Insight From an Abortion Provider

 

Name: Penelope Schab

Social Justice Group: Reproductive Rights/Abortion

Date of Fieldwork: January 20, 2023

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Jane Kaufman

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 20 my group interviewed Jane Kaufman about her experience as an abortion provider. For almost a decade she has been providing abortions to women in need, but has noticed a spike in requests since Dobbs was ruled.

Over zoom, my group and I talked with Jane Kaufman about the difference now that Roe has been overturned. Jane Kaufman told us about her experiences as a provider and a few stories about women in need. She told us two stories which really struck me.the first was that she once had to perform an abortion on an 11 year old girl, and the second was that she had to perform an abortion on a young woman who had come all the way from Texas, a state where it is illegal to get one. She also told us something really interesting that she noticed, which is that most people that come to get an abortion already have a child. When she came into this field of work she expected it to be more teenagers and people in college. These stories that she shared with us reflected the complicated complications people must go through when performing abortions or need one.
She shared with us the devastating impact that Dobbs had had on her and her co-workers. She had Covid-19 at the time that Dobbs was ruled, and when she got back to work everything was different. Everyday, she told us, pro-lifers stand outside of her work and terrorize her and her co-workers. She told us that everyone at that firm had to get security training to deal with the protesters.

Because of what she shared, my group and I were able to get a better picture of what it would be like to work at a job that is only legal in some parts of the country.