By Maya Dusenbery • @mayadusenbery • 10 years ago

Give thanks for abortion providers today

I heart my local abortion provider sign

Today is the annual National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers.

March 10th marks the anniversary of the day in 1993 when Dr. David Gunn was murdered by an anti-choice extremist. Since then, seven more providers have been killed and the day has become a time to honor all those people who take huge personal risks to make our reproductive rights a reality. In an age when being an abortion provider is harder than ever, due to always increasing anti-choice regulations, ongoing harassment and intimidation campaigns, and the stigma around the procedure–in the medical community and in the culture at large–thanking them is the least we can do.

So send an appreciation postcard through the 1 in 3 Campaign. And head over to ThinkProgress to hear from eight abortion providers about the challenges they face and what motivates their work. As one of them explains, “We’re just trying to take care of our patients.”

Maya DusenberyMaya Dusenbery is feeling very grateful to the doctor who performed her abortion. 

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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