MAY 20, 2016
Meet The Doctor
Trying To Keep Abortion
Accessible & Safe
For Women
In The South
The legal right to a safe abortion is slowly disappearing in parts of
America. And it’s doctors like Willie Parker who are standing up to
defend the right for the women who need it.“I do my work because,
as we make laws more restrictive and limit women to safe, confidential,
legal, respectful abortion care, it stands to reason that women will
pursue desperate measures,” Parker told Refinery29, which traveled
to meet the doctor and learn about his efforts to keep abortion safe
and accessible. As of 2011, the most recent year statistics are available,
89% of U.S. counties lacked abortion providers. A full 38% of women
of reproductive age lived in those counties at that time.
The average American county is now 59 miles from its nearest abortion
provider, according to The New York Times, and in some places,
women can travel even farther. In Texas, the passage of the controversial
abortion restriction bill, HB2 in 2013 — a bill that is currently being
challenged in the Supreme Court — left Texas with only 19 clinics. The
state previously had 41. A 2016 study in the American Journal of Public
Health found that it became dramatically harder to get an abortion for
those whose nearest clinics had closed, with these women traveling an
average of 170 miles round-trip to get to a clinic.And on Thursday, in
the latest attack on abortion access, the Oklahoma Legislature passed
a billthat would make any doctor providing abortion services in the
state guilty of a felony, subject to up to three years in prison. Gov. Mary
Fallin vetoed the law. All this means that the doctors who are left, are
providing the essential services — often at great personal and
professional risk — for women who desperately need them.
America. And it’s doctors like Willie Parker who are standing up to
defend the right for the women who need it.“I do my work because,
as we make laws more restrictive and limit women to safe, confidential,
legal, respectful abortion care, it stands to reason that women will
pursue desperate measures,” Parker told Refinery29, which traveled
to meet the doctor and learn about his efforts to keep abortion safe
and accessible. As of 2011, the most recent year statistics are available,
89% of U.S. counties lacked abortion providers. A full 38% of women
of reproductive age lived in those counties at that time.
The average American county is now 59 miles from its nearest abortion
provider, according to The New York Times, and in some places,
women can travel even farther. In Texas, the passage of the controversial
abortion restriction bill, HB2 in 2013 — a bill that is currently being
challenged in the Supreme Court — left Texas with only 19 clinics. The
state previously had 41. A 2016 study in the American Journal of Public
Health found that it became dramatically harder to get an abortion for
those whose nearest clinics had closed, with these women traveling an
average of 170 miles round-trip to get to a clinic.And on Thursday, in
the latest attack on abortion access, the Oklahoma Legislature passed
a billthat would make any doctor providing abortion services in the
state guilty of a felony, subject to up to three years in prison. Gov. Mary
Fallin vetoed the law. All this means that the doctors who are left, are
providing the essential services — often at great personal and
professional risk — for women who desperately need them.
While induced abortion in a medical setting is significantly safer for a
woman than childbirth, the same can’t be said for the doctor providing
it. Between onerous and unnecessary regulation of clinics, harassment,
and vandalism, and even the risk of death, being an abortion provider
means living under threat.
Parker himself began providing abortions on June 1, 2009 — the day
after another abortion doctor, George Tiller, was murdered at his
church in Kansas in an act of domestic terrorism that preceded a
decrease in abortion access in the region. Parker’s experience has
shown him the secret behind the battle for reproductive rights.
Namely, that though the right to a safe, legal abortion is codified in
law, that’s only the beginning of the struggle. “The fight began with
the passage of Roe,” he said. “There hasn’t been a day where the
passage of Roe hasn’t been a strategy to be overturned.”
after another abortion doctor, George Tiller, was murdered at his
church in Kansas in an act of domestic terrorism that preceded a
decrease in abortion access in the region. Parker’s experience has
shown him the secret behind the battle for reproductive rights.
Namely, that though the right to a safe, legal abortion is codified in
law, that’s only the beginning of the struggle. “The fight began with
the passage of Roe,” he said. “There hasn’t been a day where the
passage of Roe hasn’t been a strategy to be overturned.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Oklahoma’s
governor vetoed the latest proposed abortion restrictions there.
governor vetoed the latest proposed abortion restrictions there.