Planned Parenthood of New York City has some ideas about how best to observe National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day today.
You can “help change the overall climate from one where abortion providers are vilified and attacked to one where they are honored and upheld as the heroes they are” in a number of ways. One suggestion is to send a thank-you note to your local abortionist; another is to “send flowers to reproductive health centers near you.”
A former Planned Parenthood employee shares some thoughts about the day over at Talking Points Memo:
Today is a good day to thank an abortion provider. In 1996, March 10th was declared National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day. It’s one day, during Women’s History Month, for those of us who believe in a woman’s right to choose an abortion to give thanks to those make that choice a safe one. . . .
We have trained medical professionals who can and will perform safe abortions, but we aren’t letting them. Instead, we’re shaming them, and we’re shaming women. Never mind that one in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime. Never mind that it’s safer than childbirth. Never mind that there is nothing actually wrong with having an abortion. You still cannot get one in most places. Eighty-nine percent of U.S. counties do not have an abortion provider — a number that has risen in recent years and continues to do so.
Like any profession, abortion doctors are not homogeneously perfect. But the doctors I have met and worked with are all competent, and compassionate. They take pride in their work, and why not?
“Not homogenously perfect” is one way of putting it.