I had a patient come to me for abortion counseling. She knew she wanted an abortion, but she wanted to meet our team first. After chatting with her, I realized why she wanted this introductory visit: she was terrified.

She had had an illegal abortion as a young woman in South America. She had a year of complications following that abortion, likely from an untreated infection. She had severe pain and was unable to have sex for over a year. However, she could not seek treatment due to the clandestine nature of her procedure. She was lucky. She lived. She eventually recovered physically and would be able to have a healthy pregnancy when she was ready.

However, she was still suffering emotionally. In my office, she was terrified that the same thing would happen. She wanted to know how we would care for her and if the same thing would happen again. We talked for over an hour, and she was so grateful to be able to access care from our wonderful clinic. I was proud to provide her safe, compassionate abortion care.