Three cheers for America's judicial system. It may be the least-appreciated branch, the "Holy Spirit" of the federal government, so to speak, but for almost 40 years now it has firmly upheld Roe v. Wade against countless legal attacks to repeal and undermine it. In the past few decades, however, slander, intimidation, and yes, even pro-life terrorism have been much more successful than legislative initiatives at chipping away at the right to choose. The pro-life side has managed, through numerous back-door approaches, to make obtaining an abortion difficult and humiliating, if still technically legal. Today, the biggest threat to abortion rights in the US is not the legality of the procedure, but rather the logistical access to abortion services, due in large part to the near crisis-level shortage of practicing abortion providers in the US.
Abortion remains one of the most commonly-performed procedures in America, and is certainly one of the most often discussed. Therefore, it probably surprises most people to learn that physicians who perform abortions (or "abortionists," as they are so often called) are few and far between. As in "entire states of separation" far between. If you need an abortion and live in Wyoming, Missouri, Mississippi, or, God forbid, Hawaii, you are shit out of luck: these four states lack a single abortion provider. Even in states with relatively progressive abortion laws access to abortion is hindered merely by the scarcity of providers. In fact, the 1.21 million abortions performed in 2008 were provided by just 1,793 facilities, with half of these services provided by just 2% of OB-GYNs. In contrast, the nation is blanketed by well over 4,000 crisis pregnancy centers.
It's not difficult to imagine why so few physicians provide abortions. Clinic bombings, "abortion hit lists," Bill O'Reilly's abortion witch-hunt, and the 2009 assassination of Dr. George Tiller have all achieved their intended effect: terrifying physicians out of providing a legal and judicially-protected procedure. There are additional factors at play as well. Catholic hospitals, which employ around 16% of American doctors, prohibit their employees from performing abortions even to correct an ectopic pregnancy or other life-threatening complication. Many OB-GYNs aren't even trained in the procedure, as fewer than half of residency programs require this training. And even physicians who identify as pro-choice may be reluctant to perform abortions due to societal pressures and the awkwardness of rarely being able to discuss their work in polite conversation.
As a very pro-choice pre-med, these matters have been on my mind for some time now. The nation needs abortion providers. Women need abortions, and they will not stop needing (and procuring) them just because their doctors are incompetent or untrained. I will someday need a specialty, and I believe in providing a service that millions of women want and need. Of course, now is not the time to commit to a career: even by the most optimistic estimates, it will be more than five years before I have my MD. And regardless of how passionate I am about the cause, I'm not sure whether I'm prepared for a career that will spell a lifetime of harassment, fear, disdain, and maybe even a bullet to the head. But it's something to consider.
Great use of numbers to illutrate your point. I wonder how many abortion providers per 1000 there are in Canada?
ReplyDeleteThe Kermit Gosnell story is very displeasing, it's just what anti-choice people need to talk about evil Big Abortion...
There was an anti-choice conference here at the boston college law school yesterday with people sporting horrible bumper stickers in the parking lot like this: http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/207673_10100583999576983_2253217_62979664_6109670_n.jpg
ReplyDeleteI was pretty horrified.
Hi, I know I'm commenting pretty late but just wanted to point out that the provider map you link to is only for locating providers who are members of the National Abortion Federation -- I'm not sure exactly what percentage of abortion providers that includes, but NAF says its membership accounts for about half of all reported procedures in the US (the margin of error due to non-reporting is a whole other question).
ReplyDeleteThat said, your general point still is totally valid. Missouri does have a handful of providers that I know of, but Hawaii and Mississippi have ONE provider each, and Wyoming literally has none. (With the possible exception of private physicians who provider a few here and there in their offices -- these are the ones typically missed by reported statistics, as I alluded to.)
So it's not like the situation is much less dire than you wrote! But a lot of women and girls I've worked with in my career (in clinics and on a hotline) already are under the mistaken impression that abortion providers don't exist in their state, or even isn't quite legal in their state.