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Opinion: I provide abortions in Indiana. I don't believe in turning patients away.
Opinion | I provide abortions in Indiana. I don’t believe in turning patients away.
By Caitlin Bernard
July 22, 2022 at 4:20 p.m. EDT
Caitlin Bernard is an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indiana. According to Indiana Department of Health records, she performed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl reported to have traveled from Ohio after being raped.
I’m one of the few OB/GYNs in the entire state of Indiana who provide abortion services. ... For 12 years, I have provided safe and legal, albeit closely regulated, abortion care to patients. It’s very fulfilling to serve people who need urgent medical help and to answer calls by saying, “Yes, of course we’ll take care of her.”
But for the past few weeks, life has been hard — for me and for my family. I’ve been called a liar. I’ve had my medical and ethical integrity questioned on national television by people who have never met me. I’ve been threatened. And I haven’t been able to talk and explain what I stand for.
My mission has always been to provide the best care to each patient who comes to me. This is based on my training as a physician and because I feel a moral and ethical obligation to provide compassionate care. ... Even under the protections of Roe v. Wade, abortion care in my state has been limited and almost always urgent, difficult to access or both: She has been raped; she is bleeding; she has terrible heart disease; she is in an abusive relationship; she lives three hours away.
{snip}
I don’t feel brave. I feel anguished, desperate and angry. I don’t want to be the one who sends a patient away, who sends a scared mother away. I don’t want to be the one who loses a patient because her pregnancy killed her before I could save her. I don’t want to live in a place where my government tells me that child sex abuse victims must become mothers. I don’t want to have to accept that a particular religious ideology eclipses my duty as a physician. ... My life’s work has been to go where I’m needed, to serve my fellow human beings, and to relieve pain and suffering in any way I can. That is what I will continue to do.
Gift Article
https://wapo.st/3PzgsFc
By Caitlin Bernard
July 22, 2022 at 4:20 p.m. EDT
Caitlin Bernard is an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indiana. According to Indiana Department of Health records, she performed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl reported to have traveled from Ohio after being raped.
I’m one of the few OB/GYNs in the entire state of Indiana who provide abortion services. ... For 12 years, I have provided safe and legal, albeit closely regulated, abortion care to patients. It’s very fulfilling to serve people who need urgent medical help and to answer calls by saying, “Yes, of course we’ll take care of her.”
But for the past few weeks, life has been hard — for me and for my family. I’ve been called a liar. I’ve had my medical and ethical integrity questioned on national television by people who have never met me. I’ve been threatened. And I haven’t been able to talk and explain what I stand for.
My mission has always been to provide the best care to each patient who comes to me. This is based on my training as a physician and because I feel a moral and ethical obligation to provide compassionate care. ... Even under the protections of Roe v. Wade, abortion care in my state has been limited and almost always urgent, difficult to access or both: She has been raped; she is bleeding; she has terrible heart disease; she is in an abusive relationship; she lives three hours away.
{snip}
I don’t feel brave. I feel anguished, desperate and angry. I don’t want to be the one who sends a patient away, who sends a scared mother away. I don’t want to be the one who loses a patient because her pregnancy killed her before I could save her. I don’t want to live in a place where my government tells me that child sex abuse victims must become mothers. I don’t want to have to accept that a particular religious ideology eclipses my duty as a physician. ... My life’s work has been to go where I’m needed, to serve my fellow human beings, and to relieve pain and suffering in any way I can. That is what I will continue to do.
Gift Article
https://wapo.st/3PzgsFc
2 replies
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