Encore: Finally! A Show About an Abortion Provider with the Satanic Temple

medical abortion. But of course, now we all know this is in front of the Supreme Court, so it's important listening. Please quote unquote enjoy and we'll see you next week with our final episode.

that my daughter's going to give me a call. I'm really lucky that she calls me every morning on her way to work. And as soon as all that's done, then I'm going to jump in and start working and see what the day brings.

Nursing looks more at the holistic patient, not just oh, the person who has a breast slump or the person who needs surgery. But there are many other layers to a person, from their mental health to their socioeconomics to possibly their religious or spiritual beliefs, what's going on in the home that is impacting the way that they're able to take care of themselves, and so on, and so different philosophy of care that just worked better with my beliefs and how I wanted to take care of people.

I grew up in kind of a conservative family. My dad was Catholic, my mom was not Catholic, but was pretty religious. And you know, like birth control and premarital sex, you don't talk about that because that doesn't happen until you're older, married, and you don't worry about that. And so I think a little bit was that normal kind of teenage rebellion. I'm going to figure out who I am. I'm going to figure out what my beliefs are and where I want to go and what I want to do.

And to my parents' credit, they were like, you know what, if that's what you want to do, that's what you want to do, that is great. And so my husband, right when I graduated from college, we got married, we were still married, was a photojournalist. He stayed here in Colorado and I went to Los Angeles, moved up here to where I am now and started working for Planned Parenthood. The community is supportive, or if they're not supportive, then it's basically whatever you know, don't you do what you

want to do. I'm not going to interfere, but I'm not going to support it either. So I left Plant Parenthood a little over a year ago. Before I left Planned Parenthood, though, I had been approached by some folks who were starting TST Health, which is the telehealth that I'm working for now to provide abortion services to folks in New Mexico. TST Health is the Satanic Temple Health, which then provides the care to the Samuel Alito's Mother's abortion clinic.

a little easier to manage. New Mexico was kind of a safe haven. You know, they're surrounded by Arizona and Texas and pretty close to Oklahoma and all of those states that are not friendly to women or abortion services, and so New Mexico kind of made sense in terms of where we could provide services and hopefully get some people who didn't have any other option to get into

New Mexico to be able to access care. There's been a few articles in the paper against having abortion services and against TST Health, but that also tells people where to access care as well. New Mexico, where we're providing service, does not have abortion restrictions, and so we're not fighting that fight here. But the Satanic Temple is in process of legally trying to get care provided in some other

states where it is not so friendly. So TST Health is a component of TST, which is the Satanic Temple. At this point, it's a startup. It's less than a year old. We actually have only been seeing patients since February of twenty twenty three. In some of these states that are very unfriendly or who have essentially banned abortion, they are us using religion, especially Christianity religion to state that this is something that goes against God and should

not happen. And so what TST. The Satanic Temple is doing is saying, you know that this is these are our religious tenets and our religious beliefs, and by you restricting or outright banning abortion, is that you are infringing upon my religious convictions. The mission of the Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy, you know, to really advocate for practical, common sense, factual based information really really

important for this group. They oppose in justice like taking away rights for women who want to have abortion as part of their healthcare, trans rights, LGBTQ rights, those kind

of things. And so that's really the overarching kind of mission statement of the Satanic Temple and making sure that decisions that are being made, whether that's at a local government level or at the upper levels of the United States government, that those decision are based on facts and based on science and not based on a religion that is not based in science or based in facts, and is you know, and excludes certain people because for whatever reason,

the fundamental tenets of the Satanic Temples, so there are seven of them. The ones that we tend to use the most for an abortion ritual or for folks who are interested in having some type of a ritual with their procedure is that one's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone, bodily autonomy, belief should conform to

one's best scientific understanding of the world. So, in other words, we are providing care that is based on the best practices, on scientific evidence on twenty five plus years in the United States, more than that in other countries, on how this is safe and effective. So those are the two that we tend to use the most. The tenants also talk a little bit about compassion and empathy towards people, trying to understand people, not judgingtruggle for justice, you know,

and not having certain groups marginalized. Freedom of others should be respected. In other words, I may believe this, you may believe that doesn't make one of us more right on the other person wrong, or anything like that, but that you know, as people, we all have different beliefs and different views, and that that should be celebrated. We

talk about people are fallible. You know, if you make a mistake, then you should once you recognize that, own up to your mistakes, move forward, try not to do that again again. You know, get the information that you need to be able to move forward and make better decisions. And then the last one just talks about all of these tenets are used kind of as an overarching principles

as to inspire nobility and action and thought. And I think that that's really great way of saying that to be compassionate and to continue to learn, and to continue to grow, and to continue to help provide justice to those groups that may be marginalized, that we should be looking at the written and spoken word and using all of these tenets to be kinder, gentler and learn more

and continue to move forward in this world. Some people are actually member, active ongoing members of the Satanic Temple, or they have a friend who is who tells them about it. There are so many things that the Satanic Temple does. It's a group of folks who believe in facts and believe in science and believe in bodily autonomy who are getting together and trying to make a difference in their communities. I think when people hear the Satanic Temple,

they're thinking, oh my gosh, they're worshiping Satan. I tell you really cannot make this stuff up.

you know, this is a really professional organization. We are dedicated to providing the highest standard of care that you know, everything that we're asking is very clear and has a purpose and is very medically focused. They can always ask as many questions as they'd like to about our training and you know how everything got started, and you know what we're doing for quality control. And I haven't had anybody who made an appointment who has said this is

kind of strange or whatever. It's mainly thanks so much for being available. This is you know, you made this much easier for me and I can do this on my own time, and it's been a great service. I have a daughter and a son. My daughter is a high school English teacher, also in a small town in Colorado. So this is really funny. Actually it's a funny story. So my daughter was in college and she did a semester abroad and it was the semester you know that.

It was during the time when Trump got elected, and I can remember a few days before the election, I said to her, if Trump gets elected, you're going to have to stay where you are, and she's like, okay, and kind of laughed it off. And then of course he got elected, and so she called me and she was crying and she's like, I can't believe this happened.

that's great, that's fine. I think it's really funny. When she was in middle school, the school approached me and asked if I would teach their sex ed class, and I was like, sure, absolutely, And so my daughter actually sat down and did all the flash cards and all of the handouts for the sex said class for her middle school class. And then my son I also did his sex head class, and he was great with it, and you know, made sure he participated to make his

friends participate. You would look at him and just you know, make a judgment of looks pretty conservative. You know, he's kind of a I don't know, like a cowboy kind of rancher, mechanic kind of looking kid, and that's that's what he does first full time work. But he's probably the most liberal of all of us. There were a few times that it was probably uncomfortable for them, you know, that they had friends or family who weren't real keen.

You know, it was not a secret where I worked and what I did that weren't too keen on that, but they they handled it well. Funny story, I was going into work and I had my daughter with me, who at the time was in college, so she wasn't little. But even then we have talked about this from the

get go with both both my children. But my daughter was with me, and the protester yelled that the angel of death was behind me and that my daughter was going to suffer because of it, and it just we both looked at each other, my daughter and I and we both walked in course, you know, we do not engage with people like that, and we both walked in and we said, good, we are gonna you know, She's like, mom, You're going to continue doing what you do. And I'm like, yes,

i am. She goes me too, you know, I'm going to continue to be you know, outspoken and an advocate for whoever needs me with this work. I was just thinking, you know, I know that people who are our anti choice really do say, you know, how do you live with yourself? How can you do this? And I guess my response to that is how can I not? This? Again, is essential healthcare. This is providing a very safe service to folks who need it for whatever the reason is,

and again no different than anything else. And so I couldn't live with myself if I didn't provide the care that I feel is appropriate and necessary for the people I see. TST Health is not a temple or a gathering place for folks who have the beliefs of the Satanic temple. However, we do incorporate those tenets with the patients that we see to whatever extent that they would like to go through any type of a ritual with their abortion care. I'm going to read what the TST

Health site says about the abortion ritual. So it serves as a protective right. Its purpose is to cast off unwanted feelings that a patient may be experiencing due to choosing to have a legal and medically safe abortion. The ritual is designed to alleviate stressors and empower the patient to be guided by the Satanic Temple's third and fifth

tenants when pursuing their decision. The ritual serves to assist in affirming their decision and to ward off the effects of unjust persecution, which can cause one to stray from the paths of scientific reasoning and free will, and those third and fifth tenants. One of those is bodily autonomy. The other, the fifth one is talks about the scientific and best practices and utilizing the best knowledge that we

have or care. Some folks want to participate in some type of a ritual, even if it's I have chosen to do this, this is right for me, this is right for my body. I am firm and clear in my decision. It could be as simple as that which we do want everyone to be able to verbalize to us that this is their decision that they want, that

they're not being coerced in any way. Or it could be that they may actually take one of the seven tenants from the Satanic Temple and actually say those out loud prior to taking their medication or when they take

their medication. So the patient that we're seeing today. We ask if she would be willing to come onto the podcast just so that everyone can kind of hear the process, the consent process, how we explain everything to the patient, my part of the visit, the provider part of the visit, and she said that she's more than willing to do that. So we just got a message from our support person just that the patient has joined and so we are going to join the call as well. It's a video call perfect.

be in New Mexico. Some patients really stick in your mind because they had to travel two thousand miles and you know, they had to get childcare, and many of them have traveled, but a lot of them we have seen have actually been in New Mexico and they're in small little towns. I the reason I was really excited to work with TST Health is that through their membership and through donors, the only cost to the patients who are accessing is the cost of the medication, which is

about eighty dollars. Other places it's anywhere from six hundred to you know, twelve hundred dollars for a medication abortion. And so especially for folks who maybe need to travel, folks who are in some of these really tiny towns in New Mexico that socioeconomically are not stellar, this is a really affordable, great way to access abortion care if they need that service.

procedure determinate a pregnancy that is abnormal. The prescriptions for the abortion pill and for the other medications that we prescribe along with that go through a mail order pharmacy, and so if they're in New Mexico, it can come to their house, it can go to a po box, it can go wherever they need it to do. If they don't live in New Mexico, they can either wait for that package because we can overnight it, or they can do mail forwarding from a physical address and then

it'll forward it to their home. The reason that we do the mail order is that most pharmacies do not carry the medications for medication abortion. There are two main medications. One is called mithipristone are you for eighty six? The French abortion pill. Those are all names that have been used and when it was first approved for use in the United States back in two thousand and one, there were some very strict guidelines in that as a provider,

I had to contract with the manufacturer. They had to verify that I really knew what I was doing and that I knew how to prescribe it, knew how to take care of it, and I gave the patient that all the right stuff and I could take care of them. And as we have found, you know, cause it was it had been legal in European Union for much longer than that. We had all their safety data and then we had all this data from the United States as well,

and we realized, wow, it is pretty safe. And so even though I'm still contracted with the manufacturer to say that I can prescribe it, pharmacies do not carry it. It's crazy that yeah, it's just crazy to have to jump through all these hoops for a medication that is super safe and should be available when someone needs it. You kind of want to be like, why can't you understand how important this is? And just because you don't believe in it doesn't mean you should take that access

away from someone else. You know, I may not believe in I don't know having a root canal, but I would never take that away from someone else. It just astounds me that still in this day and age, we are taking things away from a certain group of people, whether that's you know, people of color, whether that's people who you know are assigned female at birth who can get pregnant and we're taking away their abortion access or their birth control access or whatever it is. It's just

I'm kind of dumbfounded by it all. I try not to get in arguments about it because I feel like if someone is that has those beliefs so entrenched that they're not willing to listen, Just like I'm willing to listen as long as what you're telling me is factual and again based on not just feelings but on actual facts and what's going on, I'm willing to listen. But if someone is so entrenched in it's it's wrong because you know, the Bible says it's wrong or whatever, then

I'm not going to get in an argument. And so there are some people I don't want to talk about it with. You know that I know what their beliefs are, and so we just we won't talk about it, or you know, like in large family gatherings, I may say, okay, everyone listen, we are not talking about these five things. You can talk about anything else you want, not those five things, because it doesn't do any good to argue.

without any major side effects or problems at all. And then since you're going to be taking your other medicine buckley, which is in between your cheek and your gum, you're going to wait twenty four to forty eight hours after you take that first medicine to finish this process with the medication abortion. So whenever that timing works out best for you, when you're ready to take your second set of medicines, you're going to first take your nausea pill,

which is called on dancetron or zofran. It dissolves on your tongue. You're going to take that. Then you're going to take one of your prescription ibuprofen pills, and you're gonna wait thirty minutes let those medicines get in your system and start working. The next thing that you're gonna take then is you're gonna take your four mesa prostal pills.

You're gonna put two here and two here in between your cheek and your gum, and you're gonna leave them there for thirty minutes, swallow down whatever's left, and then the process will get started. It usually starts fairly quickly after you swallow those down. So that's why I want you to take that other medicine before you take your mesa prostal pills. Okay, so most people feel better within twelve hours. You should definitely feel better within twenty four hours.

If you don't, or if at any point you're worried or concerned, that's when you want to call our on call nurse. As Jess said, we do have somebody who's on call twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. So if you have questions, that's when you want to give us a call. We are here to support you kind of before, during, and after, So make sure if you need us, let us know.

in the first place, or whatever the situation is. Through TST Health, we don't see anyone who is under seventeen, partially just because of you know, some minor abuse reporting in those kind of things. So we do see some older teenagers that's been a very very small percentage of who we seen. I see a lot of people who are in their twenties, mid to late twenties. We see a lot of people who are in their late thirties, and we've even seen a few people who are in

their mid to late forties. And so I can't say that there's one demographic of who we see because we have seen the entire gamut of folks. Some patients do stand out. I was so proud of this young woman who I didn't even know, but she was in college unintentionally pregnant. She had all of these plans for her future, which she was able to share some with me, and she's probably going to be running the world someday, and pregnancy did not come into her plan. And so she

filled out her paperwork. She wanted to talk about birth control. She was concerned about timing because she needed some she lived in the dorm, she needed a time when her roommate wasn't there, and she had some privacy. So we worked around her schedule. And that's the other beauty about TST health is that we can work around somebody's schedule. Okay, you know this was my roommate has a class from six to nine pm Mountain time. Can you please? Can

we please? I'm like, absolutely, what time works for you. We went through the whole process. She had downloaded all over form. She had all of these questions. We got all of those questions answered. You know, she was firm and clear in her decision and didn't have family that she could turn to because of their beliefs, but her partner was supportive, and she had a friend who was supportive and had someone to help her kind of go

through this process. And it was just it was wonderful to see this person is taking charge of their life. They know what they need, They've gotten the facts, they know how to take care of themselves. They reached out and they got the care that they needed. We were able to connect and do that, and she can have

children at the time of her choosing. You know, we see people at some of their worst moments and to be able to say I hear you, and it's okay, and I can help you and let's talk about this to when maybe somebody else in their lives doesn't want to talk about it, or they didn't get any support, or they didn't nowhere else to go and it's just it's a wonderful career. Okay, great, Well, thank you so much,

really appreciate it. Take care of yourself, and again, please reach out if you need us, because that's what we're here for.

because it's just it's the best thing ever. As I'm finishing up my workday, I just kind of review and make sure that everything that was on my to do list today got done, or if it didn't, I just move it over to tomorrow. I turn out the light and leave my little office here in my house, and once I'm out in the living room, I usually pour a drink and touch base and connect with my partner. Okay, buppies, let's go outside. It's about nine thirty and I'm getting ready to.