Dr. Willie Parker - Changing the Reproductive Rights Narrative with "Life's Work"

"Life's Work" author, Dr. Willie Parker, explains how he's "pro-life" even though he believes in the right to an abortion. Originally aired April 2017. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Comedy Central. Dr Winnie Parker backing. Before
we get into really everything that's in the book, just
give somebody who has no clue. What is it like
for a woman who is trying to have an abortion

(00:24):
in the Deep South? You know, places like Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi.
If you're not familiar with all of the barriers that
are in place, of the laws that have been put
into place that even though abortion remains legal based on
the road decision, Uh, there have been lots of hurdles
placed in the path of women. Um, things like waiting periods.

(00:46):
In Alabama has support at our waiting period once you
decide to have an abortion. In Louisiana seventy two hours, uh,
in Mississippi twenty four. So they're long waiting periods. Their
financial barriers. Uh, those are just the institutional things. There's
the stigma and the shame. Women are made to feel,
um that they're doing something immoral by choosing their lives

(01:08):
over the ambitions that other people have for them. If
someone were to counter and say, why are you in
such a hurry? Why not have a waiting period? Why
not have twenty four hours or forty eight or seventy
two hours or any amount of time to wait on.
What would your response be to those people, Well, it
sounds good like it's the common it passes the common

(01:29):
sense test, but it's not informed by the reality. Uh.
There's not a woman that I know who doesn't say that.
When she peas on that stick and it's positive, she says,
I'm pregnant or great or pregnant. And so as a result, uh,
women have to being forced to wait, uh to indulge

(01:49):
somebody else's sensitivities, um is to say that we don't
trust women with their important decisions. And I just there
could get you talk about in your book how it
took you thirteen years, coming from a very religious background,
two change how you viewed a woman's rights to choose.

(02:12):
Why and how did you change your mind? Well, I've
always been uh uh pro life, but what I mean
by pro life pro life of the woman. I've never
been uh opposed to a woman making that decision. But
I was conflicted because I wasn't clear about what it
meant to me personally to provide that care. So I

(02:33):
had to think about my religious understanding and my religious
conviction a little bit differently. So I think pro life
is a misnomer for people who are against abortion, people
who are opposed to abortion, a pro fetus. I'm pro life.
I'm pro life of the woman. And you can't have
more of an interest in a pregnancy that a woman
is caring than you having the woman herself. Now and

(02:59):
in the six years there have been over three hundred
abortion restrictions that have been enacted by states. This year alone,
there have been at least forty six anti abortion bills
that have been introduced or are pending in about fourteen states.
What's really interesting is you have compared this the control

(03:21):
over women's bodies to slaveries, which too many people would
be a bombastic term. Why would you say that. I
think if you've never lived with her back to the wall,
it would be really hired for you to understand what
it's like to have the most essential aspect of your being,
the ability to make decisions about your lives, your life,

(03:42):
to have hopes and aspiration and dreams, and to have
that control by someone else. Uh. I, as a man,
will never face an unplanned pregnancy. But I feel like
I'm in the same position that Abraham Lincoln was when
someone asked him, why did you free the slaves? There
are many reasons the Civil War was fought, but I
like it when he said that, as I would not
be a slave, so I will not be a master.

(04:04):
As a man, I've refused to participate in a system
that will deny women the same agency and the same
right to make decisions about their lives that I have
as a man. You obviously faced a lot of opposition
taking this stance. Um, you know, traveling around helping women

(04:28):
who don't have access to abortions, women who are forced
to travel to other states. The President said, if a
woman under roll or if they change the laws, is
in a state where they don't allow abortion, then she
can just travel to another state. Why is this such
a big issue. Well, the problem with that is that, uh,
people in this country, under our constitution that everyone should

(04:52):
have equal access and equal protection under the law. So
that means that one state is not free to impose
it's responsibility to ensure the health its citizens to another state.
The bottom line is, nobody's health or aspirations should depend
on their zip code. And if you say that a
woman can just simply go to another state, that sounds nice,
but it's not informed by the reality that many women

(05:14):
face hurdles and if the clinics or uh five miles away,
it might as well be a million miles away. Or
if a woman doesn't have the resources to travel, many
women don't have the resources to travel in state, let
along going to another state. So I think it's it's
a very callous statement, uh to say that, it's almost
like Maria from that just let the meat cake. It's callous,

(05:36):
it's callous, and it doesn't take into account the realities
of the situation that many women are in. You. You
spoke earlier today about why on a day like today
and this day every single year has significant importance to you.
Why is that? Well, it occurred to me, Trevor, that
this is April three, the day before my book launch,

(05:56):
and when I was told that the book would be
launching on April four, there's a tap set in my
heart around the fact that that was the day that
Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated. So it struck me
that tonight, forty nine years ago was Dr King's last
night on earth. For me, what that means is that
I like to imagine that I was the little kid

(06:19):
living at Alabama, who he had hopes and aspirations for
that my dreams wouldn't be determined by the color of
my skin. And so this book My Career is really
UH a recognition of the vitality of the movement that
he gave his life for you, UH telling an amazing story.

(06:42):
It is a beautiful book. Thank you so much for
being on the Thank you watch the Daily Show weeknights
eleven Central earned Comedy Central in stream full episodes anytime
I on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central
podcast now