WomanSafeHealth stands in solidarity with those opposed to racial oppression and to achieving justice and reparations. Below, we share the WomanSafeHealth Opening, which is read aloud at every gathering, including staff meetings, and is our commitment to health care without oppression:

“We come together with a common mission to provide the best possible health care to women, girls, trans and gender nonconforming people of every age and ability, size, shape, color, sexuality and identity from all social, spiritual and cultural backgrounds. We are each on our own journey in life and we honor the gifts that each of us brings to this work. May our meeting together be blessed with honest and forthright speaking, courageous and respectful listening, clarity, openness, a spirit of helpfulness, and a willingness to persevere. We respect and solicit what each of our clients and what each of the WomanSafeHealth staff brings to us and what they have to teach us. May we always keep learning and know that together we are creating a better world.”

#blacklivesmatter
#icantbreathe

by Elizabeth Shadigian, MD

Drawing on the actual experiences of women, WomanSafeHealth: The Antidote to Status Quo Health Care uses cartoons and humor together with analysis and compassion to reveal what it means to meet a woman’s health care needs. Status Quo Health Care is a term coined at WomanSafeHealth to describe the poisoned care most women experience – hurried, depersonalized, cold, disrespectful, profit-driven – care that neglects her individual story and choices.

At WomanSafeHealth each woman is a person, not a disease; a client, not a number. She is the focus, and her health care team is her consultant.
Prescribing self-awareness, care analysis and personal empowerment as antidotes to Status Quo Health Care, Elizabeth affirms what every woman already knows: safety and respect must be the core of health care.