Reproductive Rights and Health Care Professionals
A new Texas law called the "Heartbeat Act" went into effect on September 1, 2021, that effectively bans abortion after six weeks and enables anyone to sue a healthcare professional for at least $10,000 for providing illegal abortions past the six-week pregnancy mark (Pruitt-Young 2021). This law forces doctors to choose between the health of their patients and the law. Political policies limiting abortion access have been linked to harassment against health care professionals who provide abortions, with a spike of these threats witnessed in 2019. However, threats against and prosecution of doctors who give abortions are not a new occurrence. Dr. Edgar Keemer and the "the Mare who destroys mercifully" serve as only two examples of violence enacted against abortion providers during the second half of the 20th century.
"the Mare who destroys mercifully" comes from "This is an emergency!" a reproductive rights and gender portfolio curated by Meredith Stern. This piece was created by Erin and Laura Rosenthal (justseeds.org). A large part of this image aims to show gratitude to those who have and continue to ensure abortions are safe and accessible for all people and remembers several of the health care workers who were murdered because of this cause. To do this, the artists wrote "We give Thanks and We Remember those the Protectors who Honor our Right to Choose" and placed the names of eight people who were murdered because of their involvement in providing abortions in small print along with the words. Twenty years after Roe V. Wade was passed, a series of anti-abortion-driven attacks were issued on healthcare workers around the U.S. These attacks began on March 10, 1993, when Dr. David Gunn was murdered outside his clinic in Pensacola, Florida. The second attack was against Dr. John Bayard Britton on July 29, 1994, when he was arriving at his clinic in Pensacola. This attack led to the doctor's death and the death of James H. Barrett, his bodyguard. Leanne Nichols and Shannon Lowney, two Planned Parenthood receptionists, were both victims of the Brookline Clinic Shooting on December 31, 1994. Officer Robert Sanderson, a security guard, was killed in the Birmingham Abortion Clinic Bombing on January 29, 1998. Later in the year, Dr. Barnett Slepian, an abortion provider in New York, was murdered in his home. The last name that appears on the poster is Dr. George Tiller, who "was one of the few abortion providers in the country willing to perform the procedure late in pregnancy" (19thnews.org). On May 31, 2009, Tiller was shot at his church's Sunday morning service (19thnews.org). Health care professionals who provide abortions are not only harassed by anti-abortionists; in some cases, they can also be prosecuted for their practices, as seen with Dr. Edgar Keemer.
"Abortion Pioneer Reflects on Years of Abuse, Shame" is a newspaper article and interview with Dr. Edgar Keemer published by the Detroit Free Press in May of 1973. Dr. Keemer was a trailblazer for Reproductive Justice and Civil Rights, marching with Martin Luth King, Jr. and providing over 30,000 illegal abortions for Black and low-income women (Reproductive Health Acess Project 2018). While Keemer had been accused of providing abortions because he was money-hungry, he saw an extreme disparity between who was able to receive an abortion and who was not. In his interview, Keemer pointed out, "Termination (of pregnancy) is available and has been available for decades for those who have money...The poor woman was always turned down" (Betty DeRamus 1973). Hospitals disguised illegal abortions under the name "therapeutic abortions," which were exclusively available for people with money. Determined to fix this inequality, Kemmer became one of the only doctors in Detroit to provide abortions for welfare recipients and Medicaid cardholders. As a result of his illegal practices, Keemer was subject to several police raids and jailed for fourteen months for providing non-therapeutic abortions. While Keemer was condemned for providing illegal abortions, he was a true pioneer in the movement for reproductive justice. It is important to recognize the allyship and bravery of health care professionals across the world who put themselves at risk for the sake of reproductive freedom. We also must acknowledge the countless other people whose stories are not told and who have died or had violence inflicted on them because they sought an abortion.