In this podcast, I interview a panel of three abortion care specialists: Jessica Dieseldorff is a nurse practitioner and Senior Program Manager of Abortion Services at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. Dr. Laetitia Oderman graduated from the University of California Davis School of Medicine who provides comprehensive OBGYN healthcare for people in Santa Cruz, including abortion in the first and second trimester. Dr. Jen Hastings is a Family Physician and Assistant Clinical Professor at the UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine and is engaged in research on Trans and Gender Expansive Reproductive Justice issues.
Our subject is how abortion care serves as an integral part of healthcare for women. You can’t simply remove it and not have severe downstream consequences. Those consequences for women’s health are known: if Roe is overturned by the Supreme Court, women in around half of the states in this country will will be less healthy and die at a higher rate. Their doctors will be afraid of or even enjoined from telling women the best choices they can make for their health. Educators will be afraid to help young women understand their bodies. The dedicated people who work in clinics that provide abortions while also caring for the health of the entire person will be silenced or put out of business.
I feel strongly that everyone in a democracy needs to understand the downstream effects of their choices. Politics is not separate from us; it determines many facets of our lives. Every person in this country who votes for an anti-choice politician is supporting the choice to lower the quality of comprehensive healthcare for women. They should understand that that’s the choice they’re making, even if they think it’s a worthwhile tradeoff.
More podcasts on the abortion debate:
- On Monday June 13, Christine Barrington explores the wider implications of the potential reversal of Roe V Wade with UCSC Distinguished Professor Emerita, Bettina Aptheker: TAKING HEART AS ROE V WADE FALTERS WITH BETTINA APTHEKER
- Monday July 4: My show with medical personnel about how the stigma against talking about abortion has led to inaccurate beliefs about it. Abortion stigma: the root of healthcare confusion
For more information and mentioned in this episode:
- Information about abortion from Planned Parenthood
- Planned Parenthood Mar Monte
- UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine
- Navigating Loss of Abortion Services — A Large Academic Medical Center Prepares for the Overturn of Roe v. Wade
- Vague ‘medical emergency’ exceptions in abortion laws leave pregnant people in danger
- TEACH: Training in Early Abortion for Comprehensive Healthcare
- Postpartum Depression Statistics
- The Turnaway Study [brief summary] [explanatory article]
- Pregnancy Can Affect the Body Forever. Have Abortion Foes Reckoned With That?
Photo credit: Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
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