On ‘Radio Times’: Dr. Willie Parker on faith, choice and abortion

FILE - In this April 15, 2013 photo, Dr. Willie Parker, smiles in Jackson, Miss. Parker, a physician at Mississippi's only abortion clinic is praising the end of a legal fight over a state law that threatened to close the facility by setting a hospital-privileges requirement the clinic couldn't fulfill. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Dr. Willie Parker grew up in Alabama in a Christian household. Often times, he witnessed the public shaming of unmarried, pregnant young women had to beg for forgiveness in his church.
In his new book Life’s Work: A Moral Argument for Choice, Parker said that it was after hearing a sermon from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he realized that in order to be true to his Christian faith, he must show compassion for all women. So, he stopped his obstetrician practice and focused on providing safe abortions for poor women of color in the Deep South.
Earlier today on Radio Times, Marty Moss-Coane asked Parker about the waiting periods that a woman must go through in some states in order to have an abortion and the information he is required by law to tell his patients that may not be true.
“I’m in the opinion that the truth will do,” Parker said. “I’m perplexed by the fact that in the quest to protect women from their own decisions, there’s intent to misinform them and to terrorize them to make their own decision.”
To hear more about Parker’s childhood, faith and medical practice, listen to the full interview on Radio Times.
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