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Summary
In a recent podcast, former First Lady Michelle Obama criticised the way male lawmakers, politicians, and religious leaders approach reproductive rights, arguing that their limited understanding of women’s health leads to harmful policies.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama has called out the lack of understanding and consideration for women’s reproductive health in political and religious decision-making, highlighting the disconnect between policy and women’s lived realities.
In a recent podcast appearance, Michelle Obama addressed the limited perspective many male leaders have on reproductive rights, arguing that their lack of knowledge continues to shape laws and attitudes in harmful ways.
“Because so many men have no idea about what women go through,” Michelle said, “we haven’t been researched, we haven’t been considered.”
She stressed that this longstanding oversight directly influences how male lawmakers, politicians, and religious figures approach the issue of choice, focusing narrowly on the fetus while ignoring the woman’s health and autonomy.
“But women’s reproductive health is about our life,” she emphasised. “It’s about this whole complicated reproductive system that the least of what it does is produce life.”
Obama explained that the ability to bear children depends on whether a woman’s body is healthy and functioning, likening it to a machine that cannot perform its task if not properly cared for. “You only produce life if the machine that’s producing it… is functioning in a healthy, streamlined kind of way,” she said.
She concluded by pointing out the glaring lack of discourse connecting a woman’s overall health to reproductive outcomes, calling for a broader, more informed conversation about reproductive justice.
