Posts Tagged ‘Patricia Meisol’
Pro-Choice? Would You Perform an Abortion?
The Washington Post Magazine published an excellent piece yesterday about one practical barrier to fulfilling a woman’s Roe v. Wade right: Finding doctors who will perform the practice. The piece, by Patricia Meisol, focuses on pro-choice medical student Lesley Wojick’s struggle to make her own choice—whether or not to become an abortion provider.
The choice, Meisol writes, is a complicated one, dependent on a student’s morals, passions, aptitude, and drive. Students interested in performing abortions explore the possibility “largely on their own,” Meisol writes. Without the help of their medical schools, these students seek out mentors, fight the stigma of wanting to become “baby killers,” use abortion tools to gut papayas like wombs. Wojick’s big test, Meisol writes, is sitting in on an actual abortion procedure.
The next morning, Lesley arrived at 7:30. The woman with the red heels asked for a printout of her ultrasound and wanted to know the sex of the 14-week-old fetus. It couldn’t be determined. . . . This time, the procedure took 10 minutes instead of five. The dilator was bigger; there was more tissue to remove; and the patient, although sedated, was awake and moving with discomfort. Lesley watched as the doctor counted the parts of the fetus, and, to her surprise, she didn’t find it jarring. To her, the parts appeared doll-like.
