May 3, 2016

This Abortion Doctor Is Fighting for Her Right to Stand Up for Reproductive Rights

Diane Horvath-Cosper filed a civil rights complaint claiming a hospital forbid her from speaking about abortions due to safety concerns.

David Zalubowski/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


An abortion provider in Washington, D.C. has filed a legal complaint against the hospital where she is currently completing a two-year fellowship, alleging that administrators violated her civil rights by effectively silencing her from publicly supporting the right to an abortion, the New York Times reports.

According to Diane Horvath-Cosper, MedStar Hospital Center in D.C. began to bar her from defending the medical procedure in interviews and newspapers editorials soon after the deadly shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado last November. The attack was the most deadly in a recent surge of violence directed at abortion providers after anti-abortion activists released a string of heavily-edited videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials administering the sale of fetal tissues.

“The dialogue is dominated by those who have demonized this totally normal part of health care,” Horvath-Cosper said in an interview with the Times. “I don’t think the way to deal with bullies is to cower and pull back.”

Horvath-Cosper’s lawyers say that in addition to violating her legal protection from employment discrimination based on her stance on abortion, which is guaranteed by the Supreme Court in its 1973 decision Roe. v Wade, the hospital failed to provide the proper security measures to keep her physically safe from attacks.

Horvath-Cosper’s legal battle comes amid the continuing efforts by conservative lawmakers to roll back women’s access to legal abortions around the country and several state’s attempts to defund Planned Parenthood. In response, some abortion rights activists have embraced the #ShoutYourAbortion campaign in hopes to destigmatize the medical procedure. Others, have adopted similar approaches to MedStar Hospital Center and have actively sought to avoid attracting such attention out of concern for the public safety and the safety of staff members who assist with performing abortions.

According to the Times, when Dr. Horvath-Cosper attempted to come to an arrangement in which she could still write about abortion without mentioning where she worked, the hospital suggested she abandon her fellowship if she wanted to maintain her public advocacy.

 

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate