Lovering Center: Abortion is accessible on Seacoast, but for how long?
On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to have an abortion. This decision reverses almost 50 years of an individual’s right to make this healthcare decision for themselves. It will have an immediate and devastating impact on abortion access in many areas of our country.
While the right to an abortion is still legal in New Hampshire until 24 weeks, that right is very much under threat. We must act before this and other rights are lost entirely. For instance, the state of Mississippi, in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is challenging fundamental liberties of privacy. The threat to everyone’s autonomy, dignity and equality is real.
What Lovering Health Center is doing
The Lovering Health Center continues to offer abortion care safely and legally. We are also partnering with active providers and supporters across the state, including Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Equality Health Center, ACLU-NH, Reproductive Freedom Fund of New Hampshire, and others to educate our legislators at the state and federal level and galvanize support from the public.
More: Seacoast abortion rights rallies urge post-Roe action
We continue to deliver abortion care to people when they need it, on the timeline they choose, and in the community they trust.
We offer important services including contraceptive management, preventive screenings (Paps), sexually transmitted infection testing, treatment and prevention including PrEP for HIV prevention, and gender-affirming hormone therapy. Access to all of our services is available for cisgender, transgender and non-binary individuals. We do this while making sure that patient participation, choices and decision making are respected, which is integral to our model of care.
What you can do
● Donations of any amount make a huge difference in Lovering’s ability to provide healthcare to all people regardless of financial resources.
● Let your representatives at the State and Federal level know how you feel, even if their positions are like minded; they need to know you are proud of them for protecting our rights.
● Continue to vote for those who support personal decision making in all aspects of healthcare; volunteer for a campaign, talk to friends and family about who they are voting for and the consequences of that action.
● Be vocal and support the people that choose to have abortions, as well as the medical professionals that ensure abortion access. Talk openly about your own abortion experience and listen deeply to the stories of people you love.
● If you have the means, donate to organizations that are assisting those in States who have ended abortion rights fully. Their need for abortions has not disappeared, just their ability to get one.
Each of us should be able to live, work and make decisions about our health and our future with dignity and respect. Decisions about reproductive health care, including whether to have children, and when should be fundamental human rights.
The Joan G. Lovering Health Center Board of Directors includes Cynthia Bear, MD - chair; Mary Toumpas - vice chair; Katie Robart Bal - treasurer; Eleanor MacKenzie - secretary; Christie Davis, Adriane Appicelli, Mary Boisse, Stacey Smith and Erica de Vries.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Lovering Center: Abortion is accessible on Seacoast, but for how long?
