- This morning, the Supreme Court ruling dropped moments
before I walked into my first operating room
to provide abortion care here in California,
where the right to reproductive freedom is protected.
Um, I'm feeling very grateful to be in the state that I'm in,
but completely devastated for the communities
across the United States.
- The South is my home,
it's where I was born and raised,
where I've lived for most of my life,
and I am terrified for people in my community
who will likely no longer be able to access the care
that they need in our state.
- My heart goes out to all of the patients
who will be directly impacted by today's ruling,
especially patients that are already marginalized
in our health care system --
Black patients, Latinx patients, LGBTQ+ patients,
indigenous patients, low-socioeconomic patients --
I could go on.
I really could go on.
- This ruling is causing me to think
about all the patients who I saw this week,
um, who told me that they had to wait until pay day,
um, to access their abortion, and who now don't have access.
- At this time, I am angry.
I'm angry that the rights and the autonomy
for my patients have been stripped away from them.
But I'm also driven;
I'm driven to keep showing up for my patients
and to keep providing this care, and to keep fighting,
because this is our basic human right -- health care.
- I'm specifically thinking about a patient
sitting on labor and delivery right now
at 20 weeks along in her pregnancy
with a very highly desired pregnancy,
who is finding out information
about how poor the prognosis for her pregnancy is right now.
And luckily, because we're in Oregon,
I'll be able to take care of her no matter what her decision is,
and support her every step of the way.
And, yeah, feeling really lucky to be in Oregon,
and feeling really sad for the people
and my colleagues who are elsewhere in the country
who are gonna start seeing the effects of this immediately.
- Staff have come into the clinic,
and one of my staff said, "Oh, my God,
I need to get my tubes tied, 'cause I can't --
I don't know when our laws are gonna change in North Carolina,
and I'm -- even though I have good birth control,
I just can't be pregnant, and I'm afraid."
Another -- I heard another staff member say, "Oh, my God,
I really need to make sure I take my birth control,"
um, I think there's just this heaviness here.
- We are anticipating that more patients
will be traveling to Pennsylvania now
that the SCOTUS decision is finalized.
Um, the staff, um, the compassionate nurses
and assistants and administrative folks
that I work with, uh, everyone's heartbroken today;
everybody's outraged today.
But we'll keep fighting.
- You know, I am lucky enough to be in a state
where abortion access is protected,
and I know that means that the reality of abortion
isn't going to change hugely for my patients,
but it does mean that I'm gonna be seeing patients,
um, from other states --
every single state that borders Illinois
is poised to already restrict
or severely limit access to abortion,
and that means those patients are gonna be coming
to seek care with us here in Illinois.
- It's difficult to know that this is
where we are in this country in 2022.
Where over 50 years of precedent seems meaningless --
although we know it's not.
- This is a devastating ruling for half of the nation,
and it highlights the inequities in our government
and in health care,
but we will remain steadfast in our commitment
to take care of people
and their bodies in their time of need.