Private Right: Recent Episodes
Alaska Beacon
Private Right from the Alaska Beacon is a show about abortion in Alaska, a conservative state with a strong right to choose. Lisa Phu is the host. In this series, you’ll hear Alaskans talk about abortion, and its impact on the state and their lives.
Alaska Beacon is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government. Alaska, like many states, has seen a decline in the coverage of state news. We aim to reverse that.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy and many other Alaska politicians have been trying to chip away at the right to access an abortion. Some efforts have lasted decades. Despite this, abortion in Alaska remains legal and there are efforts currently underway that could mean even greater access to reproductive health care.
Rebecca Hinsberger was raised thinking the right to abortion was a good thing. “My mother was a very outspoken supporter of abortion,” she said. “So I grew up in that atmosphere: that abortion was perfectly OK and shouldn’t be stigmatized.”Hinsberger started adulthood this way. She lived in a yoga ashram for six months. She called herself a feminist. When she moved to Alaska by herself, she built a cabin and led meditation sessions. But, at some point, her views on abortion changed dramatically. And Hinsberger ended up devoting a lot of her life in Alaska to the anti-abortion rights cause. She spent years standing outside a health clinic in the Kenai Peninsula, singing hymns and waving signs that say, “Pray to end abortion.”“I consider it the murder of a human being, in every circumstance, no exceptions,” she said. “I believe that, biologically, life begins at conception.”Hinsberger described when she came to have this view: “probably during the abortion that I had, while it was happening.”Private Right from the Alaska Beacon is a show about abortion in Alaska, a conservative state with a strong right to choose. Lisa Phu is the host. In this series, you’ll hear Alaskans talk about abortion, and its impact on the state and their lives.Episode credits: Lisa Phu, writer, reporter and producer; Andrew Kitchenman, editor; and Dave Waldron, engineer.
From the late 1970s to the late '80s, Dr. carolyn Brown was a gynecologist and obstetrician in Palmer. She delivered thousands of babies, which she was known and praised for. She also performed abortions, which she was known and praise — and vilified — for. She faced — and still faces — a level of uncertainty about her role as an abortion provider.
The episode explores what a constitutional convention has to do with abortion rights in Alaska. Voters have consistently rejected the convention question, but this time could be different.
Private Right from the Alaska Beacon is a show about abortion in Alaska, a conservative state with a strong right to choose. Lisa Phu is the host. In this series, you’ll hear Alaskans talk about abortion, and its impact on the state and their lives.