Meet Erica Cahill, MD, MS(c)

Do any patient experiences stand out to you?

If I can make some small space to grow that trust, whether it’s protecting their birth space or having a conversation to choose the best contraception, talking about sexual health in a way that has been totally taboo for them their whole life, it’s incredibly fulfilling. One of my patients just gave birth and she and her wife are moms for the first time, and they told me that they had not been comfortable with other providers and felt so safe with me. That just fills my soul.

In reproductive health, it’s impossible to ignore how societal structures and social determinants affect pregnancy care. Managing the structural inequities, while also providing care for the patient in front of me, is one of the biggest challenges of reproductive health care.

In my family growing up, there were two core questions that were emphasized. The first was, what makes you curious? I was encouraged to ask questions. The second was, how can you help?

What has been your biggest challenge?

When I say the social determinants of health, I also mean white supremacy, the history of racism and medicine in this country, transphobia. All those things are interrelated in who we have decided as a society to protect, to support — or not. These structural inequities restrict people‘s ability to take care of themselves and access the best care, which is what we say we want for everyone.

For me, it’s always challenging when people have an ingrained belief that isn’t based in our shared humanity. I’m a doctor. I treat the person in front of me. People are allowed their views about abortion care, but it’s important that those views don’t interfere with the relationships between people and their doctors. Many people don’t believe in abortion until they, or someone they love, needs one.

How do you envision the recent Supreme Court ruling affecting your work here at Stanford? Will anything change for you?

At Stanford, we provide abortion care every day. We’ll continue to do that. We have expert doctors providing abortion care here at Stanford. We are lucky to be in California where that’s still possible. Even though this ruling is immense and terrifying, accessing abortion has already been harder to access, particularly for poor people, people of color, and people in the South. We’ve already seen an influx of patients from Texas and other places. We’re continuing to try to expand access for people seeking abortion care.

“The patients that stand out are the patients who have had experiences in our medical system where they have felt devalued or ignored or haven’t felt safe.

We also see an influx in learners. For many years, we have trained visiting medical students and residents from other states who cannot learn about abortion care in their own schools or programs. We have been expanding this. We are trying to expand our research, advocacy, and teaching as well. It‘s challenging to find funding to support abortion-related research.

This ruling has emboldened the people who are trying to restrict abortion. There are new concerns about privacy and safety. This is huge motivation for those of us in this work and the front lines of this work to be louder about protecting abortion care because we are the people who can be. Doctors in other states are fearful. We at Stanford need to be leaders in this and be very clear about science and medicine. Abortion is essential health care.

What should your fellow physicians keep in mind following this court ruling?

You can do something to support reproductive justice and protect the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship. Silence around abortion and silence around reproductive autonomy is a lack of support, is condoning these restrictions. Especially for my colleagues, other faculty, and other doctors, it is so important that we are not silent. It is important that we talk about abortion as health care and how critical it is that we do not have outside interference in patient-doctor decisions.

Kris Durán is a San Francisco illustrator specializing in creating art for children's books and art-licensed products.