Ever been an abortion clinic defender

[Dookus]

or escort? I did it for about 4 years at three different clinics.

Unfortunately (or should I say fortunately), I now live in a town where nobody would even consider protesting our local Planned Parenthood.

But I sure enjoyed doing it. I had many a scuffle, a few physical, with the men (and occasional woman) who were determined to intimidate women into not seeking health care.

The saddest was working at a Planned Parenthood, where most of the women coming and going were NOT there for abortions - yet they took the abuse of the fundies the same as the rest.

The happiest was when the mother of a patient came out and grabbed a 5' tall sign on foam-board and kicked it apart using her bare feet. The look on the face of the protester was priceless.

We blocked her license plate as she drove away.

[truthspeaker]

1. I always regret not doing it

Although I seem to remember they always had more volunteers than they needed when Operation Rescue was in town.

[Dookus]

2. A lot of places STILL need them...

check in with your local PP or NARAL. It's a great experience, you meet some GREAT people doing it, and you get to fuck with fundies.

I got involved because a guy I was dating wanted to do it. I said OK. We went - he hated it (didn't like the confrontation) and I loved it. So I kept on doing it for years.

We introduced ourselves to the fundies as Adam and Steve. We used to kiss in front of one of them just to get him speaking in tongues.

[Old and In the Way]

10. "speaking in tongues"...hehehe.

If you wore an anti-guy T-shirt, you would have scored a hat trick!

[Gryffindor_Bookworm]

23. Adam and Steve????

OMG that's priceless!!!! :yourock: :yourock: :yourock:

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Yep

But not for several years now.

There's very little trouble in my area (north of Philly). Generally, every once in a while, a local church fields their wackos for a few weeks, they get it out of their systems, and that's it.

Of course, that could change. It would probably get me active again.

The fundies used to just about own my area. After a few "incidents" involving "street preachers", and the discovery of a major arsenal under a storefront church, the area cooled on religious zealotry.

--bkl

[bambo53]

4. The way to stop the abortion debate is with a vote

But only fetus's get to vote on whether it should be legal.
In case of a tie, Jesus Christ would get to cast the deciding vote.

The entertainment value alone makes it worth pursuing.

[enigmatic]

5. There's actually an abortion clinic...

right across the street from where my wife and I live; she's seen protesters a couple of times when she's gone to work, but I always seem to miss them. I'd consider being a defender. absolutely..

[praxiz]

6. Heh

I can't help but thinking of Jay and Silent bob kicking those three hockey-kids behinds in Dogma.

[nosmokes]

9. i escorted for a few years in socal

it was interesting, for a while i kept getting assigned to the same clinic week after week and the protesters were always the same as well. so it was like that cartoon with coyote and the sheepdog, where they show up for work and clock in, ya know the one i mean? anyhow, there was one young couple with a couple of kids and one on the way, catholic or baptist, i can't recall now. but we'd see each other every week and it was never confrontational and after a while we started nodding, and then saying hello, and it finally progressed that one day, it was just slower than molasses in january, i went over to the deli across the street and picked up a couple of hoagies and some ice cream and came back and a couple of the other escorts and i and this operation rescue family had lunch together. i'd like to tell you that we made some sort of breakthrough, that they saw the light and were never seen picketing at womancare again, but it was just a lunch.

[DemWitch]

7. not a defender or escort...

but several years ago my sister found herself pregnant by her complete loser of a boyfriend, and she decided to terminate the pregnancy. The closest place for her to go is a two hour drive, so I took her. On the way on there weren't any protesters around, but while she was in the proceedure room, they showed up and were very, very loud, yelling the most obscene things. Anyway, when we went to leave they were stopping cars from pulling out of the parking lot and sticking flyers and shit on the wiper blades and screaming and yelling. My sister was in the passenger seat and really upset, when one of these wonderful christian women pointed to my car and called my sister a murdering bitch.

Long story short, it's amazing how fast old fat women can move when they have 5000 pounds hurtling at them. I lined up their little stick in the ground posters using my hood ornament like a gun site and took at least a half dozen signs out. Car was a piece of shit so who cared about the dings. I never got in any trouble for it, and if I did I was going to say the lot was icy and I skid... was'nt my fault.

I just wish these dogooders understood the agony that these women go through in making thier decision.

[Dookus]

8. Sorry to hear about that...

our job was specifically to make sure the fundies didn't get that close to the patients.

I remember one nice old christian lady screaming at a taxicab driver who dropped off a patient: "I hope they CUT YOUR BALLS OFF!!!"
And she felt thoroughly justified in her evil hatred because of her christianity.

side note: My favorite game there was picking a fight between the Catholics and the evangelicals. I'd pretend to be interested in their views, and they'd get all excited about converting a gay heathen. So I'd get a Catholic and an evangelical together and start asking questions about the Virgin Mary. Then they'd start fighting amongst themselves and I'd walk away laughing.

[Dem2theMax]

13. I really like the way you think.

:)

Had me LOL over this one.

[WindRavenX]

11. I go to PP for my gyno visits

And jesus fucking christ, I go in there FOR A DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENT and I get screamed at by these damn fundies...
I wasn't going in for an abortion you assclowns- I had a yearly gyno appointment! :mad:
It's really, really maddening...no one should have to be harassed for their health.

[RoyGBiv]

12. Yes ...

I went to college at a small regional university, and during my second year I decided I needed to do something more than talk the talk about my views and convictions. There were very few campus organizations that could be considered progressive, so I joined most of them at one time or another, one of which was a women's rights group that was calling for volunteers willing to do this. This turned out to be the only group I stayed with any length of time as it was the only one that really did anything but sit in a room and complain about the state of the world. (This was during Bush I's term, and most of us had cast our first votes for Dukakis and were highly disappointed.)

I experienced some of the same things you did. This resulted in many long discussions/arguments with family members -- I was raised in a Southern Baptist environment for the most part -- about the hypocrisy of so-called Christians who spewed some of the vilest filth from their mouths and threatened some of the most awful things, a great deal of it directed at women who were going to these clinics not for abortions at all. (I ended up joining an Atheists and Agnostics group the next term due to all this.)

One of my better memories involves a police officer who was working crowd control at a rather large, organized protest of a clinic where we were working. I ended up near him and started conversing, trying to cut some of the tension. (We all had this latent feeling the cops were there less to protect us than the people threatening us.) We sorta warmed to each other, and at one point I remember him saying something like, "I don't really like the idea of abortions, but these people are just crazy. They've made me more pro-choice than any politician."

My worst involved no single person, just all the women who were reduced to tears and started openly questioning their lives in the face of this onslaught. It is amazing to me how much philosophical questioning can come out of a person during a few minutes when placed under great stress. Thoughts of how they might have managed the rest of their lives after their experiences in these situations have always haunted me. I've often feared the protesters drove some of these women to do drastic things to themselves afterward.

[Dookus]

14. Thank you

both for your service to a good cause and for sharing your experience.

Yes, I too held the arm of a woman in tears making a painful decision and was called a whore, a tramp and a murderer for doing so. It's gut-wrenching.

But I'm lucky in that the overwhelming majority of women I escorted were confident and empowered by their decision. They ran the guantlet with great dignity and class. Those who were in great pain were always very thankful for our efforts.

To anybody wondering if clinic escorting is right for them, I can only say "YES!". You can really make a difference to a fellow human at a very difficult time, and you can piss off the fundie right at the same time. Does it get any better?

[fujiyama]

15. Why would it be unfortunate

to live in such a place? It sounds like you live in a progressive city or town. I only wish more places were so sane.

No one deserves such abuse from others. What you did is an impressive service and I say this as another male.

[Dookus]

26. I live in an extremely progressive town...

Santa Cruz, CA. Like a little Berkeley.

It's only unfortunate because I miss fucking with fundies.

[southernleftylady]

16. I was raped... and had an abortion...

there were only MEN protesting that day... screaming murderer at me... did they know my story? nope.. did they care? nope...
how DARE they ! it was a dad and his very young sons i would say 10 and 13 something like that....
just men... carrying those horrible signs....
assholes!
how do you become a escort?
could you do it just a couples a month? thanks

[fudge stripe cookays]

19. SLL, I'm so sorry for what happened to you.

Any of us who've been lucky enough to make choices for our lives are the ones who need to be spreading the word the most.

You should just be able to call your local clinic (or the closest one to you...).

You can look in the yellow pages under "abortion" and should be able to find one easily enough. Just call up and say you want to volunteer.

More power to you!
FSC :hug:

[Dookus]

25. Thanks for telling your story

that's exactly why I became an escort. I decided many years ago that I would never again back down from a bully.

You can contact your local NARAL chapter or Planned Parenthood to find out about clinic defense opportunities.

[LynneSin]

17. These are NOT abortion clinics but Family Planning Centers

and no, I'm not trying to dress up the terms but define what these places really do.

I have volunteered at my local planned parenthood here in Delaware and I learned much about what goes on in these centers - which 99% of it has NOTHING to do with Abortions.

Our local PP ensures that low income families in Delaware have an option to get affordable health care for women especially for those having a family. This also ensures that women will have healthy babies because it's a proven fact that women who get regular checkups during their pregnancies have healthy babies.

Our local PP provides affordable birth control for those who are not ready to start a family. Sure abstinence is the only 100% to prevent a pregnancies, but the prayer method pretty much sucks. So for those who need birth control, PP ensures that affordable birth control is available INCLUDING smart & effective education in how to use this birth control.

Our local PP provides Emergency Contraceptives (EC) because let's face it - accidents do happen. EC ISN'T take because the women is pregnat, it's taken because her birth control faltered in someway (ie - the condom ripped) and she doesn't want to worry about all that pregnancy scare crap. EC is nothing more than a high dosage of birth control pills taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex and that doesn't mean the woman is pregnant. EC is also very useful for a woman who is raped yet many hospitals (ie - Catholic Hospitals) refuse to gives these out to raped women who come into the Emergency room. Why make a raped woman suffer even more when you can give her a dose of EC there on the spot to ensure that no pregnancy is a result of her rape.

Our local PP provides education our our schools here in Delaware whether it's programs directed for the kids or seminars for the parents. These are NOT classes about abortion but about Safe Sex/Sex Education. Absintinence will never ever stop two horny kids from having sex but education will at least give those 2 horny kids the knowledge they need to use protection OR maybe even think twice before having sex knowing the responsiblity tied with it.

Our local PP did a survey on the teenagers and birth control. On the average they found that these kids were sexually active for NINE MONTHS before seeking out some form of birth control method. Nine months of unprotected sex is a hell of alot of risk for STDs, unwanted pregnancies and yes, Abortions.

Planned Parenthood is not an abortion clinic. That term signifies that all the center does is perform abortions which is not true. These are family planning centers whose goal is to decrease the number of pregnancies ending in abortion through education and affordable family planning

Dookus - Love you for helping out!!!

[Dookus]

27. You are, of course, right

and I apologize for the lazy terminology.

However, ONE clinic I worked at was solely an abortion provider on Saturdays, the only day they required outside support.

The other two were both Planned Parenthood centers, which obviously provide a wide range of services.

I have to say the PP's were very restrictive in what the escorts could do. We weren't allowed to "engage" the anti's. The Saturday clinic, however, was privately run and they let us do whatever we wanted. You haven't known real joy until you've tossed a cup of coffee in the face of a protester who just whacked you with his sign.

[fudge stripe cookays]

18. Dookus, you are Wonderful!!!

And all the rest of you who've become escorts.

I'm trying to educate women on my own as much as I can, talk to them, give them literature, and get them registered to vote.

But this is something I should definitely look into. These people and their nauseating hypocrisy make me sick.

Thanks for all you do, everyone.
FSC

[noonwitch]

20. That hasn't really been a problem in my area

In metro Detroit, there are plenty of clinics and most will have a lone protestor or maybe two, but none of them really cause the clinics that much trouble these days. Ever since Janet Reno applied RICO to Operation Rescue, there hasn't been too much problem up here.

[LynneSin]

21. The worse the anti-choice folks could do in Wilmington....

...is buy billboard time by the planned parenthood here in downtown wilmington. Ironically the billboard is owned by Clear Channel.

They don't have that space all the time but at least once a year a message of doom & despair shows up on the billboard that sits right next to the parking lot of PPDE.

:eyes:

[Scout]

22. yup, been there, done that.

most of the protesters were men ... what few women were there were always under the direction of a man.

escorts were mix of men and women, although more women in my experience.

attended NOWs Clinic Defense conference in DC one weekend, that was pretty interesting.

I was told I should have played hockey ... I had a pretty mean check, and I used it occasionally.

[tishaLA]

24. Yes. In Philadelphia

we had some Operation Rescue hijinx once upon a time, too. That was especially fun. The poor toadies didn't know what hit them when nasty Philadelphians came to greet them.

[ulysses]

28. yup.

Escorted at a couple of clinics downtown some years back.