Sometimes amongst the back and forth of politics the real people being affected by our laws get lost in the shuffle. Our guests on this episode see abortion care up close and extremely personally. Host Suki Wessling is joined by three abortion care specialists: Jessica Dieseldorff is a nurse practitioner and Senior Program Manager of Abortion Services at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. Dr. Laetitia Oderman graduated from the University of California Davis School of Medicine who provides comprehensive OBGYN healthcare for people in Santa Cruz, including abortion in the first and second trimester. Dr. Jen Hastings is a Family Physician and Assistant Clinical Professor at the UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine and is engaged in research on Trans and Gender Expansive Reproductive Justice issues.
Starting with the cases where abortion is necessary to preserve the life or health of the pregnant person, we tease apart how abortion care is inextricably intertwined with comprehensive healthcare. Evidence shows that the downstream effects of legal abortion care are wide-ranging: women living in areas that restrict abortion show worse health, mental health, and economic incomes in a variety of measures. The real people walking in the door of a Planned Parenthood may not be thinking about far-reaching considerations, but their choice allows them to make other decisions that determine the positive effects that end up being represented as statistics.
Please return for more of the abortion debate:
- On Monday June 13, Christine Barrington explores the wider implications of the potential reversal of Roe V Wade with UCSC Distinguished Professor Emerita, Bettina Aptheker
- On Monday July 4 Suki hosts a follow-up panel on social views of abortion.
For more information and mentioned in this episode:
- Information about abortion from Planned Parenthood
- Planned Parenthood Mar Monte
- UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine
- Navigating Loss of Abortion Services — A Large Academic Medical Center Prepares for the Overturn of Roe v. Wade
- Vague ‘medical emergency’ exceptions in abortion laws leave pregnant people in danger
- TEACH: Training in Early Abortion for Comprehensive Healthcare
- Postpartum Depression Statistics
- The Turnaway Study [brief summary] [explanatory article]
Photo credit: Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
