Together with NPR’s Rough Translation we tell the story of a smuggling operation and a wartime mission. First, a high-stakes, covert-operation run by a group of strangers to smuggle abortion pills into war-time Ukraine. Then, we pick up the trail of the pills and find out about the doctors and patients who needed them as our reporters follow the pills around the country. What they learn changes their understanding of how we talk about these pills, and how we talk about choice, in a war.

Special thanks to Wojciech Oleksiak, Katy Lee, Maria Hlazunova, Valeria Fokina, Andrii Degeler, Sara Furxhi, Noel King, Robert Krulwich and Sana Krasikov, and our homies over at Rough Translation. Thanks also to Micah Loewinger and Laura Griffin, Liana Simstrom, Irene Noguchi, and Eleana Tworek. And to our interpreters, Kira Leonova and Tetyana Yurinetz. Thanks to Drs Natalia, Irna & Diana. To Yulia Mytsko, Yulia Babych, Maria Hlazunova, Nika Bielska, Yvette Mrova, Lauren Ramires, Jane Newnham, Olena Shevchenko, Marta Chumako, Jamie Nadal, Jonathan Bearak, and the many others who we spoke with for this story. Thank you to NPR’s International Desk and the team at the Ukraine bureau. Translations from Eugene Alper and Dennis Tkachivsky. Voice over from Lizzie Marchenko and Yuliia Serbenenko. Archival from the Heal Foundation. Illustrations came from Oksana Drachkovska.

Legal guidance provided by Micah Ratner, Lauren Cooperman, and Dentons. 

Ethical guidance from Tony Cavin. 

And thank you to the many sources and experts we interviewed who asked to remain anonymous.

Episode Credits:

Guest hosted by - Gregory Warner and Molly Webster
Reported by - Katz Laszlo
Produced by - Daniel Girma, Tessa Paoli and Adelina Lancianese

w/ production help from - Nic M. Neves
Mixers - Gilly Moon, James Willetts and Robert Rodriguez
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Marisa Robertson-Textor
and Edited by - Brenna Farrell

Music:

John Ellis composed the Rough Translation theme music. Original music from Dylan Keefe. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions and FirstCom Music.  

CITATIONS:

Photos 

• See a Lviv blackout through host Gregory Warner’s eyes – he posted photos from his time in Lviv on Twitter (https://zpr.io/egzpZZw7xPKk).

Videos

• Watch Deutsche Welle’s Abortion in Europe documentary (https://zpr.io/YHctj4bZQwHM).

Podcasts

• Listen to Eleanor MacDowell’s A Sense of Quietness (https://zpr.io/eHhcHusxrhfE) on the BBC.
• Listen to NPR’s Joanna Kakissis’s story This Secretive Network Helps Ukranian Refugees Find Abortions in Poland (https://zpr.io/LsQw9V6ByfFg).
• Our reporter, Katz Laszlo, reports on European current affairs and reproductive health, and produces for The Europeans (https://zpr.io/sHAvrvqU2m8t) podcast, which features stories across the continent, including in Ukraine. 
• Our collaborators, NPR’s Rough Translation (https://zpr.io/9UpCwb2Smjzw)

• To understand Ukraine’s president, it helps to know the training ground of his youth: the competitive comedy (https://zpr.io/ympqrikgCkE3) circuit, in this Rough Translation episode. 
• Listen to “No-Touch Abortion” (https://zpr.io/5SB6bpNzUs6r) from Radiolab for more on the science and use of abortion pills 

Articles -

Further reading: a study on medical abortion (https://zpr.io/f8h5WNfKaMtk) by Galina Maistruck, one of the main sources in our piece

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