Dr. Maggie Carpenter: Stop the politicization of health care

This is the speech given at FFRF’s national convention in Myrtle Beach, S.C., by Dr. Maggie Carpenter on Oct. 17, 2025, in accepting FFRf’s Forward Award.

Carpenter is a co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, or ACT, a New York-based nonprofit that provides technical and legal support for telemedicine providers. In February 2025, Louisiana indicted Carpenter and charged her with a felony for allegedly mailing abortion pills to a patient in their state.

By Dr. Maggie Carpenter

I am so sorry that I cannot be with you in person to accept this amazing award. I am humbled. This award really goes to all telehealth shield providers — my peers who are bravely doing work that is so desperately needed in this dark time in our nation’s history.

It also goes to the courageous lawyers David Cohen, Rachel Rebel Shea and Greer Donnelly, who almost four years ago imagined a way that progressive states could fight back providing abortion to thousands who otherwise would lose access due to draconian restrictions — a truly proactive idea rather than the typical defensive crouch we have seen over the last 50 years in response to attacks on reproductive rights.

It also goes to the bold legislators and governors who passed the telehealth shield laws and the thousands of supporters, their constituents who encouraged them. We hope to see more states follow suit. This award also goes to the pharmacies, the funders, the tech gurus and the lawyers, everyone who has helped to bring pills by mail to patients across the country.

I started as a telehealth abortion provider in May of 2020, when Covid shut down access to medical care. Prior to this, I could never have fathomed providing care to patients I had not seen in person. But, sometimes necessity opens the door to new models of care, and research shows that no-touch abortions are as safe and effective as in-person care.

Without the rise of telemedicine abortion during Covid, the Dobbs decision could have brought us back to the days of back-alley abortions, putting patients’ lives at risk. In fact, just the opposite happened. The telehealth movement succeeded in providing access to abortion care to more people across the country than before Dobbs. Now, medication abortion is the preferred method, which accounts for more than three quarters of all abortions in the United States.

It’s no wonder that the anti-abortion movement is pulling out all the stops to ban it. And make no mistake, this war against reproductive health will have deadly consequences for patients. It already has. This is a true life and death fight. It is an understatement to say we are living in difficult times. The depth of devastation is far reaching, more than any imagined — education, health care, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, political violence, separation of church and state, our justice system. It seems no area is safe. We are living in a time of authoritarian power and greed, not freedom and equality. We need sanity and decency. Many of us never thought we would be here. When I graduated from college in 1992, it seemed anything was possible. The civil rights and women’s rights movements had opened doors. I was able to dream of becoming a doctor and a mother, not being forced to forsake one for the other.

The economy was strong and jobs were plentiful. Anything seemed possible. This is not the same environment my children are finding as they graduate from college. The Christian nationalist manifesto is being played out as designed in Project 2025. Even though most Americans do not want this, the political division we see is a tool to divide us and prevent us from recognizing that most of us want the same things — affordable housing, clean water, decent jobs, safe streets, quality fact-based health care.

We will never agree on everything, but there is enough common ground to work together. We can fight corruption and bigotry. Imagine what it would be like to get medical issues out of our electoral processes. Force politicians to discuss policy issues, climate change, governance, poverty, roads, trade and even public health which, by definition, is the health of a population as a whole and has nothing to do with individual pregnancy choices.

We need to stop the politicization of health care. I dream of a world where we are able to separate medicine and state through a constitutional amendment, a freedom of medical decision act. Over 80 percent of Americans believe that medical decisions should be between them and their health care provider, not by their state or federal legislators, and certainly not by judges.

This amendment would allow medical decisions to be made in privacy and partnership with medical professionals, as it should be. Doctors are already regulated by state medical boards and specialty boards and governed by the Hippocratic Oath. I’ve always believed my role as a family medicine provider is to provide my patients with high quality, evidence-based care and to present them with their options.

Whether a patient chooses prenatal care or an abortion based on their individual circumstances, their health and their family situation, that is their choice, not mine. What should not be a choice, but, unfortunately, has become an awful one presented to many providers is following the standard of care to help a patient or save their life or complying with the law. And yet, now, in the face of politically motivated, unscientific laws in many states, politicians are forcing doctors to choose between helping their patients or going to jail. This is wrong and it will and has had deadly consequences for patients and women in this country. So, there is a lot to do, to say the least. The road ahead of us feels longer than it ever has.

A good friend always ends her emails with an old proverb, “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” These times demand we all work together to create a more humane and equitable world. I thank you for honoring me with the Forward Award. I will keep it on my desk as motivation as we push forward on these crucial issues that affect us all.

Thank you so much.