We Aren't Waiting
A new role, a bold interview, our reclaimed flag, and a state full of people stepping up in unique and beautiful ways.
This was the week I stopped asking for a seat at the table and started building one.
I won a national leadership position that puts me at the highest level of my professional organization. Wisconsin’s race for governor got sharper, with the only healthcare provider in the field making her case directly to me. And around July 4th, while this country’s 250th birthday landed with a thud, I decided I’m done letting anyone else define what patriotism means.
Healthcare is under attack on every front — Iowa is coming after telehealth abortion and the HPV vaccine, HHS just quietly gutted teen pregnancy prevention funding across the country, and Wisconsin let one lifeline expire the same week another one finally kicked in. But this week also handed me proof of exactly why this fight is winnable: the people organizing, running, showing up, and refusing to back down.
Let’s get into it.
Elected! Chair of the Council of District Chairs
I’m the new Chair of ACOG’s Council of District Chairs, which means I now represent over 60,000 obstetrician-gynecologists at the highest level of our international professional organization — the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
This is an honor I’ve been working toward for decades, and I’m not taking a single second of it for granted — especially not now, with healthcare, especially healthcare for OUR patients, under attack on every front. This role puts me at the grown ups table with ACOG’s executive leadership, and it makes me a critical link between that leadership and the members living this fight in exam rooms every day.
I relish this opportunity. But I wouldn’t be here without the trust and support of this outstanding team.
Now the real work begins. We know what our patients need, and I know what this organization is capable of when every part of it is working in harmony. Let’s get to it!
The Only Healthcare Professional in the Governor’s Race
Wisconsin’s next governor should understand what it feels like to lose a patient because the system failed them. Sara Rodriguez does.
Before she was Lieutenant Governor, she was an ER nurse. Before that, she was on one of the first CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service teams into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina — watching, up close, what happens when government fails the people who need it most.
That’s the resume Tom Tiffany is running against. A man who has voted in lockstep with Donald Trump to strip abortion access, gut Medicaid, and dismantle the ACA — for a state where healthcare is already broken and getting worse.
But first, Rodriguez has to get through a primary that’s tightening by the week. She and Francesca Hong are running neck and neck for the Democratic nomination, and it’s forcing Wisconsin Democrats to reckon with a real question: in a state this broken, does healthcare experience matter more than anything else on a resume?
I sat down with LG Rodriguez for The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show — two people who’ve spent our careers inside the system, talking about what it actually takes to fix it. We covered:
Her path from ER nurse →CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service officer → healthcare executive → Lieutenant Governor
What she saw on the ground in post-Katrina New Orleans, and how it shaped her view of government’s obligation in a crisis
Why she’s the only candidate in this race who’s actually worked inside the healthcare system she wants to fix
Her plan for Wisconsin healthcare, governor’s-office edition
Conversations like this one, every week. Don't miss them. It's FREE!
Wisconsin Politics Group Chat: The Recombobulation Area
Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, Pat Kreitlow of UpNorthNews, Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area, and I got back together for another round of the Wisconsin Politics Group Chat — covering everything from socialism scaremongering to data center moratoriums to the ongoing drama in the Democratic primary for governor (controversies, microprimaries, and all).
We also dug into two big healthcare policy shifts that hit back-to-back: the end of Child Care Counts on June 30, and the start of postpartum Medicaid extension on July 1 — one program disappearing just as another begins. Plus a rundown of the congressional primaries heating up across Wisconsin.
If you want the full, unfiltered conversation on where Wisconsin politics stands right now, this is it!
New episode debuts on Tuesday! What do you want us to cover? (We’re listening…)
The Situation Womb: The Team Is Back Together!
This week, Dr. Erin Stevens, Dr. Chris Ford, Dr. Chelsea Daniels, and I break down a whirlwind week in reproductive health news on The Situation Womb, part of the Paging America family.
We start with the recent expiration of federal defunding of Planned Parenthood. Dr. Daniels shares firsthand what these cuts actually did — and it wasn’t stop abortions. It stripped away essential primary care, leaving thousands of patients without access to insulin, inhalers, and cancer screenings. Let that sink in.
Then we head to Iowa, where Governor Kim Reynolds’ newly enacted laws are going after both telehealth abortion access and minors’ ability to consent to the HPV vaccine — a vaccine that prevents cancer. We look at a striking new UK study showing zero cervical cancer deaths in vaccinated young women, and contrast that hard evidence with the dangerous rhetoric of “parental rights” and what we’re calling “terminal mansplaining.”
Dr. Ford leads a powerful history lesson on the 14th Amendment following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold birthright citizenship — and exposes just how authoritarian the anti-immigrant rhetoric on the far right has become.
From HHS slashing teen pregnancy prevention grants to the urgent need for young poll workers this November, this episode makes one thing clear: your vote is the ultimate prescription for protecting our democracy.
Rural Wisconsin, Loud and Clear: Northern Door Activism
Before Dobbs, they were young moms, business owners, and community leaders at the tip of the closely watched, increasingly blue, Door County peninsula in Wisconsin. After Dobbs, they found their voice — and built something extraordinary.
Northern Door Activism is part community aid, part activism, all heart. Their latest project, “America Needs (A)mending,” is a zine created with 9 Wisconsin-based artists — 7 of them local to Door County — printed right in Sister Bay and now showing up in coffee shops, bookstores, and galleries across the county and beyond. You can already find it at Sarah’s new coffee shop, June’s Farmhouse!
Most of us learned the Bill of Rights in a civics class we half-remember. This beautiful graphic representation breaks down all of the constitutional amendments in plain language and drawings — what they actually say, why they were written, and what they were meant to protect. Line them up against where we are today and the gap is impossible to ignore. If you want a refresher on the promises this country made to its people — and a clear-eyed look at how far we've drifted from them — this is worth five minutes of your time.
They have printed 2000 copies and are fundraising to print even more. You can pitch in to help educate, inform, and engage people in this influential part of our swing state and beyond here:
And if you’re in Northeast Wisconsin and want copies to distribute — coffee shops, waiting rooms, community boards — or want to know more about the impactful grassroots efforts of these neighbors, contact@northerndooractivism.com.
What’s Coming Up
Next week on The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show: is our election system actually safe? (It is.) I’m sitting down with Ann Jacobs — member and former chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission — to get real answers that will help you understand how elections work and why they are safe and secure.
And speaking of safe, secure elections — here’s how you can be part of making sure ours stay that way. Every election, we hear the same warnings, and every election, the people making them true are ordinary folks who show up to run the polls.
That’s you. Poll workers are the backbone of safe, fair, efficient elections. They’re also your friends and neighbors. Sign up, and you’re not just watching democracy happen — you’re the one making sure every vote gets counted correctly. And yes — you might even get paid to do it.
ALSO I’ll be in Minneapolis, hanging out with a supermodel and some of the fiercest advocates for maternal health you’ll ever meet.
One More Thing - Reclaiming the Flag
I’ll be honest: July 4th this year didn’t feel like much of a celebration. The Semiquincentennial came and went, and it was flat — like the country wasn’t sure what it was celebrating, or who gets to claim it.
So here’s where I’ve landed instead: I’m done letting the right wing define what patriotism means. The flag doesn’t belong to the people who weaponize (and weirdly capitalize) the word “patriot”. It belongs to EVERY ONE OF US fighting to make this country live up to what it promised.
Being a patriot means showing up. In parades, in exam rooms, at the ballot box. It means fighting for the people this country has failed, not pretending it hasn’t.
I’m not walking away from any of it — not the flag, not the word, not the fight. I’m taking it all back.
Thanks for reading, thanks for showing up for all of us, and thanks for not waiting.
Kristin
PS: Until next week, you can find me everywhere:
RE: “New episode debuts on Tuesday! What do you want us to cover? (We’re listening…)”
In your next Wisconsin Politics Group Chat, could you cover the pros and cons of Kelda Roys’s proposed health care plan “KeldaCare” and that of Sara Rodriguez, BadgerChoice? I did a Gemini search on this and I’d like to hear your perspectives. Thank you.
See my Gemini chat: https://share.gemini.google/nuQy3BWXx2aX
Thank you,
Bill