Blog

Three years ago, the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion in the United States.

As the legal landscape shifted, the medical landscape of reproductive care was faced with a serious question. Where would people turn for abortions?

Abby Wendle, from NPR’s Embedded podcast team, has been reporting on self-managed abortions, and how the medical community’s views on it have changed in recent years.

The podcast has just released a new series about the history of self-managed abortion called The Network. It was produced with Futuro Media.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

On Monday, Iran struck back against the United States, firing missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar. The retaliatory strikes come two days after the U.S. attacked nuclear sites in Iran.

In a twist, President Trump thanked Iran on social media for giving advance notice of the attacks, “which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured.”

Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR correspondents Aya Batrawy, who is on the ground in Dubai, and Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman, reporting from Washington.

Editor’s note: This conversation was recorded prior to President Trump announcing that Iran and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

The U.S. joined Israel’s war on Iran and over the weekend bombed three of the country’s nuclear sites, including Fordo, located deep inside a mountain.

In the aftermath of the bombing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on the attack.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi tweeted that the U.S.’s attack would have “everlasting consequences.”

The move by the Trump administration is a massive escalation, and brings the U.S. into direct conflict with Iran. How will Iran respond and what are the wider repercussions?

NPR’s Andrew Limbong speaks with journalist Robin Wright, author of “The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran.”

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Frank Langfitt has covered the world. Now he reports for NPR as a roving correspondent, focusing on stories that help us understand a changing America.

Recently, he covered both the military parade that brought tanks and armored personnel carriers rolling through the nation’s capital, as well as the No Kings protests where people in dozens of cities across the country rallied against politicization of the armed forces by someone they called a would-be autocrat.

Many have dubbed the day as a split-screen moment – and for Frank, going to two events on the same day gave him the sense of looking at America with a lens he had often examined other countries in the past.

There are events that become a Rorschach test that brings out America’s political and cultural divisions in bold relief. You could look at that day as an example of a divided America — a moment where our differences were placed in pretty stark relief. But perhaps by being in both places on the same day you see something different.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Last weekend, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed at their home by a man impersonating a police officer.

The attack comes amid a rise in political violence. Last year alone, Capitol Police investigated more than 9,000 threats against members of the U.S. Congress.

Former U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords knows the horrors of gun violence only too well. The Arizona Democrat was shot at a constituent event in Tucson in 2011.

Now a leading gun safety advocate, Giffords speaks with host Mary Louise Kelly about how she is handling this moment and her thoughts on addressing the problem of gun violence.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Many Afghans who helped the US military or who were persecuted by the Taliban for other reasons found refuge in the United States. They were granted Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, by the US government.

Now the Trump administration has revoked TPS for Afghans. So what happens now?

NPR’s Monika Evstatieva reports that for thousands of Afghans in the United States, and many stuck in limbo abroad, the available options are dwindling.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

In 2003, the U.S. launched a war in Iraq based on what turned out to be bad intelligence about weapons programs, then spent years mired in a conflict with no clear end.

Today, President Trump is threatening to bring the U.S. military into another Middle East conflict. As with Iraq, the justification for a potential attack on Iran is the alleged threat of a nuclear weapon.

We talk to journalist Steve Coll, author of The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq about how this moment echoes the run-up to the war in Iraq and how it differs.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

The United States has worked for decades to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Now Israel says it is attacking Iran to remove that threat. What are the stakes in this conflict, not only for the two nations directly involved, but for the US and the world?

Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Aaron Stein, the President of the Foreign Policy Research Institute about those stakes and the history of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Around this time every year, the U.S. Supreme Court ends its term with a bang. The Justices typically save their biggest rulings for June.

Outstanding cases include the president’s birthright citizenship executive order, a Tennessee law blocking gender-affirming care and a Texas law requiring age verification for porn sites.

NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg walks through the cases that may define this term.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Since the start of his second term, President Trump has been at odds with the federal courts.

The protests in Los Angeles are just the latest series of events to raise huge questions about presidential power: in this case, whether the president can use military force to control protests.

NPR’s Scott Detrow speaks with J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge who has a stark warning: that Trump’s actions signal of the end of the rule of law in America.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy