About Shelley Sella

Dr. Shelley Sella is a board-certified OB-GYN and the first woman to openly practice third-trimester abortion care in the U.S., which she did for 20 years. She began focusing her medical practice exclusively on abortion care in 2000. In 2010, Dr. Sella, along with Dr. Susan Robinson, set up a third-trimester abortion practice at Southwestern Women’s Options in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she served as the medical director. She retired in December 2021.

Dr. Sella served two terms on the board of the National Abortion Federation and in 2022 was awarded its highest honor, the Christopher Tietze Humanitarian Award. She was prominently featured in the Emmy award-winning documentary After Tiller. This film, which premiered at the Sundance Film festival, focuses on the four remaining physicians, including Dr. Sella who continued to provide third-trimester care in the aftermath of Dr. Tiller’s death. Her compassion towards her patients and explanation of the complexity of this segment of abortion care, particularly resonated with the viewing audience. She has co-authored articles on third-trimester abortion care that have appeared in a number of top medical journals. She contributed to the book Abortion Care as Moral Work: Ethical Considerations of Maternal and Fetal Bodies, edited by Johanna Schoen and published by Rutgers University Press in 2022.