How to keep fighting: from the OB-GYN who sued Wisconsin to overturn the 1849 abortion ban

And how Reckoning Action is making a difference

This week’s newsletter is written by our board member, Dr. Kristin Lyerly.

Most people know me from being the OB-GYN who successfully sued the state of Wisconsin to overturn the 1849 abortion ban.

But my fight for women’s rights didn’t start in a press conference or a courtroom. It started in the exam room.

As an OB-GYN, I spent years delivering babies and bad news – often on the same day. Even before the Dobbs decision that struck down the constitutional right to abortion, I witnessed patients denied basic healthcare because politicians thought they knew better than doctors. They didn’t then and they sure don’t now.

I supported women during some of the most vulnerable times of their lives. Many of my patients had been told to ignore their pain or had survived medical trauma or sexual abuse. My job was to help them advocate for themselves and feel safe in a world that often diminished and attacked them because everyone deserves compassion, respect, and support.

Over the years, what I was fighting for and against has remained constant. What fighting looks like keeps changing.

Despite how daunting our reality is, I keep finding new ways to fight. A few years ago, we overturned the abortion ban and successfully argued that women and their physicians should be writing policy about our bodies, not politicians. Now, as the new chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Council of District Chairs, I represent over 60,000 OB-GYNs across the country. Serving as a board member for Reckoning Action allows me another avenue to advocate for my patients and peers during a time when our existence is under attack. I’m so deeply proud to be a part of Reckoning and to support them as we support survivors fighting back against the machine driving abortion bans and targeting contraception access.

Reckoning Action fights back against the misogyny machine that infects every part of our lives. Join me in building a Reckoning by subscribing to their newsletter, Our Reckoning, today.

I know how to help patients. I know what they need and how to provide the services they’re seeking. But in many cases, my colleagues and I can’t provide the care we’re trained to give.

Harmful legislation from non-medical politicians has real consequences. They’re pushing women to have babies while telling them to ignore their pain, closing down rural hospitals and defunding Medicaid, criminalizing miscarriages and abortion, and refusing to pay for postpartum healthcare.

I won’t lie – the reality of reproductive care is really scary and really dangerous. The system is failing patients, and it’s failing women.

But groups like Reckoning Action are working on changing that.

Even though it’s daunting, it’s on us to stand up, push back, and change the reality.

I hope all of you join me in figuring out what fighting means to you, and finding a way to take back your power.

The world deserves to hear your voice.

Take a stand and join the Reckoning. Subscribe for free to support our work.

Thanks for reading and standing with us,

Dr. Kristin Lyerly

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