11 November 2016
Dear friends and allies of our Whole Woman’s Health family,
Like many of you, I feel broken this week. It is hard to summon the spirit – my resilient, inspirational sprit – in the wake of such hatred and vitriol. I am really, really sad that Hillary is not going to be our President. She ran such a dignified campaign and I was very excited to elect a woman for the first time that is so qualified and would have taken us not only through the glass ceiling, but toward goodness on many levels – restoring access, fairness and compassion after a brutal campaign. She would have carried forward much of the great work President Obama has done.
Alas, we are facing a very different reality than we have hoped and dreamed for. It hurts a lot.
Our team at Whole Woman’s Health is predominately women; we are many people of color, we include immigrants and we are all abortion providers. Many of these identities are now under threat as we face a Trump administration. These are dark times, there is no denying.
This campaign has made racism acceptable, and legitimized it in ways we haven’t seen in a long time. This coupled with the violence we are seeing in the streets against black and brown people; well it is overwhelming and terrifying.
Our grief right now is palpable, and it is normal. This election was not normal, but our grief and despair IS. Especially for us at Whole Woman’s Health, after all we fought for these past few years and the big win we had this year, to turn around and face this is traumatic.
We worked our butts off, and we deserve better.
I am tremendously thankful today for our powerful allies doing amazing work in Reproductive Rights, Health and Justice. I am also really thankful for our Whole Woman’s Health clinics; that despite the lack of control and influence our voices have sometimes in the outside world, here in our clinics we have the ability to make the world a better place. In our clinics we care for women and families in profound ways; we create a place filled with compassion, dignity, love and respect – for all people – no matter where they come from, what the color of their skin, or their ability to pay. We can live our values in our work, and we can affirm them with each other. We can model them for the people who come through our doors, and we can light the fire of action and inspiration through our example.
Each day our clinic staff, physicians and leadership make such a difference – our teams are making this country a better place by providing compassionate abortion care with the dignity all people deserve.
I believe is right for us to feel defeated for a while – what happened in this election was wrong, scary and unjust. Trump does not reflect the America that we value and that we are working to build together. I look forward to some healing time and to a near future where we can link arms in solidarity with all of our brothers and sisters and work to make this country live up to its promise for all of us.
As I told my staff earlier this week, please take care of each other – take a longer break at lunch, linger to talk over coffee with your coworkers, set up a potluck or an after work gathering. Get to know one another better, talk about all of this as a team.
Connection is rebellion; it is also survival.
Stand by each other and remember, our love is much, much stronger than their hate.
At Whole Woman’s Health, we stand in the light.
In solidarity,
Amy Hagstrom Miller
Founder and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health