Dr. Willie Parker

He grew up Christian in Alabama and became a doctor at the suggestion of a college mentor. In Life’s Work, he explains why he’s now an abortion provider.

- Alice Park

When you first became an ob-gyn, you did not perform abortions because you felt it conflicted with your Christian principles. What changed?

I’ve been a Christian longer than I’ve been a physician. When I chose a career as a women’s health provider, I had to think more seriously, more deeply about the fact that I see women on a regular basis who have unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. The compassion that welled up inside me for each woman—each woman had a story, a circumstance—it came to a point where increasingly it was uncomfortable to be saying no. What I believed and what I practiced began to come into conflict.

How did you reconcile your religious beliefs with your sense of professional obligation?