In September 2003 I began volunteering as what is known as a "pro-choice
escort" at a Portland abortion clinic. For about the next year I went
every other Saturday morning, Saturday mornings being the time when the
clinic is typically besieged by anti-abortion protesters and thus needs
defending.
On any given morning there were typically anywhere from three to six
escorts on duty. Most of them came when they could; the only ones who
were there every Saturday were W and S, the informal "leaders" of the
team. We were always careful, by the way, to use only first names and
avoid mentioning any identifying information which the protesters might
overhear. We had once had a case where the protesters had somehow found
out an escort's home address and had sent him threats through the mail.
(I am using initials here since I have no way of knowing whether they
would care to be even that identifiable in an internet posting. W was a
man, S a woman.)
The term "escort" is somewhat misleading. In theory an escort's job is to
stand outside the clinic and, if needed, intervene to shield clients from harassment
by the protesters on their way into the building. In practice such
cases seldom arise. Most clients park in a parking lot which is off
limits to the protesters and enter through the back door, and even when a
client uses the front door, the protesters rarely attempt to approach
her. In fact, the role of the escort is a more subtle one. The aim of
the anti-abortion protesters is intimidation -- making the clinic's
clients and staff feel isolated and surrounded by opposing forces. The
role of the escorts is to negate this, providing a visible positive
presence to counter the protesters' hostile one, making the environment
more comfortable for clients who might otherwise feel they were in
completely unfriendly territory. More than doing anything per se, one's job is simply to be
there. It seems very likely, for example, that protesters would
routinely approach and harass clients if there were no escorts present.
Knowing that the escorts are ready to intervene if they do so deters
them from trying.
The protesters themselves were a varied crew. Most of them were regulars,
and we knew their habits. Some of them just stood around holding signs.
Some engaged in religious chanting or ostentatious praying. Some stood
as close to the clinic as the law allowed and gave vent to long,
bellowing diatribes which usually seemed to be more about God and the
Bible and so forth than about abortion per se. One protester always wore a holstered gun. He had a permit for it, so there was nothing we could do
about this. Due to some previous incident, there was a standing police
order forbidding him to be on the same side of the street as the clinic
itself, so he stood across the street, scowling at us. Another protester had a bizarre personal fixation on S. He had once said to
her, "Women like you deserve to be raped." I once heard a protester
shout at a man who was accompanying a woman into the clinic, "Why are
you letting that woman kill your baby? Be dominant, sir! Be a man!" Yes, he really said that.
I never saw any actual violence, but the level of tension was sometimes
considerable, especially whenever there was a new protester whom we
hadn't seen before. A new person was by definition unpredictable. As we
all know, in other parts of the country there have been a few cases of
abortion clinics being bombed and doctors murdered by Christianist
terrorists, and there has been at least one case in which a volunteer
escort was killed. So we were always on the alert for any sign of
possible danger.
Why did I do it? I've always held individual freedom to be the highest
value. If you allow others to encroach on your absolute freedom to
decide what will happen inside your own body, then what freedom can
you lay claim to? As for the others, W was a libertarian who similarly felt repulsed by the protesters' goal of suppressing
self-determination on religious grounds, while S had strong feminist
convictions; most of the more transient defenders, as best I could tell,
had similar motives. Incidentally, though most of them would generally
be classified as leftist, most agreed with my own views on the Islamist threat.
It's one thing to study religious fanaticism by reading books about it.
It's very different to come face to face with it. During my time as a
clinic escort, I came to understand in my gut, not just in my head, what
these people's mentality is really like. They will not be satisfied
until what you and I and everyone else can and cannot do is dictated by
the taboos of their religion, backed up by the power of the
law, as in Taliban Afghanistan.
Local people in that neighborhood would sometimes stop and chat with the
escorts, bring us hot drinks on cold mornings or otherwise offering
encouragement. On one occasion an elderly woman approached me and said,
"I don't agree with abortion, but I'm glad to see a man standing up for
women's right to make their own decisions." That's what this is
really about: the freedom of all of us to make our own decisions, not
have them made for us by somebody else's religion. That's the freedom that requires our eternal vigilance.
[Reposted from 2006]
You put your money where your mouth is, so to speak. Good for you!
ReplyDeleteWow - I am impressed. Good for you providing such an important service even at your own peril.
ReplyDeleteI'm clapping from here.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought I should do this, but I don't really trust myself not to ask someone to hold my earrings and bitchslap one of those morons into next week. I have a temper.
It infuriates me beyond measure that those people CAN intimidate women going into an an abortion clinic. Ugh. But America, right? Fuck those people. And the man with the gun? Pencil dick, most probably. Ammonsexuals always have... deficiencies.
XOXO
I agree with Debra: you walk the talk, so good for you! It's intimidating enough for a patient to cross a protest picket line, let alone one where she gets screamed at, called names and physically threatened!
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing this. We are always grateful for people who do what has to be done to keep religion out of civil law. Bravo to you!
ReplyDeleteWe are traveling down a long dark road. Losing our freedoms, not just on this issue, but many others. And many, if not all, tied to the religious right and their sick twisted minds.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what they are so desperately afraid of, that will make all this a moot point considering what’s rolling towards us with climate change, which, of course, they deny.
Thank you for your service to those vulnerable women, and in taking a stand for freedom.
ReplyDeleteI've got an email sitting there waiting for a response for more escorts at the clinic here. I keep thinking I should go do it. I just haven't pulled the trigger yet. And I afraid I might harass the protesters myself. With my own signs. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteBravo!!
ReplyDeleteGood for you! I still think that the "Keep abortion safe, legal, and rare." bumper stickers were right on. You provided a valuable service.
ReplyDeleteI live in a community who lost an abortion provider to a religious nut's bullet some years ago. For a while I volunteered to do computer work at the clinic of the community's current abortion provider. There seem to be enough client escorts, here; but, I think that really old women (like me) should stand for that duty since little intimidates them (us).
You, are a wonderful and brave person.
ReplyDeleteMuch thanks for all the kind words. This was a long time ago now, but I'm very glad I did it.
ReplyDeleteThat's the kind of thing I would like to do, though admittedly I would be hard pressed to keep my mouth shut.
ReplyDeleteIt just boggles my mind that with so many more worthwhile things to do in the world, the first and last thought these people have every day is about trying to prevent women from getting an abortion.
Out of curiosity, did you ever witness any of the regulars bring in a family member through the back door for an abortion and then returned to the protest line the following weeek?
That takes guts. Good for you for being there Infidel.
ReplyDeletegoodness, Infidel, how truly marvelous of you! would you be so kind as to guest blog post for my site? If you’re so inclined, here’s a link to general guidelines: https://wp.me/p6OZAy-1eQ
ReplyDeleteWow, great of you to stand vigil in those circumstances. It's chilling to think that there are (a great number of) people here who would like nothing better than to shove their viewpoints down the rest of our throats. Sad, really.
ReplyDelete