I want to welcome everyone to the clinic today. My name is Dr. Jessica Rubino. I'm a family medicine physician and an abortion provider. I am the medical director of meadow reproductive health and wellness. We are a new abortion clinic in the Northern Virginia region. We're really happy that all of you came today. We know that the second gentleman, he understands the crisis that we're in the reproductive health care crisis that we have in our country. And she recognizes how important that is. And that's why he's come to join us today. Thank you so much for coming to join us. I'll take away.
Thank you, Dr. Aquino, thank you all for being here. In a second, but it was important for me to be here today. I just wanted to make sure we kept this on the schedule, because this is so important. This issue. And the fact that you were able to open this clinic in this environment is a terrific post adoption environment speaks very loudly and very clearly on protecting women, protecting freedom, protecting autonomy, protecting the right to make decisions about one's own body, without the government interfering. And I heard about a lot of the challenges opening in Virginia, which was a little shocking to the secretary myself, where landlords were saying no, and the challenges of just getting this place open is is really disturbing. And he's recognized that this clinic does provide abortion services. But it also provides health care services, services that women need services that they're not potentially able to get anywhere else. But for clinics like this and Planned Parenthood clinics around the country. And I know my wife was was very proud and honored to be the first president or vice president that ever visited a Planned Parenthood facility. And there she started talking about what they really do. They're the healthcare services that are so desperately needed the screening, all these things that women need the family planning that many as well. It's been two years since the horrific extremist stops decision, which took away a fundamental right to privacy that had been on the books for 50 years, just took it away from the people in the United States. And what we've seen is a full blown crisis, a crisis that is affecting millions upon millions of our fellow citizens. So the fact that I believe he moved from Texas, which is one of those states, which is essentially a total ban, recommendations legally for doctors, and we can talk more about that in penalties, including jail time. We've seen the stories of women who had to literally be on death's door, before they got treatment. It's It's barbaric, it's immoral, and it must change. So the fact that you all open this clinic here in Virginia, even with the challenges, says a lot about who you are, as a doctor, as a person, and on behalf of the administration, and on behalf of the vice president who has been traveling the country tirelessly for two years. Just just speaking truth, truth about how horrific this DOPS is. And it's not just about reproductive freedom. You saw what Justice Thomas said, apparently, what else? What else says based on the Brisbois, right of privacy, can we come out with contraception? Well, you can marry as well, you can love all of that as at risk right now. So that is why we are here today to support you in the mission to hear your stories. And with that, I'll turn it over to my very good friend, fellow Californian.
Two, the second building for the commitment of time we've had a chance to do a number of events together over time. I know that this is one issue where you have very much concentrated your efforts. Certainly the vice president she's been the leader within this administration when it comes to the issue of health care for women reproductive health care for abortion care. And we thank you for making that commitment. General Dr. Unbeknown to us The team here. People don't realize how important it is even in states that still give women the rights to access the health care that they need, how important it is to have a senator like this, because there aren't enough of them. And no one should go without their health care. And Dr. Arnold to you, you for making it possible, possible for us to have the kind of support here in Virginia that's needed to say thank you. We're going to hear from our director of our office for civil rights, Melanie Funches. trainer, and shortly as well, she's going to speak as the director, but I think also as a patient,
not here. But yes, yeah.
And I think it's important that we understand that the reason this is so important, is because Lucy row man leaned up was not just access to abortion care, we lost access to care, generally, and in losing access to care, we are threatening, putting at risk the lives of a lot of Americans. And obviously, I think Dr. Will be you know, having come from the state of Texas can probably speak very specifically to that. We don't believe anyone in the 21st century to see their access to care diminish, we don't think their chances of surviving a health scare should increase. And we certainly don't want to go back to the battle days of before 1973. But that's where we are with the fallout of growth. And that's why the Vice President has been very emphatic. The President has been very emphatic. Each of us have all been ecstatic. We must restore the rights and access that we had under Roe vs. Wade. And I believe that we're going to get that done is by hearing the stories, the stories of the patients and stories of providers who are having to go through this ailment that was created with the fall of Roe versus Wade. So at this stage, I think we're going to have a chance. Second, gentlemen to hear from our participants here, as witnesses. And Dr. Reid, if I may begin with you, perhaps you could tell us your story of now coming here establishing this particular site, or where you came from. Yeah,
thank you very much. I was an abortion provider in Austin, Texas for about five years, was the only provider at the clinic there. And I stayed. It became illegal at one point, right, and we had the six week ban. And then pretty soon, a year later, roe fell. And I stayed for a little while to do abortion or not to be able to do abortions, but to be able to do ultrasounds and talk to patients. And there was just a day where I said, I'm not going to do this anymore. This is wrong. When someone says they need an abortion, when they ask you for that. That's when they need their abortion. They don't need it delayed. It's wrong of me as a provider to instruct them to go get on a plane and go to another state. That is breaking my Hippocratic Oath. And I said, I'm not going to do this another day. I actually think that doing that and breaking that oath, that would have made me a bad doctor. And so I left and I didn't have any work that I knew I was going to work. So I sort of just did a jump to a part of the country. Where do you think maybe you can do this and I found out even where you think you can do this, it's incredibly hard to start up a clinic to get the funding the equipment. So to maintain access is yes from the ground up is incredibly difficult. Now that I'm here, we started getting calls. And I mean, they're coming from all over the country, right? And they're coming from communities where I used to work when I was in Austin, every now and then I would have someone who needed more than one abortion, and they would come back to me. And I knew that meant that I was doing a really good job. Because they went through that process of an abortion and they felt safe with me. It went well for them. They trusted me they were willing to come back. But what about all those people now? Right? So I knew I have to put myself in a place where they can then come to me and I can do the best I can here building out that access for them to be able to get to me. One of the things that I think they thought would happen when this law was overturned when we lost rope, is that older won't be abortions anymore. In certain parts of the country, we they will be less of them. But actually there are more abortions. Because when you find out you're pregnant, and you don't know what's going to happen for the rest of that pregnancy. You don't have good prenatal care. You don't have health insurance. You don't even know when you're going to be able to get in to see an OB GYN or a family medicine physician. You may decide you know what, I end abortion right now, because I don't know what's going to happen with the rest of this pregnancy. And I had so many patients I was shocked. Tell me after their abortion. I don't know if I would have done this. If this wasn't illegal. Like I don't know if I would have gone and gotten one because Maybe I would have waited into the pregnancy to see maybe this pregnancy is what I want to continue. But you don't want to wait till something goes wrong and you're in danger. None of this did what anyone thought it was supposed to do. Right? Even the other side, I don't think, right, this made the entire situation worse, the ripple effects are going to continue to happen until we fix it.
Thank you for that.
Let me I'm going to wait and ask a director conscious trainer to go at the end because she is the one that's taking in these complaints that we see come in of women who are not getting access to the care that they are entitled to. So first a capitalist if I could ask you to please go next and give us your story. Okay,
well, I'm Dr. Lisa Capulets. I've had a long career in medicine as an AIDS provider, and then a public health provider. I call my story 1974, I was a senior medical student and failed contraceptive clinical trial. Chicago, and I was really fortunate, because the provider was right there. In Chicago. It was a minor procedure, and people was wonderful. I remember how supportive they were. And because of that, I not only graduated and finished my training, I've had two sons, two daughters, and well now four grandchildren, a wonderful career. I worry about my granddaughters, I have two granddaughters, and they will not have the opportunity that I had 50 years ago. That's unconscionable to me. So now, I am mainly a consultant, working with Planned Parenthood advocates, and I want to make absolutely sure that women have the opportunity that I had 15 years ago.
Dr. Stephanie, please,
thank you so much for inviting me to be here. I have been involved in abortion care delivery since 2008, as an undergraduate, pre medical student. So things were very different in 2008, than they are now. And I do want to tell you, I'm so grateful for how out front, you all have been about this, because it wasn't always like that. And it's it's really huge. I'm also a family physician. And in that work that I did in my pre medical years, I really saw how stigma around abortion, controlled the narrative and how that gave a lot of power where it didn't belong. And so I made a personal decision that in order in addition to delivering high quality abortion care, I was also going to address head on the stigma associated with this care. So I opened my clinic, October 2022. In the wake of jobs, we actually crowdfunded our startup costs, I announced to my community what I tended to do, which was to open a family practice where we would focus on gender affirming care, and abortion care out in the open. In my community rallied around me, we were able to open on a much faster timeline than we would have otherwise. And I'm really grateful for that. And it has been such a wonderful learning experience. Because you know, my name my face is on the website, I'm very clear about what I do. I'm very proud about what I do. I deliver first trimester abortion care right alongside comprehensive Family Medicine, managing anxiety, diabetes, sprained ankles, not because I'm looking to atone for the abortion care that I provide. But to demonstrate that this care is incredibly safe. It is broadly needed across every reproductive demographic in this country. Since we've opened, we have served not only families in Richmond, Virginia, but from all over the country. Folks have taken their first plane right to get an abortion with me in Richmond, Virginia. They have come from Texas, Wisconsin, Florida. And one of the things that they tell us again and again, is they actually chose our clinic, because of our website, because my face was there my name. There's a lot of unknown around abortion care. It's been unsafe for abortion providers to be upfront about what they're doing. And I take that really seriously. But the payoff here is that folks know they're coming to see someone who looks like she could be their sister or their friend. And it's really just wonderful to see the relief on people's faces. I hope that every family doctor in this country realizes that at minimum, they have the skills needed to provide abortion by pill, and that if we all provided it openly in our clinics, it takes really all the power out of the counter argument for abortion.
So now to the director of our Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health Services, Melanie.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. And thank you to us, gentlemen. So I ran the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services. My job's done To protect civil rights in healthcare, and protect medical privacy. And so those are two pretty big jobs, especially right now. Thanks to the leadership of Secretary Seta and vice president Harris, we've actually been around the country having conversation with patients and providers and students and advocates. And a lot of those stories are, they stick with me at night, and I'm sure they stick with the Vice President and the Secretary unsettledness don't when they are, they don't go away. hearing someone say they couldn't get care. They had to sit in their car when they bled out more, is pretty barbaric. And so that's why I'm so proud. We're able to do all the work that we're doing. And some of you know, I shared my story earlier this year, I was privileged enough to have IVF I became pregnant with twins. I sucked. I know someone's making a face, I suffered a miscarriage just awful. I suffered a miscarriage and then I was fortunate enough to have safe legal abortion care in Maryland. At no point in the process was I worry that my medical records be weaponized against me at no point was I worried that I was going to shame for the care that I received. And in fact, I was doing this while working on regulations to help women all across the country, whether it's through civil rights or to privacy to protect them. And that story needs to be shared, because miscarriage is a very common health care. And it is healthcare. And women across the country. It happens to them every day. And it's so important for women like me to uplift that story, because there are women across the country who do not get to share their story, who do not get the opportunity to sit in tables like this and to have that opportunity. And that's why I'm so grateful. We put out a roll earlier this year, and this President, Mr. Vice President's leadership, to shield medical records for being weaponized to hurt patients. So when women seek lawful reproductive health care, people cannot go on fishing expeditions into their records, that they feel safe when they talk to their doctor, they know their doctors and hiding information from them. They know that their doctor will do all that they can to protect them. And in fact, when I need follow up care, even I have to travel somewhere, I feel safe going into an emergency room or into a clinic to get that care. We all know that health care is so important to women everywhere. And we know that making sure that your privacy is protected is critically important at this moment. So thank you to you, of course, Secretary Panetta for allowing us that space to do this. I think it's really important. And I appreciate the opportunity.
The great thing is this administration has given us the tools and the instruction to go out there and be as aggressive as we can. So I'm going to ask the second gentleman if I think we have time. So I'm going to ask Jeff to go on if you'd like to ask a question or make a comment. Because I do believe we have a little bit of time do we Can I correct? We have a little time. And then please ask you all to chime in as well. But remember, emhoff If you have any particular thoughts you'd like,
Oh, thank you all for sharing the stories because I know it's hard to do it. And then there was frustrated. But why are we here? We're here, because of the former president, the former president ran on a platform that one women should be punished. Those words came out as well. And that he talked about nominating Supreme Court justices that would overturn Roe v. Wade. And that's exactly what he wanted. And that's exactly what he got. So let's be honest here. This is on the former president, the guy who gains to run for president again, on a platform of taking us backwards. And this is a perfect example of just taking us backwards. And you talked about like my mother, same thing, when when I got the news about the first person that follow me was the vice president. And she said, and we knew it was coming. But it was such a shock. She said, Dougie, they actually did. They actually didn't. She was enraged. And look what she has done the last two years it happened. The next message I got was from my then 23 year old daughter, now it's on the bottom saying I'm angry. We need to fight that you need to do something about this. Next one was my mother who was in her 80s. And she was one of those women who is fighting for reproductive freedom and equal rights. So her anger right now to think as you mentioned, that she has had enjoyed right, that she fought for, that was just ripped away, that my daughter, our daughter cannot enjoy. It's completely antithetical to who we are as a country. That's when we're supposed to always be going forward and not backwards. And that's what we need to do, frankly, in this upcoming election. Go forward.
I'll add a few comments because my mother has been an advocate for reproductive rights her entire life. She died in 2020. And in some ways, I'm glad she didn't see dogs she would have been absolutely While we went on marches with her with our kids, we assumed this was a right that we would be able to maintain. And it's horrifying. It isn't
approved, we only asked him to because you came from Texas. As I drove it, I suspend the settlement, that same gentleman as well. We've heard the stories. I was in Idaho, where there are providers who are leaving Idaho, because they don't believe that they can exercise as you said, your full rights and the privileges that they've gained as a result of study medicine. Do you think that there are other providers, doctors like you who are leaving states, their rights are restricted? And if so, what does that do for the patients who can't leave the state where their rights are reserved? Yes,
there are absolutely other physicians leaving, I know that some have chosen to stay sort of in a like, do what they can. But it's not just abortion providers that are leaving it's other physicians as well. I've heard of an oncologist who's leaving Texas before Dobs. About three years ago, I had a patient who had a broken arm, and they refuse to send it or do anything because she was pregnant. I had to do her abortion while she still had a bone sticking out of her arm. That was before it became illegal. I had a patient this is also before it became illegal. I had a patient who was dying of metastatic breast cancer, her chemotherapy, radiation was only palliative. And they completely took it away from her when she became pregnant accidentally. And so that was already that bad. So now imagine you are an oncologist and you're trying to treat your cancer patients and one of them accidentally gets pregnant, even if they say, No, but I don't want this pregnancy, I want you to treat my cancer, I'm the patient. It doesn't matter. The state made the decision for you, not the doctor. And as a professional like, look, here's something to think about. I still have my Texas license. What do I do with that? I have a Virginia license to practice medicine, but I have the Texas license. If I do something here. Do they in Texas think that they have a right to come after me because I hold that. And that this is a professional job, right? I took a professional job and has now said that professional job is illegal. Now, if you do your professional job that you spend years training on, we're putting you in jail and it's for life period.
So the three of you who are healthcare providers who have helped cure people keep them healthy. But some message people like the second gentleman or be certainly the Vice President, the President take back from this visit.
I would just like to say that there's a lot of discussion about again, women who need abortions or abortion providers, and it's all extremely abstract. No one who comes to my office thought they would ever be there. But when you're in a position, maybe the scariest most unpredicted position of your life? Do you want to find yourself with no options? Or do you want to send your daughter, your sister, your friend to someone like me, or someone like Dr. Rubio, who has spent decades getting the skills that we need to provide compassionate care, this is not an abstract issue for people. And I know it feels like it, but trust me one day, it won't be for you or someone you love, regardless of your political affiliation.
Abortion is is healthcare. And what I didn't say is that in college, I had friends who had to have that back alley abortions, it was terrific, terrific experiences for them, and which is why I call my story 1974 I was really grateful that I had access to safe abortion. And it made all the difference in my life, in terms of personally and professionally. I had the children that I planned. Wonderful, and the grandchildren and two granddaughters.
Any final thoughts? Gentlemen, let me offer you have any final thoughts as we get ready to close?
Again, the vast majority of our country, regardless of political beliefs, religious beliefs are on the side of all the things we've been talking about. And that has been proven at the ballot. Time and time again, like ever this type of access is on the ballot. Right the legend bright red state, and overwhelmingly seven whatever percent are voting for health care voting for freedom voting for autonomy, and that's what makes us so outrageous as a professional lawyer develop professional. The thought that I couldn't practice my my chosen profession in one stage but I could practice it another tip To care for clients that are that I love to hear from is just outrageous. And I've talked to many doctors over the last few years, and the thought and they've told me stories of having, rather than providing care, they're looking over their shoulder, talking to the HR and talking to insurance talking to a risk management, that's just, it's just outrageous, it's wrong, it's immoral, it's got to change. And this will change when we like Kamala Harris is an expert.
On that note, if we want to say thank you to each and every one of you, thank you for Beto for allowing us to use their facility to be able to gather thank you to our director of our office for civil rights. To the seven gentlemen who could have been in any other part of the country. He chose to be here with
us on the schedule, no matter what else is going on. I wanted to be here today to talk about this. It's that
important. Great. Thank you all very much for attending.
Thank you, Mr. Election gets going, President Trump has already started attacking the Vice President, your reaction to the names he's already calling.
That's all he's got. You heard the vice president yesterday, making the case against Donald Trump very clearly laid out the case directly, and compelling fashion. But you also laid out a vision for the future, a vision where there's freedom. We're not having to talk about these issues of today in this post jobs hellscape that Donald Trump created. So we need to yes, we're gonna prosecute the case against Donald Trump. And his lies is gaslighting. His during COVID dereliction of duty inciting an insurrection, and all those other things, we're going to make that very clear, she's going to be able to make that case. But we're also going to move on from this type of environment is Dobs, where freedoms are taken away where autonomy is taken away, where they're telling you, you can't read this book. They're telling you you can't learn these facts. They're telling you you can't vote, all that is going to change and it must change. You see the enthusiasm you see the excitement, you saw the money raised, you saw the party, coalesce you saw the broad base of support that she had in his one or two days because she's talking about an America that we all have a place. And that's why Kamala Harris, who I'm so proud of. I'm also so proud of the President. I got choked up yesterday in Wilmington when he called in all of us did, what a great man. Love Joe Biden. But Kamala Harris has united the party, she's gonna unite the country. She's gonna earn this nomination. You see that happening, and she's gonna win this election. Thank you.
