Dr. Fredrik Broekhuizen, a recently retired board member of Physicians for Reproductive Health, and a lifelong abortion provider, advocate and teacher, passed away on Saturday.
In memory of Dr. Broekhuizen’s life and work, Chair of the Board of Directors of Physicians for Reproductive Health, Dr. Willie Parker and President of Physicians, Jodi Magee, issued the following statement:
“Physicians for Reproductive Health mourns the loss of our former board member Dr. Fredrik (Frits) Broekhuizen. Dr. Broekhuizen was a strong voice for Midwest abortion activists and a lifelong advocate for women’s autonomous decision-making both domestically and internationally. He was inspired to be an abortion provider and advocate in the 1970s, when he practiced medicine in a rural community hospital in Ethiopia and witnessed the devastating impact on patients when abortion is illegal. His lifelong interest in global health would also lead him to serve as a consultant to international organizations working to improve women’s health, including the World Health Organization.
“As the Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, and throughout the past 30 years as a women’s health care provider and a teacher of the next generation of doctors at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, Dr. Broekhuizen was a tireless spokesman for his patients’ access to safe abortion care in a state that has been trying to chip away at this right.
“We are grateful for Frits’ friendship, his life’s work, and his invaluable contributions to Physicians for Reproductive Health, where he served on the Executive Committee for the past four years. His dedication to our mission was evident throughout his service on the Board of Directors over the last seven years of his life, a role he tackled with energy and enthusiasm even through multiple illnesses. By watching Frits work, we had a front row seat to a life lived with grace and vitality under the threat of illness. One of our colleagues called him a gentle man and a gentleman. Another expressed missing his clear moral thinking and wry smile. Both of these are perfect pictures of the man we knew.
Our sense of loss is great as is our gratitude to Frits for his constant good cheer and steady commitment to the work of Physicians in the face of enormous obstacles both political and, in recent years, personal. Our hearts go out to his wife Jill and his family.”