Why Perform Abortion Services?
Updated June 26, 2013.
Question: Why Perform Abortion Services?
At press conference about abortion services, an abortion provider (who wished to remain anonymous) delivered a profound speech. A major portion of her speech addressed the stigma of abortion, and why this stigma is so pervasive. Claiming that abortion is her calling, this abortion provider discussed how her life’s work is to end the stigma around abortion. She took the final moments in her speech to answer that ultimate question that she is always asked, Why abortion?
Why perform abortions services?
Answer: The following is an excerpt from her speech about why she provided abortion services:
Abortion involves all the big things in life – sex, death, religion, family. Providing abortion gives me the opportunity to have heart-to-heart conversations about these things – about what really matters – every single day. I get to sit with a woman as she examines what she believes, as she looks at what matters most to her. What are her intentions? What are her dreams? Abortion is a kind of right of passage for many women. It is often one of the first times where women take a look at the values that they have inherited from family, church, culture, education and decide which ones are applicable or meaningful to them and which ones are not.
Making an abortion decision is a time when a woman acts with intention. When she chooses a path for her life and the direction she will travel. I want to NOTICE that moment of acting with intention and hold it up high for the woman to notice and to feel and own as hers.
I invite her to experience her life as though she were in charge of it. There are many times in a woman’s life where “life happens to them” and abortion stands out as a time when I can support a woman to be the actor in her own life – the chooser – not a victim but an intentional, deliberate and ethical person choosing what is best for them.
Sitting with a woman as she examines her abortion decision provides ME with an opportunity to plant seeds that will change the world. I can invite a woman to look at her life differently than she may have before she came to my clinic. I have a moment to affirm that she is good, to affirm that she is moral and kind, and to affirm that she is not selfish. I can witness her dreams and her desires and affirm that she is put on this Earth to see them out and to act on her own gifts, not just to receive the lot that has been dealt to her. I have an opportunity to shine some light on her situation and turn on a light bulb or two in her thinking – especially about what is possible and what she is capable of.
The opportunity to invite women to accept themselves and to live out their dreams is a by-product of abortion care to some people, but to me it IS abortion care. I can make a contribution that matters; I can truly change the world one woman at a time, simply by sitting next to a woman, listening to her story, witnessing her experience and gently nudging her to be all that she can be.
This changes the world.
For the better.
And this is why I provide abortion services.
More about Abortion Services and the Stigma Associated With These Procedures:
(The following is also an excerpt from the speech):Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, there have been over 45 million women in the US who have chosen to have safe, legal abortions. In fact, 37% of American women, over 1 in 3 women, will have an abortion by the age of 45. Abortion services IS mainstream medicine, and abortion IS a normal part of women’s health care. So, why is abortion stigma so successful? Why does the shame persist and silence pervade in our culture when so many people share the abortion experience?
Because most of the time these 45 million women are silent. Most of the time the loved ones who helped them with their abortion don’t talk about it either. In fact, the pro-choice majority is silent. Most of the people talking about abortion in our society are anti-abortion, and those who provide abortion services often are looked at as the “radical fringe of the pro-choice movement.” Yet, the reality is that without abortion providers, there is no choice. We ARE the Common Ground. We give the choice. Without providers, the right to abortion is just an idea – it is just something on paper that means nothing to women in actuality.
What does it take to keep 45 million women and their loved ones silent? You have to spend millions of dollars to shame them and tell them they are murderers over and over until they believe it themselves. And you must threaten and intimidate and ultimately murder those who provide them this care. For over 35 years, abortion providers have been the buffer between the anti-abortion movement and the women who seek abortion services. We have tried to protect women and shield them from the hostility of the antis. We need these women to speak up. There are not enough of us providers to protect this freedom for women.
To me, irradicating stigma is the single most important thing we can do for abortion rights in this country. Even now, in this room, at this moment each of YOU is looking at me – the abortion provider from Texas – through your own lens of stigma about abortion. Maybe I am “less than” or “more than” you thought “an abortion provider would be like.”
I EXPEREINCE stigma all the time in my work; the hospital will not give privileges to our physicians, we can’t secure local back up doctors, we can’t get anyone to provide us with bottled water or replace our tile floors or replace our roof or resurface our parking lot.
I HEAR stigma everywhere:
- “Abortion should be rare”
- “Abortion is a tragedy”
- “Prevention First”
- “I am pro-choice but I’d never have an abortion”
- “I am not like those other women”
- “I don’t believe in abortion as birth control”
Special thanks to Lu. who shared her colleagues profound words on the abortionclinicdays blog - a place where those who provide abortion services can tell stories about their work and the people they help.