Targeting physicians who provide abortion care is nothing new.  The extreme wing of the anti-abortion movement began deliberately targeting physicians in the early 1990’s, leading to a horrifyingly long string of physician murders as well as deliberate intimidation tactics such as “wanted” posters and websites exposing physicians’ private information.  Now these extremists have succeeded in taking their targeting of physicians to a whole new level – misrepresenting themselves as legitimate medical researchers in an effort to get physicians to talk openly about their work on hidden camera so that those conversations can be edited to make both the physicians and their employers seem uncaring and callous.  This is not about fetal tissue, it’s about attacking abortion, plain and simple.

Every year, more than a million women in the US choose to end their pregnancies through abortion and a relatively small number of physicians help them make that choice a reality despite the personal sacrifices they must make to provide this important health care to their patients.  At Medical Students for Choice, we dedicate all of our efforts to helping young physicians gain the knowledge and skills they need to provide this option for women safely, compassionately, and with dignity.  Physicians who dedicate their lives to providing this highly stigmatized health care should be applauded for their courage and caring, not castigated for discussing that care professionally with other presumed professionals.  Our support of their work is critical to the health and well-being of all the people in need of abortion care every year.

Here’s what has happened as a result of the deliberate and violent targeting of physicians and the offices in which they do their work:

• There was almost a 40% decline in the number of abortion providers in the US after 1982 despite the fact that abortion is still one of the most common medical procedures in the US.
• Women must travel farther for abortion care than for any other primary health care service and face an unprecedented number of legal restrictions to accessing that care.

Each individual physician sacrifices a great deal to provide this care to their patients.  Just like all of us, they want healthy families, a nice place to live, and good relationships with their neighbors and their communities. Providing abortion care makes attaining all of those more complicated.  At Medical Students for Choice, we work hard to build a community of supportive colleagues around our members who choose to provide abortions because we know that they will need that community to support them on their chosen path.  But let’s be clear:  Physicians who perform abortions do so because they have a strong, personal commitment to ensuring that women have this choice when facing an unintended pregnancy.  For all the physicians in these highly edited videos, providing abortion care was a courageous, selfless decision that has positively changed the lives of thousands of their patients. 

One of these courageous physicians that I have worked with for years recently began travelling to a second facility in another state to provide abortions because there were no trained physicians in that community willing to provide the care for their patients.  She now travels regularly to two different clinics in two states because she is needed.  What would those patients do without her willingness to do that?  I can tell you that this physician has many other practice options but chooses to do this because her deeply held values drive her to do so.

These courageous Planned Parenthood physicians should be embraced, not threatened or chastised for the sacrifices they make for their patients.  It’s time to stop focusing on the “sting” and start focusing on what we need as a society – caring, compassionate, mission-driven physicians who are willing to do what most of their peers are not willing to do.  I, for one, am grateful every day for their service and sacrifice.  Medical Students for Choice stands with every one of Planned Parenthood’s physicians and says, “thank you.” 

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Lois V. Backus, MPH
Executive Director
Medical Students for Choice
Philadelphia, PA
215-900-2978
lois@msfc.org