I have now officially finished my internship with Planned Parenthood. It is wild to me how fast the summer has sped by – I feel like I was just starting yesterday and yet it’s somehow over. From the work to the attorneys to the other interns, I had a great experience and am sad to be leaving the team. But I also know that I will be taking the lessons from these few months with me into future experiences and that I will definitely stay in touch with the people I met here!
In many ways I can’t even process how much I’ve learned throughout these past few weeks. I had never worked in a legal organization before and had thus never done this type of work before. While I did start the internship with a solid foundation in the reproductive rights space, that did not extend to the impact litigation organizations and how they do their work. First and foremost, I was able to see how Planned Parenthood decides to take on cases and what that strategy looks like both in situations that are planned well in advance and in those where states unexpectedly pass restrictions.
Additionally, I have been able to hone many of the skills I will need to have in order to be a litigator – primarily my research and writing skills have vastly improved. Getting actual research projects that were relevant to our work, hearing explanations of how they fit into the broader work on the case, and getting feedback on my memos has been extraordinarily helpful. I already feel much more confident in my abilities and know that I will continue to improve in the months and years to come. I also was able to observe Planned Parenthood attorneys argue against restrictive state laws in multiple cases. Oral advocacy is such a challenging skill and it was amazing to see how the attorneys adeptly handled these situations and used the research that the team put together.
Shifting to a more personal note, I spent the week of July 4th working remotely so that I could visit my sister on her birthday. She recently moved to Providence to start her medical residency program (for OB/GYN) and I was so appreciative of PPFA’s flexibility so that I could help her settle into her new place. It was also great to explore Providence as I had never been before, despite it being so close to Boston.
One of the best parts about the PPFA orientation for when we joined as new interns is that it was not entirely focused on the law – we also got at least an overview of the medical side of contraceptives and abortions. I had never gotten a training like this before, and I realized how essential it is that this happens in all reproductive rights-focused organizations. There is so much misinformation about abortions that ensuring that all employees are informed about the science of this work should be a central part of the mission for all organizations in this space. While I still have a lot to learn in this area, it was such a helpful perspective to have when talking with my sister about what she has seen so far in her residency program and the primary issues that Providence faces when it comes to sexual health.
And now, I head to Washington, DC to start my second internship at the Department of Justice. Although my time at PPFA is coming to a close, I still have another experience ahead of me as I continue reflecting on the many questions I have regarding potential legal careers. Although I was only able to see a small sliver of the work that Planned Parenthood does in terms of litigation, I have a much better grasp on this space than I did before this internship. There is so much work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that the cases these impact litigation organizations bring are as strong as possible, and I am glad I was able to spend at least a couple months helping with this work.
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