My Massachusetts Abortion Story

 

Abortion is Healthcare Last session, the Massachusetts Legislature codified a right to have an abortion in the Commonwealth. We are fortunately in a much better place than many other states which have severely restricted the right to choose.    Yet we have a long way to go before we truly do right by abortion patients.    In May 2012, just days before I began as a summer intern at Mass-Care, I had an abortion at Women's Health Services in Boston. WHS is the state's third-busiest abortion provider, and one that serves primarily uninsured, poorly-insured, and low-income women.     My feelings about the pregnancy were irrelevant, because I was uninsured and unemployed - compounding factors that together made the choice overwhelming. In a private health insurance system, reproductive freedom - including the decision to have children as well as the decision to not have children - is a privilege rather than a right.     I chose to go to this clinic because they offered an affordable rate for the uninsured: $600 for an abortion between 8 and 12 weeks. It's still a lot of money for someone without a job, but nothing compared to the (up to) $6,000 out-of-pocket rate for the procedure at a hospital, which are set up to serve primarily the insured.    In 2020, WHS faced bankruptcy - precisely because it provides subsidized services to women who do not have insurance that covers abortion. The clinic's medical director set up an emergency GoFundMe, which has still yet to meet its goal.    In our for-profit healthcare system here in Massachusetts, providers are paid by how profitable they are - not according to the need they serve. So while safety-net hospitals and providers like WHS struggle to stay afloat, Mass General Brigham and other hospital chains are raking in more and more for areas of profitable care that don't necessarily reflect the patient needs of the community.    The likely downfall of Roe will further jeopardize access to abortion in states across the country, and we'll fight in solidarity - through giving to abortion funds, lobbying and grassroots pressure, and by finding other forms of resistance.    But we can't turn away from our own inequalities right here in Massachusetts, where our fractured healthcare system puts both abortion patients and abortion providers at risk. Women's Health Services, which turns no patient away for inability to pay, should be fully-funded publicly so it can focus on its mission rather than fundraising - or begging online through GoFundMe.  GIVE TO WHS Some red states will invoke a misogynistic ideology to force abortion clinics to close; but while our legislators here in Massachusetts talk a big game about protecting access, they have allowed our market-driven healthcare system to threaten the clinics which provide that access. That's also a policy choice.    We can do better by passing Medicare for All here in Massachusetts. Our bill funds abortion, maternal care, and all reproductive healthcare without any co-pays or cost sharing of any kind, so that the clinics that provide abortions - and thus those who need an abortion - are truly protected.  GIVE TO MASS-CARE I'm livid and also scared about what happens in a post-Roe world. All I know is that we have to keep the bar high - abortion for all, healthcare for all - so that we never lose sight of our rights and the world that we're fighting for.    In solidarity,    Stephanie Nakajima Executive Director Mass-Care The Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare Twitter Donate Mass-Care is a grassroots organization that fights to end the health insurance crisis by educating and advocating for improved Medicare-for-All legislation in Massachusetts. 1534 Tremont St. Boston, MA 02120 United States