Episode 10 - In My Feelings & Abortion in America

(00:15)

Hello, hello, and welcome to the Emotional Millennial. My name is Annie, and I'm so excited that you're here with me today. I have gone through an immense amount of personal growth throughout the past year, and I'm no longer not talking about it. Our world needs more authenticity, honesty, vulnerability. And with this podcast, I am simply doing my part.

(00:38)

This week, I'm going to be talking about something I never anticipated myself talking about on a public platform. But then again, I never really anticipated that the Supreme Court would leak a draft opinion that would strike down row persuade, meaning a portion would be illegal. Honestly, I am terrified to talk about this because abortion has become such a political topic, but it's something that needs to be talked about. And I'm a doctor and I have a lot more knowledge on this topic than other people do. I forget that sometimes I have such imposter syndrome when it comes to the fact that I am a physician.

(01:23)

That still isn't really solidified in my head. But before I get into diving more into that topic, I am really in my feelings today, and what I'm seeing online right now has kind of brought me back into my head about some of the reasons I started this podcast in the first place. As a society, we are in desperate need for spaces that allow for thoughtful, respectful, authentic conversations. Places where we listen to each other. Listening not to respond, not to have some better comeback argument, but listening to understand, listening to put yourself in someone else's shoes.

(02:16)

I grew up believing that every decision that is made in our society, in our culture, is what is best for one another. I grew up believing in our leadership, and I was so excited to hopefully one day become one of those leaders. The older I get, I just realized how wrong I was. And now that I'm sitting where I am today and with the perspectives that I have, I cannot believe that I used to be so naive, and I used to think that everybody had each other's best interests at heart. There are some points where I wish I could go back to that naive self because life was so beautiful then.

(03:08)

I had such a positive outlook and I was like, Everything's great. We all are thriving as a society and everyone loves each other and we're all in it for the greater good, right? I genuinely, honestly felt this way all throughout College. It was not until I started medical school that I really began to see just how the real world actually works. And honestly, it breaks my heart.

(03:45)

It frickin sucks.

(03:49)

It's almost impossible for me to wrap my mind around some of the decisions that are made in our country and some of the opinions that people have with complete disregard to other individuals. And now what I'm seeing, it's not just in the leadership anymore. It is even more difficult for me to see how opposing sides are incapable of listening or trying to see it from another point of view. There are so many days where I see things on the news in headlines or online like on Twitter or something and I'm reading discourse that is happening between individuals and I literally just want to give up. I'm like, what are you guys even talking about?

(04:38)

You're not even having a conversation. There is absolutely no critical thinking going on here. We are adults, right? Growing up I was always taught to treat people with respect and so I guess I just assumed that other people would do the same. But apparently when you graduate or you're out in the real world, all of that is just thrown out the window.

(05:03)

It is nearly impossible to have productive discourse on social media with the amount of chaos that is just constantly being spewed. It makes me feel so hopeless and I think to myself, who am I to change anything? Like I'm one person, but I know that there are other people out there feeling this exact same way and so that's actually all of that. Whatever I just said, I don't even know how to summarize that. But that's a huge reason why I started this podcast because I want to show people that there are other people that exist that see that behavior online and see how destructive it is and I want to change it.

(05:52)

I know I'm just one person. I don't have all the answers. I really don't know exactly what I'm doing, but I'm trying my best and I really want to take steps forward to be better. We are better than this and it is so hard to see all of this online when I know we are better and we can do better. I refuse to give up and this podcast is me trying.

(06:21)

I know there are other people out there who feel this way and we need to come together and do something about this. I have no idea what that means. I don't know exactly how to do it, but I'm like ready to start a movement and just be freaking better. This is like embarrassing. You miss stuff online.

(06:42)

It's ridiculous. I can't even take part in it because I don't even know where to start. I feel like I'm scared to say things online because it's just like you're going to get attacked by people who really don't know what they're talking about and there's just so much chaos and so much noise and we need it to stop. I don't know the answers, but we got to come together and do something positive and move forward and have beneficial conversations that are real and that are respectful and thoughtful and that take into account how other people feel and how other individuals live their lives too. Because at the end of the day, we all as human beings are of equal importance.

(07:30)

We all matter the same. And if you asked me my opinion on that in College, I probably would say I didn't agree with that, honestly. And I'm kind of embarrassed to say that now, but that is how I felt. I used to think that I work harder than other people. So, like, I deserve more.

(07:54)

I deserve to make more money or have more benefits, whatever. But now having the experiences that I have had and interacting with the patients that I've had the pleasure to meet and understand and learn about, my perspective has completely changed. And I really, genuinely believe that each life holds equal value. And we got to start making decisions that demonstrate that. I told you I was in my feelings.

(08:27)

So now I will get off my soapbox and I'll start talking about what this episode is supposed to be about. If anything that I said resonated with you. I see you. I feel you reach out to me. Would love to hear from you.

(08:43)

Okay, moving on. This week, there was a leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States saying that they would strike down Rovers Wade. How amazing, right? Let's just take away all reproductive rights so that we can control women and make them our bitch. Okay, that was not appropriate, but that is exactly how I feel about it.

(09:09)

So here we go. I had the opportunity during my fourth year of medical school to participate in away elective that was actually virtual because COVID good times. And so I did a family planning elective. And basically, family planning encompasses, like, contraception, abortion, just all reproductive rights, healthcare. And in medical school, we really did not receive any of that education.

(09:41)

And at that time, I was planning on going into OB GYN. So for me, I was not completely sure that my residency would provide a comprehensive training in those topics. And so me being the planner that I am, I was like, okay, I'm going to try and see if I can get some of this knowledge now under my belt so I can provide this education to my patients and just have a greater knowledge base on this stuff because it's important. It's a part of healthcare. With that.

(10:19)

At the end of my elective, which was one month long, I had to do a presentation at the end. And it just so happens that my presentation was about the history of abortion in America, like a brief history, and then how COVID-19 impacted abortion and how some States actually took advantage of the pandemic to restrict abortion because they just like to control women like that. And I thought that this would be a very appropriate time for me to give, like, a quick little rundown of what I talked about in my presentation. And I didn't know any of this stuff until I researched it. And so hopefully you learned something today.

(11:05)

I don't know. I'll try to make it as fun as possible. But here we are. Okay. Taking you back to 1873 through 1973.

(11:17)

So 100 years. And this is known as the century of criminalization. So at this time, abortion was super unregulated. And actually in the mid to late 19th century, the AMA, which is the American Medical Association, led a campaign to criminalize abortion, which is nuts to think about now. And there were a lot, a lot of illegal abortions occurring in homes and alleys.

(11:43)

So, like, lots of maternal deaths, maternal as mother for those of you who aren't medical. And there were abortion providers, but they were of varying skill levels. So some are really good, some are really bad. So there's just a lot of maternal death and maternal injury. So no Bueno.

(12:03)

So now we are in 1973, and this is when Roe versus Wade is passed. Immediately after this has passed, there's an antiabortion movement that's sprung up and people are in the courts, in the streets. So Congress responds and they're like, hey, we're passing this thing called the Church amendment. And this amendment basically says that no doctor can be coerced into performing an abortion. And there were a lot of social movements at this time and a lot of actions from anti abortion groups which led to the Hide amendment.

(12:40)

Hyde amendment was passed in, and it's named Hyde after a strong antiabortion congressman. This amendment made it so that Medicaid funds could not be used for abortion. And at this time, it became very clear to the general public in the American population that this area of medicine, this area of healthcare, was going to be highly regulated by Congress and other elected officials. In 1980, fast forward four years. Ronald Reagan was elected to presidency.

(13:19)

And at this time, abortion sort of became like a litmus test for key government positions as an opposition to abortion became a nonnegotiable issue for the Republican Party. This was in this was the beginning of large changes that we now see today in American politics. It was at this time that the Republican Party became more interested in reproductive oppression as a means of control. Fast forward another ten years. Now we're in the 1990s.

(13:52)

And why just be anti abortion? Why don't we also become anti contraception? Right. Totally makes sense. That was sarcasm if you couldn't tell.

(14:03)

So opposition to abortion began to mean opposition to contraception as well. Previously, contraception was common ground, but it was reasoned that if you use contraception, you were the type of person who would get an abortion if your contraception failed. Right. This mindset began to escalate into emergency contraception as a form of abortion, which it's not. This then led to the idea essentially that all contraception essentially is seen as an abortion.

(14:35)

During this time period, some pharmacists actually began refusing to fill contraceptive prescriptions. In 1993, we have the murder of a doctor, Dr. David Gunn. This was the first of eight physicians in the abortion providing community in the United States to be murdered. A doctor was murdered for providing abortions.

(15:02)

This is another huge reason why I'm pursuing family medicine instead of OBGYN, because I know myself and I know that I would get too involved and I would put my life in danger. So we're just going to swerve that.

(15:18)

So that was in the Face Act was passed by Congress, which stands for Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. This made it a federal crime to attempt to prevent people from accessing abortion clinics. How ridiculous that this even had to be passed. This was very helpful for these clinics to decrease the amount and actions of protesters outside of the building. So, like, you're literally trying to get inside a building to go to your doctor's appointment and there are people doing anything that they can to prevent you from getting inside that building.

(15:58)

Are we kidding? So the Face Act was passed in 1995. The ACGME, which is like the American College of Graduate Medical Education. Oh, wow. I actually got that right.

(16:10)

Okay. That is what it stands for. They pass guidelines requiring abortion training for OB GYN residents. But of course, Congress tried to interfere by passing the Coates amendment. So the graduate medical education people are like, OK, abortion is a part of healthcare OBGYN.

(16:30)

You guys got to put this in your training. It's a requirement to be trained in this. And then people are like, oh, wait, hold up the Codes amendment. We don't want to lose federal funding just because we don't train our OB GYN residents in abortion. So this States that residency programs will be accredited even if they fail to comply with these new abortion training accreditation requirements, essentially protecting residency programs without abortion training from loss of federal funding.

(17:03)

Crazy, right?

(17:07)

In 2007, now we have Gonzalez versus Carhartt. This is the last thing, last history thing. So just bear with me for a second. In this case, the Supreme Court upheld a congressional ban of an abortion technique, which is called a D and E. This was seen as a very, very symbolic case because this was the first and only time Congress has actually banned a particular medical technique.

(17:36)

This was a very serious blow to the abortion providing community. And this demonstrated that Congress was willing to supersede the medical judgment of doctors. Congress did not go to medical school. They are not doctors, but now they are making decisions about healthcare instead of doctors. I'm sorry, what?

(18:01)

Okay, so now we're moving on to how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted abortion access. So as different States responded to the pandemic, reproductive healthcare was unfortunately affected in many ways. As States responded to the pandemic, there was a lot of impact on reproductive health care. Governors issued different orders to protect access to healthcare, preserve all the protective equipment, and reduce exposure to and transmission of the virus. This is the list of States that decided to somehow ban something about abortion during that time.

(18:42)

Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, Alaska, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama, Utah, Kentucky, and Louisiana. I'm not going to go into detail about each state because that would literally just bore you to death. But moral of the story is a lot of the reasoning behind these bands were PPE conservation. They were trying to protect or preserve this extremely precious protective equipment for health care workers and to make space for a potential flood of patients. And the other reason was that they deemed abortions are non essential care.

(19:30)

The reality of these restrictions where that bands would actually lead to a higher usage of PPE because a lot of the executive orders that were put in place by the States, we're creating these new procedures and guidelines that were asking providers to consume and use PPE in a way that was already deemed not necessary and not the standard of practice. So instead they ended up actually wasting an excessive amount of PPE. I hope that made sense. Basically, a lot of the States were saying you need to have a negative COVID test before you can get an abortion, you need to do this. So increasing the amount of appointments that these patients would have to come to and so actually in the end they would be wasting more PPE.

(20:19)

So that argument just didn't really end up making sense. These restrictions also resulted in patients traveling much further to receive care as they were desperate and some were traveling without even being sure that they would receive care. So this means that they're not only exposing themselves to more areas of the country, but they're also exposing other people in order to obtain healthcare. So making the virus spread more basically. And in reality, abortion care requires little to no PPE, and it is an essential form of health care.

(20:59)

Abortion is time sensitive and it's medically necessary. Even just a few days can make a difference in what options are available, and even if the option is available at all, depending on which state you reside in. This is a quote from the New England Journal of Medicine. There is no debate that a minority of abortions are necessary to prevent death or serious physical harm, but the strictly medical model fails to capture the reality that the nonmedical reasons that women exercise their constitutional right to abortion are often as important to them and their families as averting a serious health consequence. The longstanding insistence on using the word elective to describe the vast majority of abortions frames women's equality as a luxury and woman's autonomy as expendable.

(21:53)

Categorizing abortions as elective or therapeutic is more of moral judgment than medical judgment, and it allows people who use those terms to determine a woman's level of deserving this on the basis of her reason for choosing to pursue an abortion. I thought that those quotes were very powerful and so hopefully they resonate with you. On the bright side, these restrictions were not in place for too long of a period of time I think no more than one month because there are so many people who work so hard to advocate for reproductive rights that they were on top of this and they were really fighting back which is amazing applaud them. There were a lot of lawsuits. Basically, people are just willing to do whatever it takes and willing to take advantage of any situation including a pandemic to strip woman of these rights.

(22:51)

So I think it's important to know about this stuff because it's a reality and I wouldn't have known about any of this had I not done my elective. So hopefully you found this information today. I don't know, eye opening a little bit. Sorry for being such a Downer today, Jeez I feel like everything was so negative and sad and so I apologize for that. We got to talk about this stuff, though, right?

(23:17)

So here we are. Thank you so much for taking the time today to hang out with me and listen to this episode. I would love to hear if you have any feedback transcripts are available on my website emotionalmillennial.com and would love if you emailed me theemotional millennial@gmail.com that's theemotional millennial@gmail.com. You are amazing. Thank you and have a great rest of your day.

(23:44)

Bye.