No Providers, No Choice

I saw a bumper sticker Wednesday that said "No Provider, No Choice." It came right on the heels of a conversation with my good friend N where I said I find conflict with being pro-choice and not willing to be a practitioner who provides abortions. I do not mean that I think every practitioner who is pro choice should have to perform abortions, but that I, personally, find it hard to claim that I am pro choice if I am not willing to be the one to provide/perform the abortion. We also talked about whether I would perform an abortion all the way through the law's determination of how far along a woman can be and still have access, or if I would have my own moral "number line" that I would not be willing to cross. It turns out that I also have a problem with determining what the number should be...meaning that if 16 weeks is what is determined to be the latest an abortion is available, that would probably be my cut off as well. Then we talked about safety of providers and about being stuck doing abortions forever once you start because there will be so few providers.

I will be going to a workshop next week to learn how to perform a Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) The workshop will provide a hands-on learning opportunity using papayas as the uterine model.

Here is a link to statistics about abortion providers in the US.

I also recently watched the movie "The Cider House Rules" which deals with this issue, and it was great! This is an older movie that a lot of people have already seen, but I had somehow missed it.

I never really thought about whether or not I would be an abortion provider because it's not something that CNMs typically do. In most states, 44 to be exact, only physicians can provide abortions. However, if I end up in one of the 6 states where midwives are the providers, or as the law expands or changes, I will be a provider, and I know that scares some people. For a quick history of the role of CNMs in abortion, click here.