Meet a Doctor Who Provides Abortion Services BECAUSE of His Christian Faith

[Liberal_in_LA]

What kind of person becomes a full-time abortion provider, traveling across state lines to end unhealthy or unwanted pregnancy despite screaming protesters threatening death and damnation? Whatever image you may have in mind, Dr. Willie Parker probably doesn’t fit it.

Parker is a bald, athletically built African American whose soft-spoken presence contrasts his size. A committed Christian, Parker says he provides abortion care not in spite of his faith but because of it. When filmmaker Dawn Porter met Parker, she was inspired to spend the next phase of her life making the documentary Trapped, which focuses on the challenges faced by abortion providers—and Parker in particular—in the Deep South. Parker was “so open and thoughtful in talking about the work and about the whole political climate that it got me thinking about the intersection of politics, abortion and power. So I asked if I could follow him,” Porter says.

Trained as an ob-gyn, Parker did not perform abortions during his first 12 years of medical practice. But over and over he witnessed the suffering of low-income women, especially black women, forced to bear children when their own instincts told them that the time and circumstances weren’t right. Finally, Parker asked himself, If not me, then who? And so began the work Esquire magazine called The Abortion Ministry of Dr. Willie Parker.

http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/abortion-spiritual-ministry-interview-christian-doctor-willie-parker

[scioto99]

1. I really respect this guy.

I know how to do abortions. And I used to say (when younger and bolder) that if abortion is ever made illegal, I'll go into the business of doing them in my kitchen as safely as I can, and if I'm caught I'll be proud to tell my kids: mom's going to prison for what she believes in.

tbh - I don't know if I still have the guts.


But I'll tell you about another Christian guy. He was American. After training, he spent maybe 30 years as an OB-GYN in an African country - I think DRCongo - mostly repairing the damage done to women by childbirth. There's a whole hospital for just that: repair of vesico-vaginal fistula (hole from bladder to vagina; urine drips ceaselessly; the women stink and are cast out.)

Had a slideshow of women, downcast and dirty, before their fistula repairs... and then later, smiling and bright and healed. He was a white guy who wanted to do Jesus-work by being a doctor, not by proselytizing. He raised his kids in that country. He used to say, "The neat thing about kids is, they don't notice "poor." They don't judge. They just see people."

He taught that we should all be, "like candles in the darkness" because a small light travels a long way in the night.

So: when it comes to Christians, sometimes their God makes em do great stuff. And sometimes their God makes em do terrible stuff.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. Regarding the fistula surgery.. an African doctor is doing it now.

[mountain grammy]

3. A real man of faith.. good story

that we see their pregnancy not as a personal and social failure but simply a biological reality. There is relief in no longer being pregnant but also relief in someone seeing that “I’m not a bad person.” Sometimes they tell us that they expected the doctor to be mean or harsh, and they are grateful.

It is, simply, a biological reality. Thank you, doctor!

[roguevalley]

4. read Numbers 5:11-33 and you will find out why any other position against is bunk

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. Fantastic article. Thank you so much for posting.

[Duppers]

6. Friend in Tennessee

Quietly does the same and he's very religious.

Good for Dr. Parker and the others llike him.

Thanks for posting this.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. Glad for folks like your friend

[smirkymonkey]

7. What a wonderful person!

It's so nice to hear a story of strength and hope in this climate of hostility toward women and their reproductive rights.

[dembotoz]

8. hope he wears kevlar

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. Yes. My thought also

[Lizzie Poppet]

11. Does he use his sonic screwdriver?

Oh, wait...I may have read that headline wrong.