The Hawaii Abortion Collective has released the state’s first comprehensive resource guide for information on abortion rights and services.
The guide contains information for patients and providers on all islands, where abortion remains legal.
“It’s a master document of basically everything you need to know about the rights to abortion here and also the resources available across the state,” said Khara Jabola-Carolus, executive director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, during a livestream with the Honolulu Star Advertiser on Friday. “We needed to create a centralized source of trustworthy, medically accurate, non-judgemental information for everyone in Hawaii to access, and that’s what we did with this guide.”
The Hawaii Abortion Collective consists of over 50 stakeholders in the medical, legal and religious fields and was formed after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“It’s an all-islands, broad coalition of religious leaders, healthcare providers, doctors, nurses, legal services providers and women’s rights advocates,” said Jabola-Carolus. “These are seemingly dissonant groups, but we’ve come together and joined together to advance policy and non-legislative solutions to deliver the promise of the law that we have and also strengthen our rights.”
Included in the resource guide is University Women’s Health at Hilo, which is listed as the only Hawaii Island clinic offering medication, telemedicine, in-clinic aspiration and hospital abortion services up to 20 weeks.
Providing equal access across all islands remains a priority for the group.
“There is access to procedural abortions right now that I know of on the Big Island on the Hilo side,” said Reni Soon, obstetrician and gynecologist at Kapiolani Medical Center, during the livestream. “But there’s definitely access issues and there have been even before this decision.”
Access to care provides additional barriers for rural communities and other underserved groups.
“The reality is that the true face of abortion is a mother of color who is making a decision to save her family as much as it is to save herself most of the time,” said Jabola-Carolus. “And it is a woman of color who is often struggling with living day to day financially, and when you deny even one abortion, it can plunge an entire family and a piece of the community into poverty, mental health problems, physical health long-term problems, and also into situations of violence.”
Both Soon and Jabola-Carolus addressed the stigmatization related to abortion as well.
“Abortion has become a valuable tool for both political parties to work their bases into a frenzy, and the consequence of abortion becoming so politicized is that a lot of information out there about abortion is not truly pure,” said Jabola-Carolus. “Some of it might be obscured intentionally for strategic purposes or dramatized to make abortion seem scary or intimidating or wrong morally.”
Soon and Jabola-Carolus offered advice for ending the stigma, which included talking about personal experiences with abortion, creating additional legislative action, organizing systemic intervention workshops, and taking on institutions that are perpetuating the stigma.
“In my over 20 years of providing abortion care in Hawaii, the stigma is truly the main thing that has hurt patients,” said Soon. “One in four pregnancy-capable people in this country will choose to have an abortion in their lifetime. It’s incredibly common.”
Soon also stressed that each decision is personal and advocated for treating patients individually based on their circumstances.
“I cannot stress enough that every pregnancy is different, everyone is an individual, and these circumstances are incredibly nuanced and cannot just be put into a box,” she said. “These are not black or white situations, it’s very gray, and they’re very personal decisions and need to be that way, because who are we to say what someone else’s life should be like, how someone else should be leading their life?”
The guide is intended to share information across the islands and will serve as a reference for future legislative attempts to expand access to care throughout the state.
“The problem with access, especially on neighbor islands, is a shortage of providers and a lack of training on those islands for providers,” said Jabola-Carolus. “My personal hope is I’d like to see the legislature make a financial investment where we get training and providers on all islands.”
The group also hopes the guide will provide context and information that will serve to unite people on both sides of the issue.
“Exercise compassion, not judgment,” said Soon. “Aloha, not stigma.”
The guide can be viewed at tinyurl.com/2e2jt53e
Email Grant Phillips at gphillips@hawaiitribune-herald.com