(Photo courtesy of Laura Molinar)
27-year-old Laura Molinar was going to medical school in Chicago when suddenly, she was flooded with news about the family separation crisis, and the conditions migrants and asylum-seekers were facing on the U.S.-Mexico border. Born and raised in San Antonio, Molinar felt moved to action, so she started an organization to provide asylum-seekers with something that isn’t always available: medical care.
Her organization, Sueños Sin Fronteras, brought a group of medical professionals to volunteer in a shelter in McAllen, Texas. Soon after they started volunteering, Laura began to notice a need among the migrant women there for access to birth control, emergency contraception, and reproductive healthcare.
There was just one concern: the shelter was run by a Catholic organization with historically conservative views. So Molinar began to provide reproductive healthcare, but discretely, wrestling with her own background growing up Catholic and the views of her family and the organization she works with.
This Latino USA podcast was produced by Maya Cueva.
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NPR’s Latino USA with Maria Hinojosa, produced by Futuro Media, is the longest running Latino-focused program on U.S. public media.
