Meet the Christian, Formerly Anti-Abortion Doctor Who Now Performs Late-Term Abortions
The New Jersey Star-Ledger interviewed him recently, and the points he makes are an excellent reminder that the abortions happen in the real world— they’re not just some theoretical thing that whores and lazy sluts do for fun.
It may seem odd that he would have switched sides in the debate halfway through his 20 year career, but when asked why he changed his mind, Parker explains that it was seeing his patients face impossible situations. He says,
I saw the dilemmas that women found themselves in. And I could no longer weigh the life of a pre-viable or lethally flawed fetus equally with the life of the woman sitting before me.
Amen to that, but it’s worth remembering that Parker isn’t just talking to anti-abortion activists and lawmakers here, he’s also addressing those on the pro-choice side of things who have, in the course of debates over laws restricting access, opted to concede later-term abortions as a way of securing other kinds of access. He makes a valid point:
[C]onversations that feel like progress actually end up with restrictions in place on women in desperate circumstances. They don’t reduce unintended pregnancies, they don’t create more access to medically accurate sex education and modern forms of contraception — but they do result in restrictions and rules that push women to desperate measures.
While it’s obviously a messy process, and it would certainly be ideal if pro-choicers didn’t have to cede anything, it’s true that these decisions do have dire consequences for the people most in need. Of course, none of this would even be an issue if we all were able to look at the realities of abortion and allow access to the real people who need it to address real problems instead of writing incredibly restrictive laws that deal with a mythical land where everything is black and white. But until that changes, at least we have people like Dr. Parker who are willing to not only speak out for what they believe in but also take on great personal risk in order to give their patients the care they need.
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