Resisting Federal Overreach in the Exam Room and on the Streets of DC

"Long before the Trump administration deployed federal troops into our streets, long before the Supreme Court dismantled constitutional protections for abortion care in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, as a provider of abortion care in my hometown for decades, I witnessed the ways federal overreach denied my patients and my community the bodily autonomy and dignity that is our human right."

"Forty-nine years ago, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, blocking anyone who relies on federally funded health coverage from accessing abortion care. That includes people in the military, Indigenous communities using Indian Health Services, Peace Corps volunteers, federal employees, and anyone insured through Medicaid. Some states have resisted the prohibition on abortion care dictated by Hyde by using their own funds to support patients in accessing care."

"DC has always been a community that is committed to self-determination and is animated and sustained by its people and culture. But true self-determination remains out of reach because DC occupies the precarious position of not yet being a state. DC residents live with the reality of disenfranchisement and are denied, on a daily basis, the autonomy and self-determination afforded to other communities."

A physician with generational roots in the District trained in the District, became a board-certified ob-gyn, and specialized in complex contraception and abortion care to serve the local community. DC is culturally committed to self-determination but lacks statehood, causing resident disenfranchisement and daily denial of autonomy. Federal actions have restricted bodily autonomy long before recent events, including the Hyde Amendment, which blocks people relying on federally funded health coverage—military members, Indigenous patients using Indian Health Services, Peace Corps volunteers, federal employees, and Medicaid enrollees—from accessing abortion. Some states use local funds to cover abortions, but Congress’s control of DC’s budget and the Dornan Amendment bar DC from doing so, producing unequal access based on resources.

Read at The Nation