Today, August 24, 2018, in partnership with the National Women’s Law Center, we celebrate the future of our world: our youth and adolescents. Like all people, young people deserve access to comprehensive, compassionate reproductive health care and sex-education.
Over the course of the next three days, join us in lifting up the stories of young people who sought reproductive health care and underwent vastly different journeys to receiving their care.
Jennifer is a 15-year-old Native American girl who lived on tribal land in the Western United States. She was seen by one of my colleagues for evaluation of a missed period. When Jennifer’s pregnancy test was found to be positive, my colleague started her on prenatal vitamins, did the initial prenatal work up, and then referred her to me to discuss her options for managing her pregnancy.
Jennifer was extremely bright and had great prospects in school. She was a star student in the community and a talented athlete. When she came to see me, she had made up her mind that she could not complete this pregnancy. She felt that she had no other options. Her dreams of college, let alone her dream school Stanford, would be shattered. Moreover, in her family and her community, even if she COULD go to school, it would be discouraged. Once a mother, she would be encouraged to stay at home. Go to community college. She wouldn’t or couldn’t think of raising her child off the land and away from her mother and grandmother.
As hard as this decision was for her, the path forward would be just as challenging. In the rural Southwest, access to abortion services are severely limited. Due to federal Hyde-like restrictions, no abortion services are available on any Native lands.
Jennifer’s other options:
Travel five hours to the state capitol where she would be required to make two visits, 24-hours apart. Her parents would need to be present or she would need permission from a judge.
Travel to the neighboring state that offers abortion without parental consent and is closer, but would require parental notification. The last option was another neighboring state. Here she could obtain an abortion at the initial visit and without parental consent or notification. But she would have to get there, and the drive was over six hours.
After speaking with her about the logistics, Jennifer felt that she could probably get her sister to take her to the neighboring state that didn’t require parental consent or notification. So I scheduled an appointment the following week.
Jennifer missed the appointment due to her ride falling through, so I made another… and another. In the end, she never made it, and as time grew short, she gave up and delivered a healthy baby boy.
I continued to care for her and her baby for another year before I moved on to another clinic.
