#PledgeAProvider, Abortion, Reproductive Justice, Uncategorized
The Maine Family Planning #PledgeAProvider campaign, our answer to 40 days of anti-abortion picketing, is coming to a close. In the coming days, I’ll post a round-up of the fantastic quotes and recordings we’ve shared over the last six weeks, introducing you to members of our amazing team. We’ve raised over $10,000—a powerful reminder that our organization has deep support in Maine and beyond.
Today, let’s meet Kate. As the public policy advocate for Maine Family Planning, she spends her time talking with policy-makers about reproductive justice. She fights for every person’s ability to choose to have a child, to choose not to have a child, and to raise the children we have in conditions of safety and dignity.
Here’s more, directly from Kate:
I have the privilege of being the public face of Maine Family Planning’s abortion providers. When I talk to policy-makers and the public about abortion, a lot of what I do is dispelling myths and misconceptions about who has abortions, what abortion is like, and the quality of care people get in our health centers.
The short answers?
- All kinds of women have abortions, for all kinds of reasons. With about one in four American women having an abortion in her lifetime, it’s safe to say that everyone loves someone who’s had an abortion.
- Abortion is health care, provided by qualified medical professionals, and is extremely safe. Safer than giving birth, safer than having a colonoscopy, safer than a shot of penicillin.
- The abortion providers I work with provide the most compassionate, caring, professional health care I have ever encountered.
For several years, my office door opened onto the waiting room in an MFP health center that provided abortion care. Every week, I saw women coming into the waiting room anxious, overwhelmed, emotional. I saw the way they were treated by every member of MFP’s staff, from the front desk to the medical assistants and nurses to the doctors. And I saw the way patients felt when they walked out of our door. These providers don’t make judgments about their patient’s lives and choices, they just support them and help them get the health care they need. No matter what else is happening outside of our doors, our providers make sure our patients know they are safe and supported inside our health center.
Abortion providers could teach the rest of the health care system a thing or two about how to care for their patients. In fact, if every health care provider was a little more like abortion providers, we’d all be better off.
When you #PledgeAProvider, you’re supporting folks like Kate and the providers she’s praising. Help fund the front lines of reproductive health: http://bit.ly/2D5Ihmq
And thank you.
