Doctors
An Indiana Doctor Speaks Out on Abortion, and Pays a Price
[...] Dr. Bernard, who catapulted into the national spotlight for providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim last month, delivers babies and provides contraceptive care, pap smears and other routine obstetric and gynecological care. She is also one of a small number of doctors in her state with specific training in complex reproductive care, including second-trimester abortions.
But some of her riskiest work takes place outside her hospital, advocating publicly for abortion access.
Her outspokenness has extracted a price. Dr. Bernard, 37, has been criticized across right-wing media, faced harassment and is the subject of an investigation by the Indiana attorney general. She’s landed at the center of a post-Roe clash that the medical community has been dreading — one in which doctors themselves are the focus of political and legal attacks.
“Physicians who provide abortion have been harassed, they have been murdered,” Dr. Bernard said on Tuesday in an interview with The New York Times. “And for too long, I think, because of that, they’ve had to be silent to protect their families, and it’s created an idea that we’re doing something wrong or something illegal. And we’re not. And I feel compelled to say that.” ....
Abortion has always been just a part of the typical OB/GYN doctor's work of caring for women's reproductive health. It was not until the rise of the violent pro-life movement ... the harassment, kidnappings, bombings, murders ... that less and less doctors felt safe enough to provide abortions, and clinics like Planned Parenthood became one of the few remaining providers.
And Planned Parenthood is not an "abortion clinic". Planned Parenthood runs reproductive health care clinics that provide everything from contraception to OB/GYN exams to abortions to vasectomies for men, and more. I know this because I was a volunteer at a PP clinic, and what I did there had nothing to do with abortions.
Here is a past episode of NPR's Fresh Air ... The Abortion Debate Through a Son's Eyes ... It's worth a listen.
[...] Dr. Bernard, who catapulted into the national spotlight for providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim last month, delivers babies and provides contraceptive care, pap smears and other routine obstetric and gynecological care. She is also one of a small number of doctors in her state with specific training in complex reproductive care, including second-trimester abortions.
But some of her riskiest work takes place outside her hospital, advocating publicly for abortion access.
Her outspokenness has extracted a price. Dr. Bernard, 37, has been criticized across right-wing media, faced harassment and is the subject of an investigation by the Indiana attorney general. She’s landed at the center of a post-Roe clash that the medical community has been dreading — one in which doctors themselves are the focus of political and legal attacks.
“Physicians who provide abortion have been harassed, they have been murdered,” Dr. Bernard said on Tuesday in an interview with The New York Times. “And for too long, I think, because of that, they’ve had to be silent to protect their families, and it’s created an idea that we’re doing something wrong or something illegal. And we’re not. And I feel compelled to say that.” ....
Abortion has always been just a part of the typical OB/GYN doctor's work of caring for women's reproductive health. It was not until the rise of the violent pro-life movement ... the harassment, kidnappings, bombings, murders ... that less and less doctors felt safe enough to provide abortions, and clinics like Planned Parenthood became one of the few remaining providers.
And Planned Parenthood is not an "abortion clinic". Planned Parenthood runs reproductive health care clinics that provide everything from contraception to OB/GYN exams to abortions to vasectomies for men, and more. I know this because I was a volunteer at a PP clinic, and what I did there had nothing to do with abortions.
Here is a past episode of NPR's Fresh Air ... The Abortion Debate Through a Son's Eyes ... It's worth a listen.
posted by crystal | 10:49 PM
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