McHugh is one of five formerly closeted abortion providers who spoke to the Guardian about their recent decisions to come out about their work. It makes me feel like I’m ashamed of this work, which I’m not – I’m actually so deeply proud of it.” “I thought, ‘This is ridiculous.’ I’m playing into this game by being quiet and secretive. Instead of pushing her into deeper silence, this harassment provoked her to come out of the closet. “I’ve gotten consistent hate mail from my local peers since then.” “It was the only response I’ve gotten that really upset me,” she says. Outraged that she had posted about reproductive rights in a Facebook group, conservative acquaintances banned her from the group and told her that she didn’t deserve to be a doctor, that they would never refer to her practice again. This time, the hate mail came not from strangers, but from people she knew. That changed this past winter, when she was the target of another wave of vitriol on social media. The harassment she endured after simply advocating for reproductive rights confirmed her belief that it was safer to keep quiet – to let people keep assuming that she “just liked to talk about abortion” but didn’t actually provide it herself. Her Twitter and Facebook inboxes flooded with messages saying she should get raped or murdered. (She identified herself in the op-ed as an obstetrician-gynecologist, but did not mention that she herself moonlights as a provider.) Letters admonishing her that “abortion is murder” arrived at her office in Indianapolis. Despite living in the proverbial closet, McHugh had been receiving hate mail from anti-choicers since April 2016, when she published an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing against new legislative restrictions on abortion in Indiana.
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