When you think about abortion, what comes to mind? A woman’s right? The religious right? Feminists, or fetal photography, or fundamentalists? Do you see the color pink, as in Planned Parenthood, or the color red, as in anger and blood? If you worked in abortion care, the answer probably would be none of the above. Threats and stigma have forced abortion providers and clinic staff out of the public eye and out of public discourse about abortion, and that—according to providers themselves—is a problem. It is a problem because it has created a political dialogue that has very little overlap with the lived experience of women seeking abortion care and the women and men who serve them.

Even allies oversimplify by reducing the debate to “abortion on demand, without apology” vs. “safe, legal & rare”