There are only five abortion clinics in Alabama, and Dr. Yashica Robinson, a Black OB GYN, is the only doctor in the area with admitting privileges and on her way to becoming the sole abortion provider in the state.
You read that correctly. Robinson is the sole OBGYN certified to perform abortions in Huntsville, Alabama.
As part of the latest installment of the New York Times’ op-doc series, “The Chosen Life” follows a day-in-the-life of Robinson’s experiences trying to do her job amidst daily protests and harassment.
Robinson works out of a local abortion clinic and holds a private practice, and as the documentary shows, anti-abortion activists and protestors greet her at both locations and judge her solely on her abortion practices, greet her.
The film by Dawn Porter chronicles the many challenges faced by Robinson, the only practicing OB GYN in Huntsville, Alabama who provides abortions.
“I don’t really separate abortion care form everything in obstetrics and gynecology,” says Robinson. “I do everything. I do C-sections. I do hysterectomies. I tie tubes.”
In the moving documentary Robinson, who as a teen mom gave both to both her sons before graduating high school, reveals her true motivations for the work she does.
“I went into obstetrics and gynecology mainly because I wanted to work with young women like myself,” she says. “I have patients, you know, they come in and they’re going through their own struggles. I think it’s important for them to have someone they can really identify with.”
Encouragement is powerful.
“Despite the fact that I had made a ‘mistake’ I graduated number two in a class of over 400 students,” Robinson says. “People talk down to you that you’re not going to amount to anything, and that’s just enough to push you over the edge…You need one person to tell you that you can still do whatever it is that you want to do and I want to be that one person for somebody.”
Watch more about Robinson’s work in Alabama in the full documentary below.