"I remind them that life happens and to be good to themselves, extend themselves some grace."

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I have been fortunate to have many patients come back for multiple abortions at Desert Star Family Planning. It is a testament to us being truly a judgement free zone, as they have a few other options in Phoenix.

I have heard terrible stories about patients being judged for return abortions at other clinics and it's shameful.

We treat every patient with dignity and make them feel exceptionally cared for. We are honored that they trust us with their care.

I do sometimes bring it up, even if the patient doesn't mention it, if they give me a sheepish look, or their affect is off. I remind them that having more than one abortion does not impact their health or future fertility.

I remind them that abortion is safer than child birth. I remind them that life happens and to be good to themselves, extend themselves some grace.

I remind them that the only 100% way to not get pregnant is to not have sex and that wouldn't be a very fun life! That usually makes them laugh.

I remind them that we have a long reproductive life and if they weren't doing anything right, they'd be pregnant all the time. That usually gets a smile.

~ DeShawn Taylor, MD

May 18 "I remind them that life happens and to be good to themselves, extend themselves some grace."

May 18 "When I was working on a state Medicaid dataset, I once came across an individual in the dataset who had had 7 abortions in the span of 2 years."

May 18 "Twenty years ago, a 17-year-old girl died of a septic abortion. She had an abortion at 15 with us, then got pregnant again."