This speech was given at the NOW Emergency March for Women's Lives on April 22. Written by an abortion doctor currently in practice, it was delivered by a member of the Reproductive Freedom Task Force of Refuse & Resist!
I want to be in front of you today. But I am afraid for the safety of myself and my family. I am an obstetrician gynecologist working in the US and abroad and this is what I see:
I see countries where abortion is illegal AND 80% of the women's ward is filled with young women on their death beds from unsafe abortion.
I see countries other than US, where abortion is legal AND still 30-40% of maternal death is from unsafe abortion because of the lack of access to trained providers.
I see countries like ours where abortion is legal, where we women have rights to Reproductive Health and choice.
But do we?
When you go back and forth to the doctor 4 times for a problem that could have been taken care of in one visit?
When you are threatened with being kicked out of the hospital the day after a delivery?
When there are few choices of where we deliver or by whom?
When you are lucky if your insurance covers your contraception and of course if its "the latest thing" just forget it -- they won't cover it (unless it's Viagra)?
When the decision to approve a new drug has little to do with whether the drug is the best RX and everything to do with whether the church and government agree?
When you have access to all the new contraceptives -- YEARS after the rest of the developed world?
When the pharmacy refuses to fill your Emergency Contraception prescription?
When you must wait 24 hours to "think about it " before an abortion?
When you must drive 3 hours to get an abortion?
We live in one of the most prosperous countries on this earth. Shouldn't women have more choices, instead of less?
The gravest threat to a woman's right to choose abortion is the extinction of the abortion provider from intimidation. Women's rights are being attacked through attacking abortion providers.
Should we stand for abortion providers having their photos and families on internet hit lists, as mine is?
Should we stand for having fliers mailed to my entire neighborhood saying that you should not allow your kids to play with mine since the furniture in my house is bought with the blood of dead babies?
When my colleagues (like Dr. Pendergraft) are going to jail for providing the most common surgical procedure in the US next to cesarean section, it is too dangerous to provide abortion services anymore.
I urge you to get active and fight for our rights. I urge you to join activists groups, write insurance companies, lobby on the hill, lobby to your friends.
Do we want to be a country where abortion is legal but there are no providers?
Support and Defend Abortion Providers!
[posted 5/14/01]
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