In 1959 a photo shows Eugene Glick with his sons, Steve, Daniel, and Bob, who all died in 2001. This photo was taken by The Glick Family.
The father was a doctor. He performed surgeries and counseled families during his career. He provided abortion services. Many of the women he treated for illegal abortions and back-alley procedures died from their injuries.
Abortions were a part of our father's practice. He shared the joy of giving birth to a baby for parents who wanted to enlarge their family. He saw the anguish of women who became pregnant by partners who abused them or men who wouldn't support their children. He shared that a woman who had more children than she and her husband could support was relieved when she terminated her unwanted pregnancy because she knew she wasn't ready to be a parent yet.
Dad provided abortion services in Nevada. He told us about conservative public figures who would thank him because he helped them when their mistresses or daughters became pregnant. He spoke with Mormon legislators who were against abortion. I don't like the idea of the government telling us what to do.
Dad walked past picketers he knew by name to provide a medical service that was fundamental to his identity as a physician: to help his patients make the most difficult decision of their lives. Protesters put his name on a hit list after breaking his clinic windows. One of his coworkers was killed.
Dad wrote the book "Surgical Abortion" after he retired, which helped train other physicians in safer, faster and less traumatic techniques. Patients were reassured that the decision to have an abortion was a brave one.
He used his humor to try to convince abortion rights opponents of the consequences of an unwanted pregnancies. If a man screwed up for one minute and as a result he swelled up for nine months, it's a section in his book called "If a man could get pregnant." It would be against his will to have this happen and to have an obligation to raise another human being for eighteen years. Do you think a man would accept that?
When a woman came to our dad's office, he wouldn't serve as a judge or jury. Women had many different reasons to come to see him. He knew that none of the reasons were related to the government. Forced pregnancy and forced birth are crimes against humanity and he would not be involved in any of them.
We know that our father would have shared stories of the women and men that he helped over the course of his career. He received pictures of babies the women had when they chose to have them. He helped the women who showed up at his clinic even though they had no place else to go and no money. The men were grateful and relieved.
Dad would be angry at the recent Supreme Court nominees who lied in order to get confirmed. It's hard to comprehend the Machiavellian thinking that led McConnell to refuse to fill a court seat in the name of letting the voters decide, and then rush through a nominee to confirm a third Donald Trump appointment. What standard of decency did that fall under?
The horrors of living in a country where reproductive rights were denied to women led our father to perform abortions. He knew his patients were struggling with their consciences, their beliefs and their needs before they came to him. Each one was supported by our father with kindness and reassurance.
Dad would still be fighting for a woman's right to control her body and her reproductive decisions even though we don't know what he'd be doing now. We call on others to speak out and join us because we feel compelled to do the same as men who have inherited our dad's legacy.
Daniel Glick is a writer. He is a former Newsweek correspondent and has written for more than 50 national and international publications. His book "Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids, and a Journey to the ends of the Earth" won the Colorado book award.
He was a nurse-representative on a hospital ethics board and a guest university lecturer. He has been married to his wife for 35 years and has three children.
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The article was first published on HuffPost.
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