Undue Burden

About Undue Burden

DeShawn Taylor, MD runs her independent OB-GYN and abortion clinic as her ministry, serving those who are most harmed by anti-abortion laws—Black people, POC, Indigenous people, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, and the economically disadvantaged.

In this book, Dr. Taylor provides an intimate portrait of her clinic and the people it serves. She gives a moving account of how the current abortion debate over “choice” fails the vulnerable communities she champions and how the framework of Reproductive Justice offers a better way.

With first-hand stories of her life, medical training, and practice, Dr. Taylor centers the everyday situations of everyday people struggling with forces outside their control: unaffordable childcare, lack of access to health care, insufficient paid time off, unsafe communities, racism, misogyny, heteronormality, white supremacy, and other forces of oppression.

She argues that only when we reframe abortion as a social justice issue can we take back the moral high ground from the extremist Christians and “family values” politicians who have controlled the conversation for far too long.

In these pages, Dr. Taylor shows that only when we ensure that all people have the right to not have children, have children, and to parent their children in safe and healthy communities can we remove the undue burdens that plague those outside the dominant narrative.