About this item
For a long time, when people asked Dr. Meera Shah what she did, she would tell them she was a doctor and leave it at that. But over the last few years, Shah decided it was time to be direct. "I'm an abortion provider," she will now say. And an interesting thing started to happen each time she met someone new. One by one, people would confide - at barbecues, at jury duty, in the middle of the greeting card aisle at Target - that in fact they'd had an abortion themselves. And the refrain was often the same: You're the only one I've told. This book collects those stories as they've been told to Shah to humanize abortion and to combat myths that persist in the discourse that surrounds it. An intentionally wide range of ages, races, socioeconomic factors, and experiences shows that abortion always occurs in a unique context.
About the Author
Dr. Meera Shah is a family medicine physician currently serving as the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic in New York. Shah is a strong advocate for increasing sexual and reproductive health access in underserved areas and to underserved communities. A Fellow with the Physicians for Reproductive Health, Shah is dedicated to calling out the injustices that keep people from exercising their autonomy. She received her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill followed by an M.D. from George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She then received a Masters of Science in Nutrition and Masters of Public Health from Columbia University She completed her residency in full spectrum family medicine at Mt. Sinai/Beth Israel Medical Center. In 2018, she was awarded Woman of Distinction by New York State Senator Brad Hoylman.
