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Family Physician: Abortion care is health and primary care
I am aware of how intersecting social, economic, familial, and environmental factors influence what is best for patient’s lives, and I consider having this awareness to be part of being a family medicine physician.
People being able to make choices about their reproductive health and their reproductive futures without unnecessary and harmful barriers is a part of a person’s overall health that family medicine physicians should recognize and prioritize. Helping people achieve their reproductive health care goals includes helping patients access abortion care if that is the care that they decide that they need.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 2021 was “the worst year for abortion rights in almost half a century” as 108 abortion restrictions were enacted throughout the country. The most damaging restriction was introduced in Texas in the fall of 2021 called SB8, which has virtually stopped all abortion care in person for any person with a pregnancy greater than 6 weeks’ gestation. Now, in 2022 we are seeing several other states, including Idaho and Oklahoma, set to pass similar laws that will essentially halt most abortion care in the clinical setting in those states.
Abortion access had already been a problem in much of the country prior to 2021 because of burdensome and not medically necessary restrictions. Based on current political trends we are getting to a place where it is not hard to imagine that up to half of the states in this country will not allow their communities to access abortion care in the clinical setting at all in the very near future. This is not reproductive freedom, and I am outraged that people are being forced to travel hundreds of miles for their abortion care, forced to continue pregnancies that they don’t want, or forced to find other ways to obtain medication abortion pills.
While obtaining medication abortion pills online and managing the abortion process at home is safe and recognized as safe by the World Health Organization, no one should be forced to utilize a certain type of care based on their state of residence, in my opinion.
Providing evidence-based medicine to patients is ‘my duty’
Abortion care is health care and is primary care. One in four women will have an abortion by the age of 45, and we know that transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people also have abortions. That means on any given day as family medicine physicians we are likely taking care of more than one person who has had an abortion, will have an abortion, and/or is considering an abortion. Therefore, all family medicine physicians need to be prepared to counsel patients about all of their pregnancy options, answer questions about pregnancy and abortion, and help people get the compassionate care that they deserve.
Our patients turn to us as trusted sources of information. When they reach out to us, I consider providing evidence-based medicine to patients – that includes factual information about abortion care if and when our patients need it – to be my duty as a family medicine physician.
Resources on abortion care for family medicine physicians
For family medicine physicians who did not have adequate exposure to abortion care during residency, there are many evidence-based resources to review in order to become more knowledgeable in abortion care.
In many areas of medicine, we have to continue to learn and seek out references, and abortion care is no different. One could argue that understanding abortion care and providing patients with factual information about their options and abortion care is even more important because of stigma surrounding abortion care and the rampant lies about abortion care that are easily accessible and that even other medical professionals and politicians spread. There are even fake clinics, often called “crisis pregnancy centers”, that intimidate, lie about abortion, and coerce patients to make decisions that are against their desires. Thus, being that trusted source of factual information about abortion care is even more important in the face of so many lies.
There are several organizations that are dedicated to education surrounding abortion care, in particular within the primary care setting. The Reproductive Health Access Project (RHAP), Reproductive Health Education in Family Medicine (RHEDI), and Training in Early Abortion for Comprehensive Healthcare (TEACH) all provide free resources on abortion care, how to incorporate abortion care into primary care, and how to teach medical students and residents about abortion care.
In addition, the National Network of Abortion Funds connects people to community-led organizations that provide assistance related to direct financial and logistical support for obtaining abortion care. I believe it is critical that we familiarize ourselves with our local abortion funds and share what we learn about these resources with our patients.
As abortion access continues to be further stripped away from many people that we take care of, I think standing up for what is right and what is our duty as physicians becomes more important. That duty is to provide our patients with evidence-based medicine and compassionate care so that our communities can obtain reproductive health outcomes and freedom that are best for their lives.
Dr. Lockley is a family physician currently living in Harlem, N.Y., and a member of the editorial advisory board of Family Practice News. She currently works for Public Health Solutions’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Centers in Brooklyn, providing primary care and reproductive health care services there, and as an abortion provider throughout the New York region. She completed both medical school and residency in Philadelphia and then did a fellowship in reproductive health care and advocacy through the Family Health Center of Harlem and the Reproductive Health Access Project. She can be reached at fpnews@mdedge.com.
I am aware of how intersecting social, economic, familial, and environmental factors influence what is best for patient’s lives, and I consider having this awareness to be part of being a family medicine physician.
People being able to make choices about their reproductive health and their reproductive futures without unnecessary and harmful barriers is a part of a person’s overall health that family medicine physicians should recognize and prioritize. Helping people achieve their reproductive health care goals includes helping patients access abortion care if that is the care that they decide that they need.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 2021 was “the worst year for abortion rights in almost half a century” as 108 abortion restrictions were enacted throughout the country. The most damaging restriction was introduced in Texas in the fall of 2021 called SB8, which has virtually stopped all abortion care in person for any person with a pregnancy greater than 6 weeks’ gestation. Now, in 2022 we are seeing several other states, including Idaho and Oklahoma, set to pass similar laws that will essentially halt most abortion care in the clinical setting in those states.
Abortion access had already been a problem in much of the country prior to 2021 because of burdensome and not medically necessary restrictions. Based on current political trends we are getting to a place where it is not hard to imagine that up to half of the states in this country will not allow their communities to access abortion care in the clinical setting at all in the very near future. This is not reproductive freedom, and I am outraged that people are being forced to travel hundreds of miles for their abortion care, forced to continue pregnancies that they don’t want, or forced to find other ways to obtain medication abortion pills.
While obtaining medication abortion pills online and managing the abortion process at home is safe and recognized as safe by the World Health Organization, no one should be forced to utilize a certain type of care based on their state of residence, in my opinion.
Providing evidence-based medicine to patients is ‘my duty’
Abortion care is health care and is primary care. One in four women will have an abortion by the age of 45, and we know that transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people also have abortions. That means on any given day as family medicine physicians we are likely taking care of more than one person who has had an abortion, will have an abortion, and/or is considering an abortion. Therefore, all family medicine physicians need to be prepared to counsel patients about all of their pregnancy options, answer questions about pregnancy and abortion, and help people get the compassionate care that they deserve.
Our patients turn to us as trusted sources of information. When they reach out to us, I consider providing evidence-based medicine to patients – that includes factual information about abortion care if and when our patients need it – to be my duty as a family medicine physician.
Resources on abortion care for family medicine physicians
For family medicine physicians who did not have adequate exposure to abortion care during residency, there are many evidence-based resources to review in order to become more knowledgeable in abortion care.
In many areas of medicine, we have to continue to learn and seek out references, and abortion care is no different. One could argue that understanding abortion care and providing patients with factual information about their options and abortion care is even more important because of stigma surrounding abortion care and the rampant lies about abortion care that are easily accessible and that even other medical professionals and politicians spread. There are even fake clinics, often called “crisis pregnancy centers”, that intimidate, lie about abortion, and coerce patients to make decisions that are against their desires. Thus, being that trusted source of factual information about abortion care is even more important in the face of so many lies.
There are several organizations that are dedicated to education surrounding abortion care, in particular within the primary care setting. The Reproductive Health Access Project (RHAP), Reproductive Health Education in Family Medicine (RHEDI), and Training in Early Abortion for Comprehensive Healthcare (TEACH) all provide free resources on abortion care, how to incorporate abortion care into primary care, and how to teach medical students and residents about abortion care.
In addition, the National Network of Abortion Funds connects people to community-led organizations that provide assistance related to direct financial and logistical support for obtaining abortion care. I believe it is critical that we familiarize ourselves with our local abortion funds and share what we learn about these resources with our patients.
As abortion access continues to be further stripped away from many people that we take care of, I think standing up for what is right and what is our duty as physicians becomes more important. That duty is to provide our patients with evidence-based medicine and compassionate care so that our communities can obtain reproductive health outcomes and freedom that are best for their lives.
Dr. Lockley is a family physician currently living in Harlem, N.Y., and a member of the editorial advisory board of Family Practice News. She currently works for Public Health Solutions’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Centers in Brooklyn, providing primary care and reproductive health care services there, and as an abortion provider throughout the New York region. She completed both medical school and residency in Philadelphia and then did a fellowship in reproductive health care and advocacy through the Family Health Center of Harlem and the Reproductive Health Access Project. She can be reached at fpnews@mdedge.com.
I am aware of how intersecting social, economic, familial, and environmental factors influence what is best for patient’s lives, and I consider having this awareness to be part of being a family medicine physician.
People being able to make choices about their reproductive health and their reproductive futures without unnecessary and harmful barriers is a part of a person’s overall health that family medicine physicians should recognize and prioritize. Helping people achieve their reproductive health care goals includes helping patients access abortion care if that is the care that they decide that they need.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 2021 was “the worst year for abortion rights in almost half a century” as 108 abortion restrictions were enacted throughout the country. The most damaging restriction was introduced in Texas in the fall of 2021 called SB8, which has virtually stopped all abortion care in person for any person with a pregnancy greater than 6 weeks’ gestation. Now, in 2022 we are seeing several other states, including Idaho and Oklahoma, set to pass similar laws that will essentially halt most abortion care in the clinical setting in those states.
Abortion access had already been a problem in much of the country prior to 2021 because of burdensome and not medically necessary restrictions. Based on current political trends we are getting to a place where it is not hard to imagine that up to half of the states in this country will not allow their communities to access abortion care in the clinical setting at all in the very near future. This is not reproductive freedom, and I am outraged that people are being forced to travel hundreds of miles for their abortion care, forced to continue pregnancies that they don’t want, or forced to find other ways to obtain medication abortion pills.
While obtaining medication abortion pills online and managing the abortion process at home is safe and recognized as safe by the World Health Organization, no one should be forced to utilize a certain type of care based on their state of residence, in my opinion.
Providing evidence-based medicine to patients is ‘my duty’
Abortion care is health care and is primary care. One in four women will have an abortion by the age of 45, and we know that transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people also have abortions. That means on any given day as family medicine physicians we are likely taking care of more than one person who has had an abortion, will have an abortion, and/or is considering an abortion. Therefore, all family medicine physicians need to be prepared to counsel patients about all of their pregnancy options, answer questions about pregnancy and abortion, and help people get the compassionate care that they deserve.
Our patients turn to us as trusted sources of information. When they reach out to us, I consider providing evidence-based medicine to patients – that includes factual information about abortion care if and when our patients need it – to be my duty as a family medicine physician.
Resources on abortion care for family medicine physicians
For family medicine physicians who did not have adequate exposure to abortion care during residency, there are many evidence-based resources to review in order to become more knowledgeable in abortion care.
In many areas of medicine, we have to continue to learn and seek out references, and abortion care is no different. One could argue that understanding abortion care and providing patients with factual information about their options and abortion care is even more important because of stigma surrounding abortion care and the rampant lies about abortion care that are easily accessible and that even other medical professionals and politicians spread. There are even fake clinics, often called “crisis pregnancy centers”, that intimidate, lie about abortion, and coerce patients to make decisions that are against their desires. Thus, being that trusted source of factual information about abortion care is even more important in the face of so many lies.
There are several organizations that are dedicated to education surrounding abortion care, in particular within the primary care setting. The Reproductive Health Access Project (RHAP), Reproductive Health Education in Family Medicine (RHEDI), and Training in Early Abortion for Comprehensive Healthcare (TEACH) all provide free resources on abortion care, how to incorporate abortion care into primary care, and how to teach medical students and residents about abortion care.
In addition, the National Network of Abortion Funds connects people to community-led organizations that provide assistance related to direct financial and logistical support for obtaining abortion care. I believe it is critical that we familiarize ourselves with our local abortion funds and share what we learn about these resources with our patients.
As abortion access continues to be further stripped away from many people that we take care of, I think standing up for what is right and what is our duty as physicians becomes more important. That duty is to provide our patients with evidence-based medicine and compassionate care so that our communities can obtain reproductive health outcomes and freedom that are best for their lives.
Dr. Lockley is a family physician currently living in Harlem, N.Y., and a member of the editorial advisory board of Family Practice News. She currently works for Public Health Solutions’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Centers in Brooklyn, providing primary care and reproductive health care services there, and as an abortion provider throughout the New York region. She completed both medical school and residency in Philadelphia and then did a fellowship in reproductive health care and advocacy through the Family Health Center of Harlem and the Reproductive Health Access Project. She can be reached at fpnews@mdedge.com.
Early-in-career family physician shares hopes for future of specialty
I became interested in becoming a physician during my very last semester of college. I volunteered in a hospital psychiatric department in the unit that provided electroconvulsive therapy to patients with severe mental health diagnoses. Although this was about 15 years ago, I still vividly remember the curiosity I had walking around the hospital looking around at all the doctors and nurses and wanting to understand what their day-to-day life was like helping people to optimize their health.
Up until that time, thankfully my family and I had been relatively healthy, and, outside of routine checkups, my time spent in a hospital or clinic was limited. Therefore, those months of volunteering at the hospital were the longest periods of time I’d spent around physicians and other health care professionals really witnessing firsthand the science and the art of medicine.
During my time volunteering I saw one patient over the course of several weeks who was catatonic when I first met her, but by the end of several electroconvulsive therapy treatments she had a subtle smile on her face and we were able to have a conversation. She was a younger Black woman like myself and at that moment I knew that I wanted to become a physician and be involved in people’s lives in such a unique manner.
I worked for several years before applying to medical school. During that time two of my jobs involved doing home visits with children, young adults, and their families. I once again experienced the connection that one can make with someone and their family over a short period of time when you actively listen, understand what is important to them, and work together.
After several years of this work I got accepted into medical school and excitedly started the path to becoming a physician. While the learning curve was difficult, I genuinely enjoyed every block of medical school, including learning the anatomy, pathophysiology, and pharmacology. I could not wait to be in front of patients to use this newfound knowledge to help solve their health problems.
‘There is no such thing as a single issue-struggle’
As I started the third year of medical school and clinical rotations, I found joy in being in hospitals and clinics. I also came to recognize that understanding the pharmacology of why metformin helps improve the hemoglobin A1c in people with diabetes is not necessarily one of the keys to helping people optimize their health. I started to talk with patients and all sorts of questions would come to mind. Where did they grow up? What did they identify as their culture? What did they do in their day to day? Did they have a home and support at that home? Are they someone’s caretaker? What are their hopes for the future? And the list goes on.
I ultimately chose family medicine as a specialty because, as Audre Lorde said, “there is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives,” and family medicine allows one to look at the intersections of people’s lives and how they affect their health and well-being.
I currently practice as a family medicine physician in a setting in which I provide a lot of sexual and reproductive health care. I welcome patients of all ages and genders, and this care includes preconception counseling, contraceptive counseling, prenatal and postpartum care, STI testing and treatment, abortion care, and routine preventive care – just to name a few.
I decided to specialize in sexual and reproductive health care within family medicine because of the historic discrimination and inequitable treatment that is often experienced by young Black persons when they seek care for their sexual health and/or reproductive choices. In addition, there is often stigma within communities when it comes to talking about sex, bodies, and pleasure.
Recently, after a few minutes with a patient, she shared with me that she just completed nursing school and was studying for her exams. We talked about what type of jobs she was looking to apply for and where she wanted to work. I expressed to her that I was proud of the hard work she put in to complete nursing school and commiserated with her about the challenges in schooling and studying that it takes to start in the health care field. The conversation eventually found its way to talking about her sexual and reproductive health care. She shared with me that she was interested in having a child; however, at this time she put those plans on hold because she was scared about the racism within health care and the unacceptable high rates of maternal mortality among Black women in this country.
I listened and shared that as someone who also identifies as a Black woman, I have similar fears and anxieties surrounding my own reproductive health future. During the visit with this patient, I used my training in family medicine to better understand her physical and mental health needs and reassured her that I was going to partner with her through her health care journey.
Hope for the future of family medicine
As I work on a day-to-day basis I often think about my hopes for patients, as well as my hopes for medicine and the field of family medicine. My hope for the future of family medicine is that we can continue to make meaningful connections with patients to help them optimize their health and well-being.
I imagine a system in which we have the time and support to do this for all of our patients regardless of their immigration status, socioeconomic status, or any other historically excluded status. My hope for the future of family medicine is that I can write a prescription for a medication or physical therapy, and the patient is able to fill the prescription without having to worry about the financial implications of paying for it. My hope for the future of family medicine is that patients can seek out care without the fear of discrimination or racism through an increasingly diverse work force. My hope for the future of family medicine is that these improvements become a reality and that as physicians we can appreciate the connections we make with patients and the impact this has on their overall health and well-being.
Dr. Lockley is a family medicine physician currently living in Harlem, N.Y., and a member of the editorial advisory board of Family Practice News. She currently works for Public Health Solutions’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Centers in Brooklyn, providing primary care and reproductive health care services there, and as an abortion provider throughout the New York region. She completed both medical school and residency in Philadelphia and then did a fellowship in reproductive health care and advocacy through the Family Health Center of Harlem and the Reproductive Health Access Project. She can be reached at fpnews@mdedge.com.
I became interested in becoming a physician during my very last semester of college. I volunteered in a hospital psychiatric department in the unit that provided electroconvulsive therapy to patients with severe mental health diagnoses. Although this was about 15 years ago, I still vividly remember the curiosity I had walking around the hospital looking around at all the doctors and nurses and wanting to understand what their day-to-day life was like helping people to optimize their health.
Up until that time, thankfully my family and I had been relatively healthy, and, outside of routine checkups, my time spent in a hospital or clinic was limited. Therefore, those months of volunteering at the hospital were the longest periods of time I’d spent around physicians and other health care professionals really witnessing firsthand the science and the art of medicine.
During my time volunteering I saw one patient over the course of several weeks who was catatonic when I first met her, but by the end of several electroconvulsive therapy treatments she had a subtle smile on her face and we were able to have a conversation. She was a younger Black woman like myself and at that moment I knew that I wanted to become a physician and be involved in people’s lives in such a unique manner.
I worked for several years before applying to medical school. During that time two of my jobs involved doing home visits with children, young adults, and their families. I once again experienced the connection that one can make with someone and their family over a short period of time when you actively listen, understand what is important to them, and work together.
After several years of this work I got accepted into medical school and excitedly started the path to becoming a physician. While the learning curve was difficult, I genuinely enjoyed every block of medical school, including learning the anatomy, pathophysiology, and pharmacology. I could not wait to be in front of patients to use this newfound knowledge to help solve their health problems.
‘There is no such thing as a single issue-struggle’
As I started the third year of medical school and clinical rotations, I found joy in being in hospitals and clinics. I also came to recognize that understanding the pharmacology of why metformin helps improve the hemoglobin A1c in people with diabetes is not necessarily one of the keys to helping people optimize their health. I started to talk with patients and all sorts of questions would come to mind. Where did they grow up? What did they identify as their culture? What did they do in their day to day? Did they have a home and support at that home? Are they someone’s caretaker? What are their hopes for the future? And the list goes on.
I ultimately chose family medicine as a specialty because, as Audre Lorde said, “there is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives,” and family medicine allows one to look at the intersections of people’s lives and how they affect their health and well-being.
I currently practice as a family medicine physician in a setting in which I provide a lot of sexual and reproductive health care. I welcome patients of all ages and genders, and this care includes preconception counseling, contraceptive counseling, prenatal and postpartum care, STI testing and treatment, abortion care, and routine preventive care – just to name a few.
I decided to specialize in sexual and reproductive health care within family medicine because of the historic discrimination and inequitable treatment that is often experienced by young Black persons when they seek care for their sexual health and/or reproductive choices. In addition, there is often stigma within communities when it comes to talking about sex, bodies, and pleasure.
Recently, after a few minutes with a patient, she shared with me that she just completed nursing school and was studying for her exams. We talked about what type of jobs she was looking to apply for and where she wanted to work. I expressed to her that I was proud of the hard work she put in to complete nursing school and commiserated with her about the challenges in schooling and studying that it takes to start in the health care field. The conversation eventually found its way to talking about her sexual and reproductive health care. She shared with me that she was interested in having a child; however, at this time she put those plans on hold because she was scared about the racism within health care and the unacceptable high rates of maternal mortality among Black women in this country.
I listened and shared that as someone who also identifies as a Black woman, I have similar fears and anxieties surrounding my own reproductive health future. During the visit with this patient, I used my training in family medicine to better understand her physical and mental health needs and reassured her that I was going to partner with her through her health care journey.
Hope for the future of family medicine
As I work on a day-to-day basis I often think about my hopes for patients, as well as my hopes for medicine and the field of family medicine. My hope for the future of family medicine is that we can continue to make meaningful connections with patients to help them optimize their health and well-being.
I imagine a system in which we have the time and support to do this for all of our patients regardless of their immigration status, socioeconomic status, or any other historically excluded status. My hope for the future of family medicine is that I can write a prescription for a medication or physical therapy, and the patient is able to fill the prescription without having to worry about the financial implications of paying for it. My hope for the future of family medicine is that patients can seek out care without the fear of discrimination or racism through an increasingly diverse work force. My hope for the future of family medicine is that these improvements become a reality and that as physicians we can appreciate the connections we make with patients and the impact this has on their overall health and well-being.
Dr. Lockley is a family medicine physician currently living in Harlem, N.Y., and a member of the editorial advisory board of Family Practice News. She currently works for Public Health Solutions’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Centers in Brooklyn, providing primary care and reproductive health care services there, and as an abortion provider throughout the New York region. She completed both medical school and residency in Philadelphia and then did a fellowship in reproductive health care and advocacy through the Family Health Center of Harlem and the Reproductive Health Access Project. She can be reached at fpnews@mdedge.com.
I became interested in becoming a physician during my very last semester of college. I volunteered in a hospital psychiatric department in the unit that provided electroconvulsive therapy to patients with severe mental health diagnoses. Although this was about 15 years ago, I still vividly remember the curiosity I had walking around the hospital looking around at all the doctors and nurses and wanting to understand what their day-to-day life was like helping people to optimize their health.
Up until that time, thankfully my family and I had been relatively healthy, and, outside of routine checkups, my time spent in a hospital or clinic was limited. Therefore, those months of volunteering at the hospital were the longest periods of time I’d spent around physicians and other health care professionals really witnessing firsthand the science and the art of medicine.
During my time volunteering I saw one patient over the course of several weeks who was catatonic when I first met her, but by the end of several electroconvulsive therapy treatments she had a subtle smile on her face and we were able to have a conversation. She was a younger Black woman like myself and at that moment I knew that I wanted to become a physician and be involved in people’s lives in such a unique manner.
I worked for several years before applying to medical school. During that time two of my jobs involved doing home visits with children, young adults, and their families. I once again experienced the connection that one can make with someone and their family over a short period of time when you actively listen, understand what is important to them, and work together.
After several years of this work I got accepted into medical school and excitedly started the path to becoming a physician. While the learning curve was difficult, I genuinely enjoyed every block of medical school, including learning the anatomy, pathophysiology, and pharmacology. I could not wait to be in front of patients to use this newfound knowledge to help solve their health problems.
‘There is no such thing as a single issue-struggle’
As I started the third year of medical school and clinical rotations, I found joy in being in hospitals and clinics. I also came to recognize that understanding the pharmacology of why metformin helps improve the hemoglobin A1c in people with diabetes is not necessarily one of the keys to helping people optimize their health. I started to talk with patients and all sorts of questions would come to mind. Where did they grow up? What did they identify as their culture? What did they do in their day to day? Did they have a home and support at that home? Are they someone’s caretaker? What are their hopes for the future? And the list goes on.
I ultimately chose family medicine as a specialty because, as Audre Lorde said, “there is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives,” and family medicine allows one to look at the intersections of people’s lives and how they affect their health and well-being.
I currently practice as a family medicine physician in a setting in which I provide a lot of sexual and reproductive health care. I welcome patients of all ages and genders, and this care includes preconception counseling, contraceptive counseling, prenatal and postpartum care, STI testing and treatment, abortion care, and routine preventive care – just to name a few.
I decided to specialize in sexual and reproductive health care within family medicine because of the historic discrimination and inequitable treatment that is often experienced by young Black persons when they seek care for their sexual health and/or reproductive choices. In addition, there is often stigma within communities when it comes to talking about sex, bodies, and pleasure.
Recently, after a few minutes with a patient, she shared with me that she just completed nursing school and was studying for her exams. We talked about what type of jobs she was looking to apply for and where she wanted to work. I expressed to her that I was proud of the hard work she put in to complete nursing school and commiserated with her about the challenges in schooling and studying that it takes to start in the health care field. The conversation eventually found its way to talking about her sexual and reproductive health care. She shared with me that she was interested in having a child; however, at this time she put those plans on hold because she was scared about the racism within health care and the unacceptable high rates of maternal mortality among Black women in this country.
I listened and shared that as someone who also identifies as a Black woman, I have similar fears and anxieties surrounding my own reproductive health future. During the visit with this patient, I used my training in family medicine to better understand her physical and mental health needs and reassured her that I was going to partner with her through her health care journey.
Hope for the future of family medicine
As I work on a day-to-day basis I often think about my hopes for patients, as well as my hopes for medicine and the field of family medicine. My hope for the future of family medicine is that we can continue to make meaningful connections with patients to help them optimize their health and well-being.
I imagine a system in which we have the time and support to do this for all of our patients regardless of their immigration status, socioeconomic status, or any other historically excluded status. My hope for the future of family medicine is that I can write a prescription for a medication or physical therapy, and the patient is able to fill the prescription without having to worry about the financial implications of paying for it. My hope for the future of family medicine is that patients can seek out care without the fear of discrimination or racism through an increasingly diverse work force. My hope for the future of family medicine is that these improvements become a reality and that as physicians we can appreciate the connections we make with patients and the impact this has on their overall health and well-being.
Dr. Lockley is a family medicine physician currently living in Harlem, N.Y., and a member of the editorial advisory board of Family Practice News. She currently works for Public Health Solutions’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Centers in Brooklyn, providing primary care and reproductive health care services there, and as an abortion provider throughout the New York region. She completed both medical school and residency in Philadelphia and then did a fellowship in reproductive health care and advocacy through the Family Health Center of Harlem and the Reproductive Health Access Project. She can be reached at fpnews@mdedge.com.