by these horrific policies, um, that seem to be enacted across the nation, um, when it comes to making decisions about one's own health care. And so for us, the immigrant population, the immigrant community is, is one that we are incredibly mindful of, and we're always seeking new ways to do a better job of, of standing up for and standing up with, uh, the immigrants in our community. That's great. That is awesome. And you know, if someone wanted to seek help, do they have it in different languages as well? We do. We do. We absolutely do. So, um, really happy to even say that even at the time of, you know, coming into the health center and needing some, um, you know, language translation support, we're able to provide that for patients, um, and, you know, have done that from time to time as needed. Um, we want to make sure that again, our patients feel loved, supported, and that they've got the best information that they have to make the decision that we trust them to make. Yeah, that's great. That's great. Bless you. Thank you. Um, you know, on a personal level for you, do you ever feel like you're in danger or, you know, because it's so your job and, and Planned Parenthood has been under attack. And I have seen people outside. Um, Protesting here and there. Do How do you feel about that? And do you feel that you're in danger as well? Sometimes? That's an interesting question. I think that it's very quite honestly, I think there are times where there's heightened security concerns for all of us. And, um, you know, other times where we kind of feel like we can get by and, and, um, you know, be under the radar. Um, just as any Sort of non profit healthcare employees should, uh, be able to operate, right? But, you know, I, I want to call out maybe something, Angelina, you've seen in the news recently, but, you know, one of our health centers in our service area, the Pasadena health center was under attack recently. We had a person who was menacing our, our health center, um, by driving by and shooting BB gun pellets at our health center and did this for many months on several occasions and it took law enforcement quite some time to actually, um, apprehend this person. And we're really, uh, thrilled that, um, the FBI has taken this case very, very seriously and is moving forward with charges. That are going to be quite significant to this individual because they were intending to harm and threaten people in our health centers. And so, you know, there are moments like those where it becomes real, just how under attack we are. I don't use that just in a political sense. I mean it quite literally physically, um, our health centers, our providers are under attack. Um, You know, we, we have been threatened and, um, there are times where we will continue to be threatened, but I will say that for me personally, um, I do this work because it means everything to me and I'm willing to. Dare I say, step into that risk because this work is so important and because I'm so passionate about ensuring that our patients get the care that they need and that they are treated with dignity and respect, um, and that abortion should be safe and legal for anybody who, who wants one. And, and if that, um, you know, makes me vulnerable at times, um, I'm, I'm willing to step into that because this work is so important. No, what you're doing is so important. Thank you for for all of that. And, and you were mentioning law enforcement and the FBI. So has it been a nice relationship with them, you know, for as long as you've been involved with Planned Parenthood. Yes, and in large part, I want to acknowledge that we. We don't often have to work with law enforcement because these situations, you know, even you mentioned the protesters outside health centers for the most part, they're pretty, uh, non aggressive and don't create any problems for us or for our patients. And so. You know, we've had a very proactive relationship with local law enforcement to make sure that things don't escalate and make sure that they're in the know in the event something should happen and that they feel, you know, equipped and prepared to respond. Um, you know, in this particular instance, as I mentioned, it took quite some time for law enforcement to actually apprehend the suspect. And I remember being part of a meeting with our local law enforcement agency to just stress how urgent it was. That they find this person and, you know, it was really, and I'm sure you can relate to this, the power of storytelling. Right. It was getting law enforcement in the room and being very clear with them about how this was impacting our providers who, you know, some of which were, were a lot of people who were in the room. questioning whether or not they should continue working with us or for us because they were so frightened, you know, and how terrifying that is for a patient walking up to our health center door. You know, we want to make sure that they really understood that there are real people, uh, being impacted by this menacing, threatening, uh, behavior and intimidating behavior. And, and it was, powerful because I remember seeing kind of the light bulbs go off. They, they both knew, but they didn't understand. You know what I mean? And it was in that storytelling to be able to really tell them what was happening, um, to us and to our community members as a result of this, that I think did ignite kind of a new. File fire within them about, um, you know, catching this person. And so, uh, I'm really grateful that we were able to have that very honest and sincere conversation to do that storytelling, to answer questions and to feel heard and, and, um, for law enforcement men to respond accordingly. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's great. I mean, sometimes you think it's obvious that they should know better, but you can't, you know, every they're, they're, they're busy. They're doing a lot of things. You have to personalize it. Um, talk to them, communicate respectfully and hope that they're going to get it. And then finally that they did, that's really good. I mean, gosh, it's hard enough for people to even get to the center and like to even, you know, think about doing it and decide to get an abortion. And then, I mean, And somebody's shooting a BB gun, like all these things are keeping them from going. I'm glad, um, that has been settled. Um, and, and going into storytelling, do you happen to have like 1, you know, 1 story of, of someone that you think that the organization has impacted? And that was, you know, um, That meant something to you. I know you must have so many, but if there's one, one that kind of hit you a little bit more personally, if you want to share, well, you know, I, I've had the, the, the honor and. And I, I, I mean that genuinely the immense honor of shadowing our providers on abortion day and accompanying patients, um, on their abortion appointment. And I recall one patient in particular who came in, uh, she, uh, was a parent already. Um, her husband was with her for this appointment and, um, Uh, you know, as we were getting all set up with her, uh, you know, we were doing an ultrasound just to see how far advanced she was in her pregnancy so that we could, you know, meet the moment accordingly in a, in a medical fashion. Right. And, um, when she was told just how far along she was, I noticed in her, just, she just tensed up. And immediately got in this overly apologetic mode. She said, Oh, you know, you know, my, my husband and I, we, we just were really struggling about, you know, whether, whether we should move forward with this or not. And, and so we took some time and I didn't know I was this far along and, and, you know, she was feeling the need to sort of make excuses to us. Yeah. And I will never forget one of our providers took her hand and said, It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. All I know is that you don't want to be pregnant in this moment and I'm here to make sure that happens for you and if you, you know, want to come back and visit us one day and say hello, we would love that. But otherwise we're going to get you in and out of here as fast as we can and we'll just be in the rear view mirror and you can go on with your life with your husband and your children. And I remember seeing you. That tension relieved, you know, like the shoulders moved down and she knew that we were there for her. We were there to support her and what she knew was the best decision for her. Oh, thank you. Emotional. Totally. These are real people. Yes. Real story. Yes, stories and for the government to be telling her what she should or should not be able to do with her own body for her own family is outrageous. Yeah. And then for her also to feel this guilt, right? That feeling like I'm not supposed to be doing this. I'm a bad person and we don't want them to feel that way. We don't know. No, we we want her and we did in that moment to feel she was being honored that we heard her and understood that she was making the decision for her body and her family. And we were there as providers to do whatever we needed to do for her. Right? That's what we should be experiencing across the nation. And we're not there and think, think, goodness for California, that we could do that. But I think about, you know, Angeline, these patients across 17 states where a woman just like her would not be able to get that loving, compassionate, respectful care in that moment, right? Instead would have to travel out of state or go through these crazy loopholes just to make a decision that is the best decision for, for themselves. It's just, it's absolutely outrageous. I, I feel so fortunate to be in California to be working with the providers that we have in our health center to know that kind of care is being offered, but that is a patient story that I think of also just, just that experience that she had of, of feeling, you know, like she needed to explain and, and for us to be able to say to her, you don't need to explain anything. Right. And to you, where, you know, where she knows she's being supported, imagine telling anybody else. Right. Right. She probably doesn't. She probably doesn't play just her and her partner. Right. Um, yeah. Uh, how can people who want to get involved with Planned Parenthood, uh, do that? You take volunteers. Yeah. So many ways to engage and, and I will always encourage folks to get engaged, get involved at the local level. And so if, you know, Planned Parenthood Pasadena, San Gabriel Valley is your local affiliate, come to us. If you, again, if you live in Los Angeles or you live in Orange, San Bernardino counties, get connected to your local affiliate who is doing on the ground work in your local communities. So for us at PPPSGV. Folks can come to our website. It would be ppp sgv.org. So again, it stands for Planned Parenthood Pasadena, san gabriel valley.org. We have a volunteer signup form on our website. There are tons of volunteer opportunities. We need support, um, you know, to build condom packets, condom and loop loop packets. So, um, we can share that with community members anytime we're tabling at a big public event. Um. You can get trained on being a patient advocate so you can be in our patient, uh, be holding our patient's hands through their experience, no matter, um, uh, you know, what they're, what they're getting done or what's happening to them in the health center that day. You can, you can just be a patient advocate. You can be by their side. Um, we have a new patient escort program. So, um, You know, when there are heightened days of activity outside of our health centers with protesters, we have trained patient escorts that can, you know, get our patients in and out of our health center safely. We have fun activities like, uh, we just did one a couple of Saturdays ago, a chalk days where supporters come out and chalk encouraging messages on our health center, sidewalks and doorways so that patients and even our providers coming in feel the love and support of our community members. I mean, there's just tons of opportunities for volunteer work within our organization. And what we do through our volunteer manager is really make sure we Match people's interests, energy and skills with the variety of options that we have available. So we just encourage folks to get connected to us. And then we begin that journey of kind of just learning where's the best place to put our volunteers. That is so cool. I didn't even know you had all these advocates and escorts and that's great that you have all that. And then if people want to donate, um, you know, they can go to the website and donate. I'm sure you have fundraisers too, right? Yeah, all on your website. Absolutely. We're always, you know, having some kind of fun, um, educational event, um, where folks can get connected to a community again of like minded people, which I think is really powerful, especially in days like these. You know, that have been so incredibly challenging to be in a room with people who, you know, feel the same way about abortion rights and sexual reproductive health care. It's so powerful, so, so, so powerful. So, folks can get connected to our variety of events through our website. They can donate directly online. There is no donation too small. Um, I'm, I'm really proud of, uh, the fundraising work that we've been able to do for our affiliate and, and thrilled that we can say that we serve up to 60, 000 patient visits a year, um, because of the support that we received. From our community. And of course we want to do more, right? We want to do more to serve more people as much as we possibly can. And we're able to do that through the generosity of our donors. And we're able to, to utilize those dollars also to ensure that our young people in our community have the best education they possibly can about their bodies, about sexual and reproductive care for themselves. And so that's another really critical aspect of our work that we're able to make happen through the generosity of supporters. That's amazing. And then 60, 000 visits a year. What what are the demographics in general of those people? I know we're in Pasadena, San Gabriel Valley, but are you getting kind of a good mixture of people from different backgrounds? Yeah, I would say that from our five health centers. So we have our Pasadena Health Center. We have one in Alhambra, Baldwin Park, Glendora, and then we also have one in Highland Park. So those are our five service locations. And I think our patients reflect the diversity of the communities that we're in, right? Um, I will say that, um, You know, that predominantly looks like a lot of younger people of color, and it's really wonderful to be able to reflect that back in our staff that's working in our health center. I think of Baldwin Park in particular, we opened that location right before the pandemic, and we made such a strategic decision to recruit Baldwin Park residents to work in that health center, and, and we were successful in that. And so when I think about that location in particular, it's like Baldwin Park folks serving Baldwin Park folks. It's a very cool, um, dynamic and, uh, a really beautiful one when you think about the kind of the diversity that's present in San Gabriel Valley. That's huge. That's great that you're able to do that because it's like a familiar face and then they know the community and you know, it's amazing. Juliana, thank you. Thank you so much for everything you do. This is so inspiring. I hope our listeners are going to, I know they are, they're going to volunteer and you know, you're getting me really, really interested. As well. And I, you know, I, I was so happy. I'm so happy that I was able to interview you today, Juliana. You're so awesome. Um, I hope you can come back in the future. Oh, I would love to. Yeah. Anytime to chat with you. Thank you. 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