National Appreciation Day for Abortion Providers. Thank you!

March 10 is National Appreciation Day for Abortion Providers. In recent years, this may have seemed like a silly appreciation day: why go out of our way to celebrate people who do their jobs? However, the sad truth is that, in this country, health care providers who give counseling, advice and schedule, and perform abortions do so against mounting hatred and controversy. They do a job that carries not only a stigma in our society, but that bears the risk of being threatened, hurt, or even murdered. Their bravery deserves our heartfelt appreciation.

As the folks at Feministing point out, National Appreciate Day for Abortion Provider marks the anniversary of the "1993 assassination of Dr. David Gunn, the first abortion provider killed in the U.S. because of his job." Last year, Dr. George Tiller was murdered in his church by anti-choice radical Scott Roeder, reminding everyone why it's important to honor the people who provide reproductive health services. The obvious hypocrisy in using violence to end a practice many perceive as violence against unborn children demonstrates the insanity, anger, and uncontrollable pitch of many within the anti-choice movement today.

Last week I wrote about Angie Jackson, a Florida woman who decided to share her abortion experience through social media. But Jackson's effort to "demystify" abortion for other women has taken an ugly turn. As Salon.com reports, Jackson's actions have elicited death threats. We are at a place in this country where a woman with health complications can't have a legal procedure and talk about it without having her life threatened.

Releasing a second video to confront the threats, Jackson is obviously frightened, yet brave and determined. Giving into the threats and staying quiet, she rightly says, would be tantamount to letting the terrorists win.

Jackson's experience illustrates not only how drastically our attitude towards abortion must change, but how brave it really is to talk about abortion and to provide abortions. Jackson currently has cops patrolling her house -- she's that spooked. "Think she's overreacting?" Salon asks. "Two words: George Tiller."

Today, the National Abortion Federation is taking comments and signatures so that people can show their support for abortion providers. Send them a note thanking them for standing up to anti-choice terrorism. Both the women who exercise their right to choose (and in Jackson's case her right to live) and the providers who risk their lives to help women, live in a daily environment of threats and hatred the rest of us cannot fathom.