Name: Libi
Social Justice Group: Abortion Rights and Access
Date of Fieldwork: January 27, 2022
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Dr. Yael Goverover, Professor of Occupational Therapy at NYU
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :
On January 27th, our group had the honor of interviewing my mother, Dr. Yael Goverover. Yael is a professor of occupational therapy at NYU. When she was 27, she had an abortion. There is not much I can say about the details of her abortion, because it is private information that she would prefer we didn’t share.
Although we can’t share most details about her abortion, Yael has given us permission to share some things. We learned that after her abortion, she rested at home for one or two days, and then went back to work and her daily life. she claimed that in her opinion, when the abortion is done in a medical place, its usually safe. We also learned that it was kind of difficult for her to schedule an abortion because of the restricting laws in her home country of Israel. She needed to go through a committee that was composed of few professionals (social worker, medical person and a religious person, like a rabbi). She says she believes this process is similar to the process in the USA. It is not something you can just decide you want to do on a whim like a plastic surgery for example.
It is interesting because it seems that in other places around the world people may face similar questions, dilemmas and issues. Some of the questions raised during the interview were: “Should a woman choose to do abortion and are we selfish in doing it?”; Should a person be aloud to have an abortion just because they believe they cannot support and raise a kid, or can it be supported only under a special circumstances?” We learned that a choice a person makes can alter their life for better or for worse. For Dr. Goverover it turned her life for the best in her view. She believes that only the person who faces such a dilemma can make this decision whether it will be to have or to lose the fetus because they are the ones who will carry and live with the consequences of their decision, and they are the ones who can evaluate their life at the moment. No one else can do it for them. She argues that a person should have their own choice, and that it’s not a political or religious choice but a personal choice. She said that it is important to let the woman and only the woman make the decision, because in the end, the main consequences of living with the child will be hers. She said “if I wouldn’t choose to make this abortion, I wouldn’t be able to go to back to school, and I would not be here today. I do not know if i would be happier or not, I just know I feel lucky I was able to choose for myself. I belive my life are better with this choice.”
