A nurse-midwife reflects on the impact of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, recalling her experiences providing women's health care and the clinic's commitment to patient autonomy.
"I had spent 26 years of my life dedicated to women's health. In one terrible decision, the Supreme Court sent the rights of women in America about 70 years backward."
Even though the entire staff at my nonprofit feminist health center in Chico, California, knew this was coming, the news still hit like a blow. I had spent 26 years of my life dedicated to empowering women about their health and reproduction, and in one terrible decision, the Supreme Court sent the rights of women in America about 70 years backward.
Compared to attending births, my role as clinician here initially seemed easy, with daytime hours and a set schedule. The patient visits I conducted were “basic” for someone with my level of training and experience. They included help with contraception and sexually transmitted infections, general gynecological care for mostly teens and college students, counseling on pregnancy options, and medical abortion.
Two years of pussy hats and women’s marches later, on Nov. 8, 2018, our neighboring town of Paradise burned down in a single, historically destructive day. Thirty thousand people lost their homes in the Camp fire. We stayed open extra hours for days afterward, our clinic blanketed in apocalyptic black smoke, daylight reduced to a dim red haze, so that hundreds of people could replace birth control that had been lost in the fire.
There would also be hundreds of routine visits ― injection after injection of Depo-Provera birth control, contraceptive pill prescription after prescription, and complaint after complaint of “funky discharge,” the hallmark of vaginitis. I counseled patients about the same topics day in and day out ― safe sex, how to use each birth control method correctly and the care of one’s vagina.
Politics Women's Rights Roe V Wade Womens Health Abortion Reproductive Rights Feminist Healthcare
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