I'm an abortion clinic escort

[ismnotwasm]

"Is this why you came here all the way from Australia? To kill babies?”

I didn't set out to become a clinic escort. Sure, I'd seen footage of angry anti-abortion protesters harassing women and threatening doctors, but thought that only happened in such places as Kansas and Mississippi, not here in New York City.

When a local feminist group told me that escorts - volunteers who “escort” patients from the street and into the clinic - were desperately needed at a women's health centre in a low-income area of Queens, I was motivated as much by curiosity as my passion for reproductive rights.


It was 7am and I couldn't believe people would get up so early on a Saturday to stand outside a medical clinic and yell at patients going in. But they do. And anti-abortion protesters fervently believe they are doing the “Lord's work”.

They are also adamant that everyone working for the clinic, escorts included, has “blood on their hands”.

The “antis”, as we call them, spread out across the street in a 200-metre radius from the clinic. They brandish the familiar images of allegedly aborted foetuses. Some of them follow patients to the front door, crying out things such as “Please don't kill your baby!” and “You will regret this for the rest of your life”, and even “Don't kill me mommy!” in falsetto.

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/im-an-abortion-clinic-escort-20131018-2vr24.html

[gopiscrap]

1. thank you

[delrem]

2. IMO all this would be accomplished in hospitals and clinics overseen by a single-payer system.

I've been trying to figure out my underlying objection to this whole scene.
For one thing, the scene is artificial - it put Dr. Tiller in what I'd call "open range in hunting season".

I think a person's family doctor should be allowed to oversee all aspects of one's health care, and no aspect of it should be subject to firebrands with pitchforks. So I wouldn't accept a situation that didn't allow for medical confidentiality.

Is a single-payer system necessary to accomplish this? I don't know, but I do know that it, with a will, is sufficient.

[ReRe]

3. The guy needs to get...

... a little bottle of red food coloring and bless them with it, ala a Priest: "In the name of the Father (annoint), the Son (annoint) and the Holy Spirit (annoint with the remaining amount in the bottle.) They will panic and be afraid that it is blood. If they have a right to shout religion at you, you have a right to express your feelings too, right?

[Prophet 451]

4. There's an escort group blog I read

http://everysaturdaymorning.net/

[Arcanetrance]

5. I did it once. I couldn't do it again I almost lost my temper with the idiot fundies

The women who have decided on this have had enough on their plate they don't need to be berated by anyone. After one day of helping I realized you temper wasn't suited to anything but making things worse by becoming just violent and belligerent back to the protesters.