Working with Different Perspectives

Recorded:
Feb 2023
Speaker
Dr. Katherine Farris
Duration
00:01:42
AUDIO CLIP
TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Katherine Farris: One of the staff members was very, very conservative, very religious. Somebody called the clinic from the Planned Parenthood where I worked, and said, “Hey, we just need to talk to Dr. Farris about a patient she did an abortion on last week just to get some follow up work.” It caused a bit of an uproar. But the interesting thing was, I sat down with her and she was just sobbing, saying, “I just can’t believe, I just can’t believe, I just can’t believe.” She just kept saying, “I just can’t believe.” I knew what she was trying to say, and I said, “You can’t believe that I kill babies.” And she said, “Yes!” And I said, “Well, I don’t think that is what I am doing, obviously,” and we had a whole conversation about what I do, why I do it, and it was very interesting because I continued to work with that woman for another three and a half years until we left Massachusetts. And she said to me, had she found out when I was hired, she would have immediately quit. She would never have worked with me. But, having worked with me for six months, she knew me as an individual, knew how I was with patients, respected me as a doctor, she was able to keep working with me – which I think speaks to the power of storytelling and the power of connections and changing people’s views. I don’t think she thinks abortion is okay – I don’t think she ever thought it was okay – but on some level it became less evil and less automatically, totally black, from a black and white perspective, because she knew me as an individual and could at least separate that piece of it.

explore more in the audio archives

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER

Sign up to stay up to date on current issues and events related to reproductive care as well as progress regarding our work!