Jennifer Katz

Essay / Abortion Care / Grief

I'm a clinical psychologist who works as a Professor of Psychology. I'm the training and debriefing coordinator for Connect & Breathe, an after abortion support line. This brief essay describes my experiences providing nonjudgmental support to abortion patients in distress, highlighting the intensely personal ways in which political activism can be healing to ourselves at the same time that we offer healing to others.

ESSAY EXCERPT

"Abortion Talkline" excerpt In a world in which women are dismissed as untrustworthy, and insufficiently subordinate, it’s challenging to be a widow. As an unmarried single mother, my judgment and situation were now subject to questioning. A county judge ordered an investigation – would our children’s inheritance rights would be protected under my care? Like abortion patients in distress, widows mourn for the life they will no longer have.

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