Why I'm Pro Choice

I was raised to be pro choice, literally.  My father is a medical doctor who was trained during the pre- roe v. wade era.  He saw first hand the effect that lack of legal and safe abortion had.  I remember him coming home from work one day and stating how important it is that it is legal and safe because otherwise women die.   Remember the scene from Dirty Dancing when Penny is crying on the bed and Baby runs to get the doctor?  My Dad was that doctor in a rural part of Kentucky for many years.  I heard stories about the bleeding, the hangers, and the self sterilization that occurs when abortion is not safe and legal or even when women are just too afraid to seek it due to the stigma. My family is Christian and I was raised that sex before marriage was a bad choice.  In my family you lived with your poor choices, because choices had consequences.  Because of this much of my youth I was personally pro-life.  But because of the teachings of my father I was always politically pro-choice.  Who was I to tell someone else what to do.

As I grew older I learned how many children were stuck in the foster system, how many American children go unadopted every year.  I started to understand that there are good and bad times in life to have children, and talked to friends who had abortions.  Through my young adulthood I became personally and politically pro-choice.  These convictions were solidified as I worked in Reproductive Health throughout my time in Peace Corps Namibia, America Service Corps in India, and my Masters in Public Health in the US.  All over the world and here girls and boys, women and men are given incorrect and half information about their sexual health.  Reproductive health in all it's aspects became one of my passions.

Now as a future (in 4 months) physician being trained in Family Medicine I am seeking training to become an abortion/termination provider.   I love to have prenatal visits and deliver babies.  I also love to educate about contraception.  As a family physician I look forward to being able to take care of women and families throughout the different stages.  To me providing comprehensive care means being able to provide most all of the clinic services my patients need.  As a family practice doctor providing safe legal abortions I know I will be living up to the lessons my father taught me as a child and saving women's lives and futures.