Abortion care is a ‘calling’ for this Texas doctor. Now he faces a dilemma: Risk lawsuits, or quit.

Joe Nelson is weighing his options as courts weigh in on the nation’s strictest abortion ban

Caroline Kitchener
October 8, 2021

AUSTIN — Joe Nelson arrived at the abortion clinic at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 8. The doctor made himself a cup of coffee, chatted with the receptionist, then settled into a desk cluttered with paperwork and maxi pads. He answered some emails. Then he opened his book on Zen Buddhism and read.

He did not see a patient for almost two hours.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/abortion-care-is-a-calling-for-this-texas-doctor-now-he-faces-a-dilemma-risk-lawsuits-or-quit/


Why I violated Texas’s extreme abortion ban

Opinion by Alan Braid
September 18, 2021

Newly graduated from the University of Texas medical school, I began my obstetrics and gynecology residency at a San Antonio hospital on July 1, 1972.

At the time, abortion was effectively illegal in Texas — unless a psychiatrist certified a woman was suicidal. If the woman had money, we’d refer her to clinics in Colorado, California or New York. The rest were on their own. Some traveled across the border to Mexico.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/18/texas-abortion-provider-alan-braid/


A hidden abortion crew prepares to confront a post-Roe America

Driven underground during the pandemic, online abortion providers say they’ll keep supplying pills and services even if the Supreme Court approves state bans.

By DARIUS TAHIR
07/06/2021

The Supreme Court’s decision to review Mississippi’s stringent restrictions on abortion — putting Roe vs. Wade under its roughest stress test yet — is being seen as a call to action for the nation’s community of underground abortion activists.

And they make it clear they’re prepared to defy any laws banning abortion.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/06/abortion-rights-supreme-court-states-restrictions-497821


USA – When An Abortion Doctor Becomes a Mother

When An Abortion Doctor Becomes a Mother
There is a connection between my work as a doctor and my work as a mother; it’s just not what most people imagine.

By Christine Henneberg
June 27, 2019

Recently a colleague asked me if I’d had trouble working while I was pregnant. “Actually I was fine,” I said. “I know a lot of people have a hard time, but it wasn’t an issue for me.” She raised her eyebrows. “Wow. Good for you. I was a mess.”

We weren’t just talking about nausea and swollen feet and low back pain. She and I are abortion doctors. We routinely perform procedures well into our patients’ second trimester, when the fetus is well-formed and easily recognizable as humanlike, even “life”-like. Baby-like.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/opinion/abortion-doctor.html


My Life As An Abortion Provider: ‘It’s Actually one of the Safest Medical Procedures That We Can Perform’

My Life As An Abortion Provider: 'It's Actually one of the Safest Medical Procedures That We Can Perform'

By Kashmira Gander
On 4/20/19

As state legislatures across the U.S. debate bills restricting access to abortions, people like Dr Meera Shah are on the ground providing reproductive healthcare which she describes as a “basic human right.”

So what is it like to be an abortion provider at a time when, according to research by the National Abortion Federation published last year, anti-abortion campaigners have been emboldened by the current political climate to ramp up attacks against providers?

Continued: https://www.newsweek.com/abortion-1400011


60 hours, 50 abortions: A California doctor’s monthly commute to a Texas clinic

60 hours, 50 abortions: A California doctor’s monthly commute to a Texas clinic

By Soumya Karlamangla
Jan 24, 2019

The protesters are already positioned when she pulls up in her rental car. One lurches at women approaching the clinic, rosary beads dangling from her outstretched palm. Another hands patients tiny fetus dolls that match their skin color.

The doctor tries to ignore them. There are demonstrators at every abortion clinic and they’re all the same, she thinks: a nuisance. In Northern California, where she lives, a man yells, “Don’t take the blood money,” as she arrives at work.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/local/great-reads/la-me-col1-abortion-doctor-20190124-htmlstory.html


USA – Abortion: Stories from doctors and patients – Part 1 and Part 2

Abortion: Stories from doctors and patients - Part 1 and Part 2
August 24, 2018

This week, we're presenting a special two-part bonus episode featuring the stories from our June 2018 show in New York City, "Abortion: Stories from doctors and patients," which was part of Caveat's first annual Underground Science Festival. Rather than the speeches we typically hear on this topic, our storytellers -- who are both OB-GYNs and patients -- have shared firsthand experiences that cross both generations and borders, and are crucial to our understanding of women's health.

Part 1: While working with Doctors Without Borders in a country where abortion is illegal, OB-GYN Veronica Ades is falsely accused of performing an abortion
https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2018/8/24/abortion-stories-from-doctors-and-patients-part-1

Part 2: When Tracey Segarra tells her mother she had an abortion, she's shocked by the response.
https://www.storycollider.org/stories/2018/8/24/abortion-stories-from-doctors-and-patients-part-2