Perhaps one of the greatest misconceptions about abortion providers is that we believe that abortion is the best option for all women all the time. I am forever astonished when I talk to people, patients especially, and they assume that I (or any abortion provider) would not support their decision if they chose to carry their pregnancy to term.
When I do public speaking events (at high schools, colleges or local organizations) I always make sure to talk about the patients that we see who choose NOT to terminate their pregnancy. It doesn't happen a lot--we are, after all an abortion facility and the majority of women that we serve have already spent a great deal of time considering their options and feel confident in their decision when the come in for their appointment. But there are some women and girls that we see who are either undecided at the time of their appointment, or don't want to have an abortion at all, but are being pressured by others or don't have the support and resources available to figure out a way to continue their pregnancy.
As pro-choice medical providers, it is our job to ensure that the women and girls that we see are given the tools and resources to carry out whatever decision they feel is best for their lives. Sometimes that means scheduling a separate options counseling session or giving her some resources and tools to take home so that she can consider her options further. Other times it means that I spend my days figuring out how to help someone continue her pregnancy to term and parent or go through the adoption process.
For women who are considering an adoption, we can help facilitate an adoption plan through our partnership with the Spence-Chapin adoption agency. Finding ways to help a women continue her pregnancy to term and then parent can be much trickier.
There are two patients that I always think of when I talk about these issues. One was a young girl from out of state whose parents were trying to force her to have an abortion and another was a mother who had just moved to New Jersey from another state.
In the case of the young girl, her parents thought that living in a state with parental consent meant that they could bring her to a clinic and consent to her having an abortion whether or not it's what she wanted. It didn't take their daughter long to figure out that if she told the provider that she didn't want an abortion that they wouldn't do one. It took her parents a lot longer to figure that out. They took her to every clinic they could find in their state and finally brought her over to us. Once I heard her story I decided that there needed to be an end to this situation--she was into her 2nd trimester and needed prenatal care if she was going to continue the pregnancy as she desired.
It took a bit of work, a few weeks and a lot of phone time, but eventually we were able to help this young woman get her own health insurance, move in with a supportive family member and start prenatal care so that she could continue her pregnancy in a healthy and supportive environment.
In the case of the mother who had just moved to our state, she assumed that the laws in New Jersey were the same as the state that she had moved from. She was uninsured and did not qualify for Medicaid in her state. She said that when she went to seek prenatal care in her home state that she had been denied because she couldn't pay the doctor or hospital fees and that she was told that her state did not have charity care.
When she lost her home, she and her children moved to New Jersey to stay with family members and because she could not afford to access health care, she decided to terminate her pregnancy even though it's not what she felt would be a good decision for her emotionally.
What she didn't know is that in some states, pregnancy is considered a condition that requires critical care, and in the state of New Jersey she could not be denied access to critical health care (such as prenatal care and labor & delivery care) due to inability to pay. In this case, just a few quick phone calls were able to secure her a doctors visit at a local women's clinic that would help her apply for charity care and start her prenatal care.
For me, being able to help women act on what they believe to be the best decision for their lives is the most important part of my job. Being able to offer adoption services, referrals for prenatal care and help navigate the laws to access a safe abortion ensures that every woman who walks through our doors is able to actively choose what is best for her life and her family. This, to me, is the definition of being a pro-choice health care provider.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Annoying Misconception #1: Abortion providers think that abortion is always the right decision. .
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/15495
This is a great piece - next time someone spouts off about being "pro-abortion" or abortionist I will link them to this.
There really needs to be a greater understanding that pro-choice is supportive of whichever choice a woman makes for herself.
I've dealt, online, with someone who genuinely believed that an underage woman's parents should be allowed to force her to get an abortion she didn't want. This person called himself "pro-life", and used such arguments as "I never called abortion murder. I said it was HOMICIDE" -- but he thought parents should be allowed to physically force their daughter to abort a wanted pregnancy.
(To give you a glimpse of his deep respect for young women: his terms for a sexually active teenaged girl varied with whether she was pregnant or not. Before she was pregnant, she was "just another whore". As soon as she conceived she transformed into a "scared little girl", and pro-choicers were ruthlessly forcing her to face a "bottom of the barrel abortionist" without the loving support of her parents.)
I'm not an abortion provider, but I encourage the women I know to have regular abortions just to clear the pipes. I find it refreshing, like a colonic. If you've never tried it, you really need to. You will find abortion to be the best invasive, uterine surgery you've ever had.
And moving along, ignoring this attempt at sidetracking...
Thanks for another insightful post from PWC! All the posts I've seen from you (all?) have been a breath of fresh air. The abortion "conversation" can start to wear down on me when I read too many depressing articles. The anti-choicers come up with such ridiculous attacks on providers. Their statements would be funny except there are whack jobs who believe them. I've never met a provider who remotely resembled any of the rhetoric. You counter the attacks with reason and honesty. You should become a regular feature on Feministing.
That was satire, not sidetracking.
Indeed! It's so fun and carefree!