Summer 2025 Essay Contest
Honorable Mention 鈥� Medical Student Category
Abortion Is a Decision You Make Out of Love
Essay written by Erin Silliman听
She already had two children. She and her partner had never expected to become pregnant again, and they couldn鈥檛 afford another baby. When I met her during my women鈥檚 health elective rotation for her D&E consultation, she was already tearful. Not because she doubted her decision, but because she was drowning in guilt. Her community had raised her to believe this choice meant shame. That it made her selfish, immoral. But what I witnessed in that exam room couldn鈥檛 have been further from that narrative.
She asked the provider, 鈥淎re we making the right decision?鈥�
The doctor didn鈥檛 flinch. Instead, she said something that has stayed with me ever since:
鈥淎bortion is a decision you make out of love.鈥�
She told the patient that this procedure wasn鈥檛 a failure of motherhood, it was an act of it.
Choosing not to carry this pregnancy was a decision rooted in care for her existing children, for her family鈥檚 stability, and for her own well-being.
The patient exhaled. A truth had been spoken aloud.
In that moment, I understood something that all the modules, workshops, and policy memos hadn鈥檛 been able to teach me:
how powerful it is when a physician affirms someone鈥檚 humanity in the face of systemic judgment.
This was all unfolding post-Dobbs. The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has disrupted not only our access to care but also the very trust between patients and their providers. Though abortion was still legal in Washington state, I could feel the anxiety present in each room of the free-standing abortion clinic. Patients were crossing state and international borders to get to this clinic. My own classmates weighed whether it was safe, or even possible, to train in certain states.
Dobbs changed where I鈥檒l apply for residency. It鈥檚 changed the questions I will ask programs during interviews. And it鈥檚 made one thing very clear: I鈥檓 not just choosing a specialty, I鈥檓 choosing whether I鈥檒l be free to care for patients without fear, surveillance, or political interference.
As a future OB/GYN, I want to practice medicine in a way that resists stigma and centers the patient. I believe in informed, autonomous decision-making, not just in abortion care, but in all aspects of healthcare. Dobbs tried to redefine whose decisions matter. But in every clinic room, we have the power to help patients reclaim that right. One conversation, one act of love, at a time.
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