012: A Balm In Gilead

Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson & the American choice

Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?

— Jeremiah 8:22

One of the memory snapshots that I carry around with me is from a little more than thirty years ago. I am sitting on the examining table in the infirmary at Dartmouth College, looking down at a piece of paper that has just been handed to me. On one side is a list of local physicians who offer abortion services. On the other is a list of crisis pregnancy centers. I can see the paper clearly in my mind’s eye: the neat columns, the typography, the legal disclaimer at the bottom.

I think about this every single time I drive out to the strip mall area near where I live because one of the crisis pregnancy centers is still there. Luckily, it’s not where I sought help after that fateful day—I had a plane to catch to Wyoming. When I finally did go and talk to a health professional, it was a male nurse at a Planned Parenthood in Billings, Montana who took…