Health care services are only as lifesaving as people’s ability to access that care in an equitable fashion no matter their geography, identities, or life circumstances. The health care system functions like every other system in the United States: in a way that is designed to ensure access to a select few while barring others to the care they need.
Given the way that reproductive and sexual health care are treated differently than all other essential health care needs, inequities in access to care are even more severe. When compounded with the intentionally designed harms of abortion and gender affirming care restrictions, we know that Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, young people, transgender people, queer people, people with disabilities, immigrants, and people experiencing poverty are pushed further away from the care they need compared to their white, older, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, United States national, wealthy counterparts.
As physicians, we know that it is a critical part of our work to ensure that everyone, no matter who they are, accesses the care they need in a culturally competent, person-centered, trusting, and respectful manner.
The Outcomes We Seek
Access to Care, Not Criminalization Disrupting the cycle of surveillance, punishment, and carceral logic in the health care system.
Intersectionality In Practice Practicing health care can’t stop at abortion; from immigration justice to transgender justice to climate justice, we dream of a world where we’re all free.
Equitable Resources, Equitable Outcomes Advocating for person-centered solutions to health care that leads to everyone thriving.
Pregnant people faced criminal charges for conduct associated with their pregnancy in the year post Dobbs.
59%
Of pregnant people arrested or detained for their pregnancy outcomes were Black, Latina, Indigenous, or Asian.
66
Clinics that closed in 12 states where abortion is banned.
What we’re doing about it
Tragically, many people are surveilled and criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes because of a health care provider reporting them to the police. Health care providers play a critical role in the targeting of pregnant people by the state, and therefore play a critical role in ending this attack on people’s autonomy. We train providers on how to change policies, practices, and institutional culture to protect patients from criminalization instead of opening them up to harm.
Many important decisions are made by professional medical associations across specialties. We support physicians with diverse identities, lived experiences, and organizing backgrounds as they pursue leadership roles within these organizations to advocate for patient-centered solutions.
Reproductive Justice is a lens through which we can understand our entire lives. Accessing reproductive health care lives at the intersection of transgender justice, immigrant justice, racial equality, gender justice, LGBTQ justice, and transnational solidarity. We incorporate this into the way we talk about accessing health care in our communities, the policies we advocate for, and in how we understand the ripple effect of restrictions and bans.
“In this moment, physicians must not only advocate, but agitate. We must speak to health care issues and connect them to national and international policy decisions.”
