Ukraine: Under the Counter

In the weeks following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a young doctor in Germany sees that abortion pills are urgently needed in Ukraine. And she wants to help. But getting the drugs into the country means going through Poland, which has some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. So, she gets creative. What unfolds is a high-stakes, covert-operation run by a group of strangers. With everyone deciding: who to trust? In collaboration with NPR’s Rough Translation, we find out what happened. 

Part 1 of 2 episodes.

Special thanks to Wojciech Oleksiak, Katy Lee, Maria Hlazunova, Valeria Fokina, Sara Furxhi, Noel King, Robert Krulwich and Sana Krasikov, and our homies over at Rough Translation. Thanks also to Micah Loewinger and Laura Griffin. Illustrations came from Oksana Drachkovska. 

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

Episode Credits:

Reported by - Katz Laslo
Produced by - Daniel Girma and Tessa Paoli
Mixer - Gilly Moon
with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom
Fact-checking by - Marisa Robertson-Textor
and Edited by - Brenna Farrell

CITATIONS:

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)

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