Physicians' Voices: Physician Profiles

Physicians recall patients who couldn’t receive the reproductive health services they needed because they didn’t have health insurance.

“Whenever I hear a conversation about contraception or abortion, I work my way into it to be sure that the truth is heard.” Dr. Christopher Estes has taken on myths like “IUDs and abortions make you sterile, birth control pills cause cancer, and women who have abortions are stupid, irresponsible, selfish, or all three.”

“The adolescent outpatient clinic is tucked in between acute and well child care sections of the pediatric outpatient center. When I took the job, pediatric services had completely taken over unused clinical space dedicated to adolescents. Parents with infants and children occupied the adolescent waiting area and were frequently roomed beside adolescents. It was a challenge reclaiming and marking the territory for adolescents.”

“It didn’t seem right that patients would come to me with a pregnancy, and if they wanted to carry to term, I would take care of them, but if they didn’t want to, I’d send them somewhere else. That sends a not-so-subtle message to women.”

Dr. Waldo Fielding recently wrote about his experiences treating pre-Roe abortions in the New York Times.

“With the Supreme Court becoming more conservative, many people who support women’s right to choose an abortion fear that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that gave them that right, is in danger of being swept aside. When such fears arise, we often hear about the pre-Roe “bad old days.” Yet there are few physicians today who can relate to them from personal experience. I can.”

“The fact is that most people—including parents, teachers, adolescents, and healthcare providers—are uncomfortable talking about sexuality, especially regarding teens. But it is essential for people taking care of adolescents to be able to talk about sex and reproductive health with them.”

“Roe v. Wade liberated us all—women seeking control of their own bodies, illegal abortionists seeking to help them, and antiabortion forces seeking to abridge their rights.”

“Two years after Roe v. Wade, by the time I was a resident, there were no women in ward K who were the victims of unsafe, infected abortion.”

“I think there are many women’s health providers who feel strongly about reproductive rights, but few of us who know how to argue effectively for change.”

“Young doctors today—and the American public—are far removed from the days when women risked so much to have abortions. Yet those who did see this were altered profoundly.”

“Knowing personally what it felt like to be trapped by a pregnancy that I knew I could not continue—under any circumstances—made it very clear to me that providing abortions was a very important thing to do.”

“A lot of doctors think of teaching as an invasion of their right to be doing important things. I’ve never thought of it that way.”