What Are Abortion Care Providers Like?

Recorded:
Mar 2024
Speaker
Dr. Latoya Patterson
Duration
00:02:30
AUDIO CLIP
TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Latoya Patterson: I think there is information about us as if none of us have any faith, or we’re not Christian, or we are actively – this is really extreme– trying to hurt or kill or those types of things. Or that we, in general, are not good people. I think maybe that comes from a place of fear, and you have to villainize the people that are doing things that you don’t necessarily agree with. Maybe that’s where it comes from. But of course, I don’t think that we are the people that are described – the people that are providing abortion care know that we are not bad people, we don’t do bad things, we are just trying to take care of people. A lot of us are religious. I am Christian and so I feel like we are put in this box, “we are not Christian and we don’t believe in God because and because we do abortions, we do not have a relationship with God,” which is not true. Also, the people who are receiving or using abortion service or reproductive health services are not bad people either. I think that there is a lot of stigma about what those people are like and what people who undergo certain services are – who they are as human beings is not reflective of any medical service that you have. It shouldn’t reflect on who you are. People who have their appendix removed or their gall bladder removed, it doesn’t say anything about that person or about who they are. Any medical procedure that you are having done really shouldn’t say anything about your character. It shouldn’t say anything about the type of person that you are. It shouldn’t say anything about how much money you make, how much schooling you’ve had. That should not weigh into a medical service or procedure that you have undergone. I don’t know why in particular when it has to do with reproductive rights, all of these assumptions are made about people who are having certain things done. We don’t think about people who have their appendix removed, have pancreatitis, we don’t put them in this box of “you are a horrible person because maybe you had too much alcohol, and now you have pancreatitis, or maybe you had too much alcohol, and now you have issues with your liver.” We don’t make those people out as bad people that are actively trying to harm someone or hurt someone.

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!