Dr. Parker navigates the controversial topic of abortion in ‘Life’s Work’
By Lauren Fitch
Last year on my way to the trolley stop in the Wanek Center, a fellow female student approached me and asked if I wanted a cupcake. I told her that I was severely allergic to gluten so I couldn’t take her up on her offer, and she replied that they did indeed have gluten free cupcakes. I asked what it was for, and when she replied that it was for a pro-life event, I coldly turned my shoulder and walked away. It’s a response that I’m now not proud of.
There were better ways to deal with my discomfort. Ironically, my view of my response may not have changed if I had not read the very pro-choice memoir, Life’s Work, by Dr. Willie Parker (the only abortion provider in many southern states such as Alabama and formerly Mississippi).
Dr. Parker was born in a poor part of Montgomery, Alabama, where his single mother fended for her children in the absence of his father. He was considered a good kid by all accounts, and he doted upon his aging grandfather. When his mother died at fifty-four, he never forgot his roots. After taking a position in Hawaii, he lived a very comfortable life practicing gynecology and Obstetrics in Honolulu. It wasn’t until a new medical director banned the doctors from performing abortions that it occurred to him to get trained in providing abortion care. At the age of forty-one, Dr. Parker had finally found his calling.
As an abortion provider and a former director of Planned Parenthood, Dr. Parker has seen some heart-breaking scenes. He doesn’t hold back the emotion in this tear-jerker of a memoir, detailing everything from having to turn away a victim of incest, to seeing a twelve-year-old girl in one of his Southern practices. As a man who loves Jesus, he talks about his duty to refrain from judging women and to provide the legal healthcare they need while also being able to serve God. Being a Christian, Dr. Parker argues, is to follow your conscience—even if that conscience dictates going against the majority of your community. Dr. Parker courageously writes, “I can live with the awareness that someone might harm me. I am not so sure that I am brave enough to live with the awareness that I was too afraid to do what I knew to be right.”
Life’s Work is an excellent debut book. It’s as well-written as it is touching, and will leave anyone who reads it with a new admiration for reproductive health providers everywhere. Dr. Parker makes the moral case for choice, and communicates that the other side is not evil, just misinformed in his opinion. Even more, his core message is valuable and unmovable: don’t make enemies, make adversaries. Once we create partisan enemies, the lives in the balance cease to be human, which is how violence happens. Dr. Parker teaches us readers to walk in the legacy of Dr. King, which is some advice we could all afford to hear. He gives a human element to all sides of the debate. In all honesty, this memoir equipped me to foster better relationships when I disagree with other students. Next time I see a pro-life event thrown by my fellow students, I will take the cupcake.