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We foster an environment that is based on staff treating patients as family. We treat people with an assumption that they know themselves best and can be trusted to choose what is right for their lives.
Although I don’t work in a clinic daily anymore, recently I returned because one of my patients came back for her 15th abortion. I was adamant about being there for her. She and I talked at great length about her life, our clinic, and our staff. She knows all our names and is disturbed if she thinks one of us left or isn’t there when she comes in.
When I started working in abortion care, I had to learn when to review a patient’s health history with a physician. I remember being taught about the potential effect on a cervix due to multiple pregnancies. Sometimes the number of abortions was interesting to a doctor, but other times they were more concerned about number of full terms.
We have a dedicated call center for all five of our clinics, and call volume is huge. In fact, we break records with our phone company. The phone staff is trained to ask about previous reproductive experiences, and multiple abortions, of course, come up. The staff are trained to fight any stigma.
The staff also will challenge stigma if a call comes from a referring physician and the physician suggests stigma or judgment about treatment numbers. We want everyone to know that we respect our patients for making the best choices for themselves as they manage their reproductive lives.
In Pennsylvania, we get push-back from the state related to regulations that require abortion statistic reporting. We are forced to tell to the Department of Health the number of abortions a patient reports, their age, ethnicity, highest grade in school etc.
For a long stretch of time, the state worker receiving these reports would send them back to us if a patient had more abortions than seemed appropriate by the state worker. This required us to locate the records and dutifully respond, confirming the number. It was a ridiculous exercise in needless bureaucracy, and eventually the state worker stopped questioning these reports.
I have a million more stories about how we support people returning to us for care. And when we get on-line reviews, I personally respond and almost always make it a point to say, “Please call us again if you need any further care.”
~Amanda Kifferly, The Women’s Centers
@NikkiMiles