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I've done this A/T a couple of times over the years, and people seem to find it interesting. It also leads to at least a couple of people asking how to escort in their own cities, so that's worth the effort if nothing else. I volunteer as an abortion clinic escort in my city. I spend a few mornings or afternoons a week, as my free time permits, helping to get patients and their companions into the medical facility with a minimum of harassment from the protesters outside. I'm in a formerly blue, now purple state. I've been escorting for 7 or 8 years now. My city/state has no "buffer zone" legislation in place. My kingdom for a buffer zone. What we do. Try to serve as both physical and emotional barriers between the patients and the anti-choice protesters. We will walk beside patients, walk behind patients, and form a physical cordon around patients trying to walk down the sidewalk and into the clinic. We also walk with people just trying to walk down the street to some other destination -- if you're walking down the same street as the clinic and appear to be a woman of approximate child-bearing age, you WILL be approached by protesters assuming you're coming for an abortion. Every time. Even if you walk down the street every day and see the same people -- they've got memories like goldfish. Physical barriers aside, we'll also try to make smalltalk with the patients we're escorting in order to take their focus off the people screaming, waving signs, and thrusting pamphlets at them. We'll joke, talk about the weather, ask them if they expected their own entourage this morning, etc. It helps. If necessary, we try to deescalate confrontations between patients and/or their companions and the protesters. Some people get very, very angry when someone approaches them or their friend/partner/spouse and screams at them. Occasionally we need to get them to calm down enough not to punch anyone, which is just counterproductive for everyone. Get very, very excited when someone walks a dog past us. We're big on puppies. Come from all walks of life. Ages on the sidewalk on our end range from 18-70+. We've got lawyers, teachers, retirees, housewives, students, finance directors, and everything else. Jews, Catholics, atheists, pagans, men, women, and transpeople. What we don't do. (Well, ok, what we try not to do.) Get into fights or physical confrontations with the antis. Engage or argue ethics or policy or politics with the antis. Get paid. Except for in thank-yous, hugs, and unlimited free coffee from the gas station across the street. People will occasionally try to donate money to us, and it goes into a fund within the clinic to help women who need financial aid for services. Work for the clinic. We're an autonomous group of volunteers there at the clinic's permission. Judge anyone's reason for coming in. Judge anyone's reason for leaving. Come out saying you decided to keep your baby? Fantastic! We like babies. So, ask away. I'll add some more posts shortly about the different kinds of protesters, why the current political landscape is scary as hell for reproductive freedom, and how the anti-choice game seems to be changing again.
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Nov 17, 2015 23:22
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Do the protesters ever step over the line e.g. start assaulting someone or something to that effect where you have to call the police? Do they ever attack you, even verbally?
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Nov 18, 2015 03:01
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:Do the protesters ever step over the line e.g. start assaulting someone or something to that effect where you have to call the police? Do they ever attack you, even verbally? Their behavior can pretty much constantly be considered "over the line." Don't get me wrong -- some of them actually are the stereotypical little old ladies that come out, do some Hail Marys, and never talk to or harass anyone. They don't bother us, we don't bother them. Then you've got the real assholes. The ones that'll throw a hip or an elbow if they at all think they can get away with it. They shove and trip. We've all been kicked and stepped on. The teenaged boys are the worst. Verbal attacks are so constant that we just laugh. We're all hellbound homos and lesbian nazis covered in baby blood, and they're gonna find out where we live and where we work, and sooner or later we're going to stand before Jesus and hopefully it's sooner rather than later. The police are pretty much completely useless. Unless we've got a blatant physical assault on video in HD, they'll come out, tell everyone to "play nice," and leave. We generally don't bother.
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Nov 18, 2015 05:17
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I always liked these threads on the past. Have any good stories about laying the smack down on some protestor? How large are you? Does your presence intimidate protestors at all? Is one of your purposes to intimidate to a certain extent and discourage confrontation?
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Nov 18, 2015 20:39
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ExplodingChef posted:[...]and they're gonna find out where we live and where we work,[...]
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Nov 18, 2015 21:20
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Crazyeyes posted:I always liked these threads on the past. We really try to make it less about the protesters and more about concentrating on getting the patients in with a minimum of harassment. Also, insulting them just kind of goes over their heads. Not a lot of self-awareness in this bunch. I did have a protester dumb enough to get into it with me and grab the front of my jacket/collar in a threatening manner this last Saturday, but decided that giving them an "evil deathscort hospitalizes peaceful sidewalk counselor" narrative was a bad idea. We didn't happen to have a camera in the right position to catch it, unfortunately. I'm not a small guy -- 5'11, 240lbs or so, but it's less about size and more about, I don't know...positioning? Granted, being a bigger guy helps when blocking antis off from patients, but we've got an escort that's a 70 year old woman, maybe 5'2 and 120lbs, and she owns her share of the sidewalk and takes zero poo poo. Wipfmetz posted:How likely is that to happen? _Are_ you worried about such stuff happening? It's funny -- the escorts that have been around since the early 90s take a more relaxed view on that sort of thing. Their attitude seems to be more of a "they know where I live, my name is on The Nuremberg Files, whatever happens, happens." The younger escorts, myself included, tend to be a bit more guarded about our last names, jobs, etc. I keep a close eye on my internet presence, as they do know my last name. I also don't hide what I do, so my family/friends/employer are all aware. It's been a few years since this has happened, but one of the staff had flyers placed in her neighborhood with her name, picture, phone number, license plate, etc. with the "I murder babies" heading. So there is the very real possibility of that sort of thing happening. Anti-choice doxxing, I suppose.
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Nov 18, 2015 22:29
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Don't have anything to ask or add, just want to say thank you for doing this. You're awesome.
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Nov 18, 2015 23:10
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Have things been getting worse in the trenches lately with the attacks on Planned Parenthood and such?
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Nov 19, 2015 02:39
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Gabriel Pope posted:Have things been getting worse in the trenches lately with the attacks on Planned Parenthood and such? Very much so. My clinic is not a PP, for the record. We just finished the fall "40 Days for Life" campaign, which is a biannual big pro-life protest. Normally we get the bulk of them at my clinic, and their organizers just target us (it's a worldwide thing -- mostly the US, but they've expanded to the UK, Ireland, and other places. Sorry about that, guys.) and not the PP near us. There's a handful of PPs in my town, but only the one near my clinic actually performs abortion services. This last campaign we had 2 separate groups targeting both my clinic and the aforementioned PP. The PP doesn't use escorts as they've got a private parking lot and can keep the antis at a good distance. Our door opens directly onto the sidewalk, so we're not so lucky. The new thing is to ask about how much money we're getting for baby arms and baby legs, of course. Witty. There's also been a lot of rumbling in pro-life circles about intentionally taking tactics back to the early 90's. The early 90s were really when things got heated and nasty outside a lot of clinics. The pro-life movement backed away some from the political end of things and began a movement of "direct action" against individual clinics. It's not like there hadn't been poo poo going on since RvW in '73 (and earlier), but the late 80's through about 1996 were when poo poo got really physical and nasty. You'd have antis sending groups of children to blockade doors, chaining themselves to cars and placing them in front of clinic entrances, butyric acid attacks, etc. The mid 90's also saw the killings of Drs. Britton, Slepian, Gunn, and the attempted murder of Dr. Tiller (later assassinated in 2009). We've got a handful of antis that are still barred from being within 25' of the clinic due to their poo poo in the 90's. Clinton signing FACE into law in 94 helped -- it made transgressions into a federal crime rather than local. Interesting anecdote -- one of my employees a few years ago was an ex-cop. She remembered being sent to some of the clinics here in the 90s that had campaigns of direct action, and said they'd arrest the antis, who would righteously demand to be taken to jail. They'd get hauled to jail, and then ask to be immediately released, because of course why not? They got to spend 24 hours sitting. So, yeah, it's gotten nastier out there. They toe the edge of the law (and over, if nobody's looking) as far as blocking patients, blocking the door and sidewalk, physical aggression, etc. I really, honestly think it's going to keep ramping up all over the country until someone is again shot and killed. Then the pro-life side will wring their hands over the "lone wolf." We've also seen a group called Abolish Human Abortion elbow their way into prominence in the pro-life scene. They were mostly a southern thing for quite some time, but we're getting them up here in the midwest now. They're the ones doing mass "drop cards" of antiabortion literature, using bullhorns and amplification, and showing up with dozens of 5' and 6' graphic pro-life signs (we refer to them as "pizza signs"). They're the...militant arm of the pro-life movement. They're even more physically and verbally aggressive than the usual folks. Most of our antis were, generally, middle aged and old white guys. The AHA people are a much younger demographic. There is nothing worse than a teen boy anti who thinks he's got the biggest nuts in the world and that Jesus is firmly in his corner. The link below is a fantastically interesting, if long, read about the history of the pro-life movement as it relates to the current Planned Parenthood poo poo. Some of the names are still people who show up to my clinic -- Matt Trewhella is a name that comes up a few times, and his whole drat family (minus Matt himself, thanks injunction) shows up about every three weeks to be thorns in everyone's sides. And by whole family that includes all the kids, and all the babies. You don't know whether to laugh or be sad when you get lectured by 6 and 10-year-olds about how you're a baby murderer and going to hell. It's out own little Westboro Baptist up here. http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/operation-rescue-s-big-break-how-organization-rooted-radical-fringes-anti-choice-moveme
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Nov 19, 2015 07:33
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Zsa Zsa Gabor posted:You're awesome.
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Nov 19, 2015 08:30
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One question then; does it ever get really violent? Then the main thrust: Thanks, dude. People like you do good things that hurt their lives. I volunteered for the Samaritans for a bit, and it had a massive toll on my life, but it was mostly worth it. I'm guessing the same sort of thing is your motivation - to see people be less hosed up by decisions that should be theirs.
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Nov 20, 2015 01:45
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How would one go about volunteering for something like this? Do you just sit on huge sidewalk all day and wait for people or do you get a call?
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Nov 20, 2015 04:40
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I remember your last thread and I enjoyed it. I'm sure I or someone asked this the last time, but do you ever get all Wylie Coyote on the protesters and bring your patient in a back door/side door? Do they ever consider running an\ front office in one building where the protesters are while maintaining a secret medical practice elsewhere where the actual work goes down? Does the sight of you leaving the building incite the protesters and alert them that someone's coming? Do you do anything to avoid this? Do you ever order pizza and then go outside to escort the pizza guy in just to gently caress with the protesters? I was a TV News photographer for many years and we had such a fascinating rapport with the cops. Stand and bullshit with them and share coffee, and then they'd sneak a body out a side gate so you wouldn't get the shot and you'd climb up on a balcony and get the shot anyway, and you'd yell at each other and they'd threaten to arrest you, and then about 7 minutes later you'd be telling them a joke and they'd buy you a coffee.
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Nov 20, 2015 05:22
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de la peche posted:One question then; does it ever get really violent? The best way I can think of to describe the average violence in front of my clinic is that it's mostly...micro-aggression, if that makes sense. It's less antis throwing punches and more "accidental" elbows and having your heels stepped on while walking patients and antis planting themselves just enough in your way that they can elbow you and then yell that you're assaulting them because you made contact. Incidents like blatant shoving are a little less common, although it tends to be male antis on female escorts, go figure. Soulex posted:How would one go about volunteering for something like this? Call your local clinic. Be careful when you google "abortion clinic <your city>" because some of the top links you get are likely to be CPCs -- "Crisis Pregnancy Centers," which are religiously affiliated (generally Catholic) places that exist to convince women to not have abortions by whatever means necessary, including outright and blatant lying to them. We've got one across the street. They've got an ultrasound machine, baby clothes, and receptionists. The "doctor" behind it is a retired clinical pathologist who probably hasn't seen a live vagina in 20 years. If you're comfortable letting me know where you're located, I can see if I've got any contact information for clinics in that area. Escorts network with each other pretty well. People will even "guest" escort when they're in other cities -- for example, we've got an escort from Chicago that comes up once in a while to visit family and will spend Saturday morning with us. She's amazed by how nasty it gets due to the fact that, unlike Chicago, we don't have a buffer zone ordinance. quote:Do you just sit on huge sidewalk all day and wait for people or do you get a call? Clinic is open certain days and hours, and we generally try to have coverage whenever we're open and seeing patients. Generally, if the clinic is open, we've got protesters. It's purely a volunteer thing, so people come and go as they please, nobody has a "set" schedule, as everyone has lives outside of the clinic. Saturday mornings are generally the craziest, so we try to have bigger numbers there. Good Friday is also a HUGE day, and we can see upwards of 100 antis out. photomikey posted:I remember your last thread and I enjoyed it. I'm sure I or someone asked this the last time, but do you ever get all Wylie Coyote on the protesters and bring your patient in a back door/side door? Do they ever consider running an\ front office in one building where the protesters are while maintaining a secret medical practice elsewhere where the actual work goes down? Does the sight of you leaving the building incite the protesters and alert them that someone's coming? Do you do anything to avoid this? Do you ever order pizza and then go outside to escort the pizza guy in just to gently caress with the protesters? We do have a back door in a "private" parking lot (read: there's "no trespassing signs" up but they have a tendency to get ignored at times. We don't generally use it for patients, but if someone is really freaked out and asks, we will try to sneak them out that way. It's also been used when there's a very young patient, because there is nothing that will cause the antis to lose their poo poo more than a kid. And it's really loving hard not to kick someone's rear end when you witness them telling a 14-year-old rape victim that it's god's plan for them to have that baby. The back door is also used for the rare instance that there's a complication and ambulance transport to a hospital is necessary. And that's another thing that causes them to lose their goddamn minds. We put together a big screen of plywood and sheets so that we can shield patients that have to exit into an ambulance because every loving anti will be doing their best to get pictures of the patient. Complications do happen -- it's a medical procedure, things go wrong. I would guess we end up with an ambulance call maybe once a year on average, if even that. And they all end up with lovely cell phone video on Youtube with titles like "BOTCHED ABORTION" and articles on bullshit sites like lifesitenews and their internet mailings. They LOVE it when they can use that sort of narrative. This is a comment on one of those youtube videos by an anti who thankfully doesn't crawl up here from Iowa too often, because he's a special kind of shithead: "I always find it difficult to feel sorry for the aborting mother in these situations. Justice is somewhat satisfied when the aborting mother dies on the table with her baby. "Whoso sheds man's blood by man his (her) blood shall be shed." Genesis 9:5-6" Nice Christians, eh? Running a "front" office is really not feasible. It'd be expensive, I'm sure, and more importantly it sends the message to the antis that we're afraid or that women should be ashamed of what they're doing. You shouldn't have to skulk around to provide medical care. We don't go inside much beyond walking patients in -- we stick around on the sidewalk to keep it clear, our door clear, and to spot patients coming in. If we spot someone walking down the street that looks like they could use an escort, we will generally not move if the antis don't seem to spot them. Us heading down the block is a cue for them to go sprinting past us so they can reach the patient first. We really try to NEVER run towards patients because the last thing they need is a more unidentified assholes running down the sidewalk towards them. Our relationship with the cops, like I've said before, is that we won't call them unless absolutely necessary because they're either under-effective, completely useless, or actively anti-choice. We once had a sergeant come down in response to a call spend most of his time shaking hands and taking pictures with the antis. And it's very, very odd that when the parking checker comes by, the anti's cars (which are usually plastered with pro-life bumper stickers) never get their tires marked. ExplodingChef fucked around with this message at 07:25 on Nov 20, 2015 |
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Nov 20, 2015 07:19
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I live near Olympia, WA. I'm not a particularly religious person, but I can't stand people who are aggressive to those looking for help. I've seen some protestors in the forms of old people holding signs saying "give it to us!" But that's fine IMO. It's what you describe that sets a fire off. I meant, like, how does it go down. Does someone call to need an escort? Do you just see someone get swarmed and you intervene? What if they are afraid to get out of their car etc. and when you are waiting for them to come out or for someone to show up, are you inside or outside all bouncer like?
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Nov 20, 2015 09:11
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ExplodingChef posted:Our relationship with the cops, like I've said before, is that we won't call them unless absolutely necessary because they're either under-effective, completely useless, or actively anti-choice. We once had a sergeant come down in response to a call spend most of his time shaking hands and taking pictures with the antis. And it's very, very odd that when the parking checker comes by, the anti's cars (which are usually plastered with pro-life bumper stickers) never get their tires marked. Wow, that is extremely lovely. What happens when protestors do manage to block the door or surround a patient? Are you allowed to shove your way through? Do they then yell assault and call the cops? I hate to think what would happen if an anti-choice cop showed up.
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Nov 20, 2015 09:50
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Soulex posted:I live near Olympia, WA. I'm not a particularly religious person, but I can't stand people who are aggressive to those looking for help. I've seen some protestors in the forms of old people holding signs saying "give it to us!" But that's fine IMO. It's what you describe that sets a fire off. I don't have a contact in WA, unfortunately. Just give your closest clinic or PP a call. If they don't use escorts, they can probably point you towards a clinic that does, if there's a need. It's pretty low-tech. We hang out outside the clinic in blaze orange vests with rainbow inserts that read "AMS ESCORTS" (we have switched vest colors a few times over the years as the antis have copied them in order to confuse patients. We've found that they apparently will NOT wear rainbows because of the gay. No joke.). When we see someone walking down the sidewalk or across the street, we calmly approach them, let them know that we're with the clinic, and ask them if they'd like us to walk them to or past the clinic, depending on their destination. Occasionally someone will call the clinic and say "hey, this is what I look like and where I'm coming from, can some escorts come get me?" Tactics have changed somewhat over the last year with the increase in anti numbers and aggression, especially on Saturday mornings. It used to be that we would just flank or walk with patients and chit-chat with them on the way in or out. Now we will actually form a physical cordon around patients and either link hands/arms or do arms on each other's shoulders -- think Secret Service or professional security. Otherwise the patients will end up with the antis and their literature right in their faces. You can usually get a chuckle out of a patient or companion when you ask them if they expected to get a full entourage walking down the street. We generally stay outside. We'll pop in to use the bathroom, warm up, chat with staff, etc. Patients will sometimes pop their heads out and let us know what kind of vehicle they're waiting for and we'll go inside and grab them when their ride shows up. We'll stick around after all the patients are in if there will be patients leaving soon, as it's just as bad walking out as walking in. Antis will literally follow patients for blocks, haranguing them the entire way. Mainly we stand around drinking coffee and talking about food and politics and sports and stuff. Jake Snake posted:Wow, that is extremely lovely. What happens when protestors do manage to block the door or surround a patient? Are you allowed to shove your way through? Do they then yell assault and call the cops? I hate to think what would happen if an anti-choice cop showed up. They toe the edge of the law as far as humanly possible. There's a lot of "We aren't blocking the sidewalk! They can go around us!" -type poo poo. I don't know, technically, if one is "allowed" to shove their way through someone on the sidewalk, but we generally go by the school of thought that it's illegal to block access to a medical facility, and if you aren't bright enough to get out of the way when there's 5 escorts and a patient walking straight at you, well, that's on you. A couple of months ago some antis called the cops and told them that we were blocking them on the sidewalks when we were bringing patients in.The officer had to explain multiple times, slowly, that if we were moving down the sidewalk we were not blocking them and that there was nothing they would do about it.
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Nov 20, 2015 17:01
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Here's some pictures of various things. Just another Saturday with the AHA assholes.  This is our loading zone. Totally not blocking it. Patients can go around, right?  Healthy play time for the kids.  Chuck likes to build poo poo.  This is Chuck. Chuck likes Jesus, Israel, and referring to himself in the third person. Chuck doesn't like abortion, homos, liberals, Oprah, Ellen, yoga, and Obama.  Chuck and Linda sharing a moment.  I gave her my heart, and she gave me a D&C.  Imagine, as a woman, trying to walk through this bullshit. Also, everyone is yelling at you.  I TOLD YOU THE PATIENTS CAN GO AROUND US!  Hey ladies. You have wombs. I've heard of wombs. Let's dialogue. Note: the dude with the AKC sign is a holocaust denier.  "Truth truck."
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Nov 20, 2015 17:44
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Those pictures are absolutely horrifying. I cannot imagine how sick the people who flaunt such graphic images around are. Thank you so much for making such a lovely situation a little less so and being there for girls just like me. I know I'd have a hard time walking that gauntlet. A few weeks ago my boyfriend and I walked by a family planning clinic in downtown Chicago on the way to UPS. It was my first time ever seeing anyone outside a center like this, but luckily the amount of people supporting the clinic outweighed the three or so people protesting. There were probably four? escorts running someone across the street into the building when we went by and a few people with signs supporting the clinic. That definitely left an impression on me though, and reminded me of your old thread. I'm glad you're posting about it again.
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Nov 20, 2015 18:59
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Thanks chef. I'll look it up when I get some spare time. Just had a son, my second, so things have been going nuts. That and medically separating from the military.
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Nov 20, 2015 19:10
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ExplodingChef posted:Call your local clinic. Be careful when you google "abortion clinic <your city>" because some of the top links you get are likely to be CPCs -- "Crisis Pregnancy Centers," which are religiously affiliated (generally Catholic) places that exist to convince women to not have abortions by whatever means necessary, including outright and blatant lying to them. We've got one across the street. They've got an ultrasound machine, baby clothes, and receptionists. The "doctor" behind it is a retired clinical pathologist who probably hasn't seen a live vagina in 20 years. you ever get anti abortion guys trying to sign up to be escorts so they can sneak inside the line and gently caress things up
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Nov 21, 2015 00:22
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A Wizard of Goatse posted:you ever get anti abortion guys trying to sign up to be escorts so they can sneak inside the line and gently caress things up Nah. We background check and vet people as much as possible. That's also a quick route to a trespassing citation at minimum. We have kicked escorts out, but that's a post for a time when I'm not at work.
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Nov 21, 2015 01:14
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I didn't expect there to be such a horde. How do the residents of the nearby apartments feel about it?
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Nov 21, 2015 01:54
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Is it wrong that I burst out laughing at the graphic signs? Still, those protests are unbelievably lovely. The Christian fundie types really need to crack open their Bible and see what Jesus had to say about judging others, especially those despised by society as unclean or innately lesser for their birth or choices in life.
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Nov 21, 2015 19:19
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EndlessRob posted:I didn't expect there to be such a horde. How do the residents of the nearby apartments feel about it? I think they do their best to ignore it. I always feel bad when there's a condo for sale near the clinic and there's a Saturday morning viewing. Little extra show with the real estate. There's a gas station directly across the street from the clinic and they are not fans of the protesters, to put it lightly. They allow them to buy stuff and use the bathroom, but they are NOT allowed to approach anyone on gas station property, and they will not hesitate to call the cops if they spot it happening. Lots of patients cut across their lot on the way back to their cars, so it's nice having a "sorry, you can't cross this property line" to point out. The people who walk by on a regular basis to their apartments/jobs/lunch/etc also get pretty cranky when they get told to not kill their baby for the 25th time that month.
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Nov 23, 2015 01:17
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ExplodingChef posted:Nah. We background check and vet people as much as possible. That's also a quick route to a trespassing citation at minimum. We have kicked escorts out, but that's a post for a time when I'm not at work. Quoting to remind you to post when you get home from work 
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Nov 23, 2015 19:49
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Partially inspired by this thread, I have started to volunteer at a clinic in Queens, NY. It's on Saturday mornings 7-11am, if any other goons want to come out, you can sign up at http://nownyc.org/actions/protect-our-local-abortion-clinics/. Hope to see you there 
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Nov 23, 2015 22:13
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Are there generally more men than women antis? What part of the country is this in?
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Nov 24, 2015 02:10
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sheri posted:Are there generally more men than women antis? Absolutely. I'd say it's probably 85-90% middle aged and older white men. There's a few "solo" women, and a few women that only come with their spouses. It's about 99% white, of course. Chuck is the only regular African-American anti, and we've got the pastor of a Chinese church that comes by once in a while. There's of course a regular chorus of "black babies are beautiful" on Saturday mornings. Anecdote time! We've got a regular and obnoxious guy named Tony. He chases patients for blocks, generally makes an rear end of himself, and is a huge pain. One day he and Chuck were doing their thing and a passerby supposedly called Chuck a "loving n-----." This was repeatedly described to us, except Tony would only censor the word "loving" to "effing" and kept dropping n-words. Apparently Jesus is good with racial slurs more so than the word "loving." I'm in the Midwest. Hummingbirds posted:Quoting to remind you to post when you get home from work So, over the years there has been a handful of escorts asked to take some time off for various reasons, usually boils down to them getting too easily agitated, or their heart not being in it, or getting too embroiled with individual antis to where we feel that the focus on the patient gets shifted too far away. We've also had some younger (18-22ish) escorts that have sort of drifted away to a general sigh of relief from the rest of us. Not that they're bad kids, and not that their hearts aren't in it, but the younger ones tend to end up focusing on debating the antis and trying to change minds and it just. doesn't. work. And it drives the rest of us crazy. And then there's J. She started out fine. A lot of new escorts start out all full of piss and vinegar and ready to take on the world. It's cool. I don't want to say you become jaded, necessarily, after some time, but you kind of realize the futility of arguing with the antis and just concentrate on getting patients in quickly and safely before going back to bitching about politics and where you had lunch last week. She managed to somehow take escorting to an EXTREME, and simultaneously make it more about her than the patients. Off top of my head, in no particular order: -Her GF at the time had parents that would show up and protest. Would still stick around. Would come in and bitch to staff that the parents were outside, would be offered an exit out the back door, would decline, because ATTENTION! -Would constantly get into arguments with antis instead of focusing on patients. -Would talk about how she was "willing to die for this/take a bullet" inside with the staff. -Would stick around in the clinic and talk to patients.We chit-chat with patients outside that want to. We don't go inside and try to have conversations -- most of the women really just want to be left alone. They're already probably not having a great day. -Spent an hour on a Saturday morning down the block talking to a particularly annoying couple of antis. When asked what the hell she was doing, especially while in a vest, replied that she was "telling them what really went on inside the clinic, as opposed to the propaganda they've been taught." We usually get our biggest crowd on Good Friday. They gather at a nearby church, do a procession down to us, pray and speechify for an hour, and march back for a potluck. It's our "all hands on deck" day purely to keep the sidewalk open, because they line it with 80-120 people and kids, it's a clusterfuck. J decides that she's going to make some public social media posts asking for anyone who wants to come down and help on a particular Good Friday, and uses a few escort's names/Facebooks (mine included) as contact people. All of this without bothering to check with any of us. We don't take walk-ip escorts -- there's a background check done by the clinic and then we have them come out on a Saturday morning with the veterans to get some informal training and a feel for how things go. And a lot of us very carefully guard our online public information. I believe this was the last straw before we told her politely to go the gently caress away. She'll still stop by and counter-protest once in a while, which we actively try to discourage -- more people outside the clinic with signs just makes it rougher and more confusing to the patients. She also ended up being politely asked to remove herself from a private FB group for clinic escorts/staff. Everyone in it has to be vetted by someone else that's a member, and it's just a good safe space to vent, network, share information (we've all got various fake profiles and email addresses with different pro-life organizations and groups so we can monitor what the gently caress they're up to). Every time someone would say anything along the lines of "XX anti is an idiot" or "blah blah is dumb" she'd immediately make a comment stating that the person is being ableist and to please not use that language and that we shouldn't be using language critical of intelligence or people without the ability to speak, etc. Got real old real fast.
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Nov 24, 2015 07:17
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I hope you're not tired of praise because holy poo poo I could never, ever do this. How often do escorts completely lose it at antis or fall into depression?
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Nov 24, 2015 10:41
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AlphaKretin posted:I hope you're not tired of praise because holy poo poo I could never, ever do this. How often do escorts completely lose it at antis or fall into depression? Everyone has bad days here and there where an innocent peace-loving sidewalk prayer-warrior gets their head taken off, verbally speaking. It's cathartic to let loose a "You're a woman-hating bully and a coward, and if there is a god she probably hates you" once in a while. Or you take a walk and grab some coffee or wander around the block and cool off. It's not unheard of for everyone to go grab a drink together after a particularly nasty day. You kind of get used to it. If I had a buck for every time I've been called a baby-killer, murderer, homo, nazi, fag, or told I've got blood on my hands I'd have retired by now. The idea of doing a book, probably an oral history of the antiabortion and clinic protection movement here, has been tossed around a few times. The stories from the early and mid 90's are straight out of a spy novel -- there were phone banks set up in apartments, escorts in disguises following antis to figure out which clinic they were going to hit next, pages upon pages of pictures, license plate numbers, court records, etc. This is an old article, and Dr. Smith is semi-retired now, but it's an interesting read about the state of things back then in the midwest. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/03/us/on-abortion-clinic-rounds-forceps-and-bulletproof-vest.html?pagewanted=all This is also a fantastic book. It's a little on the dry side, but worth a read to get a good grasp on exactly how nasty the anti-choice side can get. http://www.amazon.com/Living-Crossh...+the+crosshairs
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Nov 24, 2015 18:11
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Just poking my head in to say thanks for doing this! I work inside abortion clinics (RN now, previously a counselor/tech/all-around clinic assistant) and I started this life as a volunteer escort for about a year. Escorts are SO important and the work is incredibly draining. I love getting to be (mostly) unaware of the protesters now, but am really really glad there are still others willing to be in the hot zone outside for our patients' sake. Thank you, thank you! e: another book recommendation: Absolute Convictions is written from the perspective of the son of an abortion provider whose colleague, Barnett Slepian, was murdered in the 90s. boquiabierta fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Nov 25, 2015 |
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Nov 25, 2015 20:36
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I remember you. I also remember mentioning in a former thread I was too nervous about drive-by shootings to go out and volunteer. I just thought I'd mention that's changed now. I haven't done it for a bit (was too sick, then up here in WA it's not needed particularly much from what I've been able to discern, or I failed in finding volunteer groups) but will be going back to doing it after we move. Keep on keepin on dude. You've obviously inspired a good few of us.
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Nov 25, 2015 20:55
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I remember your previous threads and am so thankful for people like you. Escorting is something I'd want to do in spirit but I don't think I could control myself around the terrible antis - although remembering it's about the *patient* is helpful! Thanks for the reading recommendations, too. I'm ought to look into escort groups in my area to see if they have any sort of donations set up.
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Nov 26, 2015 12:53
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Thanks folks.SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:I remember your previous threads and am so thankful for people like you. Escorting is something I'd want to do in spirit but I don't think I could control myself around the terrible antis - although remembering it's about the *patient* is helpful! Thanks for the reading recommendations, too. Honestly, give it a try if there's an escort group near you. Initially, it's hard to not respond and engage and want to punch someone, but it gets easier. You hear the same old lines over and over and over and over again. It ends up feeling like you've got little kids trying to intimidate you -- they're not that far above that level. Especially the teenagers. Like I've said, there's nothing more obnoxious than a 16 year old boy full of righteous anger and Jesus trying to prove that he's got the biggest nuts on the sidewalk. One of the local groups that has affiliated itself with AHA is a group called Missionaries to the Preborn, the group started by Matt Trewhella, local pastor and anti dipshit ('tho not often personally, as he can't come within 25' of the clinic). Huge family, of course, tons of kids. Month or two ago I ended up next to one of his teen boys keeping some space open next to his sign in our loading zone. This kid, Flock of Seagulls haircut and all, kept up such a steady stream of poo poo-talk for hours that we were just about pissing ourselves laughing. General high-school level insults, talk about how he was gonna kick my rear end, "C'mon, I'll give you a free hit, throw a punch, I won't even feel it, I've had six years of fighting!" At one point one of the other escorts and I were talking about a special I had run the previous week at my restaurant and he interjects with "Your restaurant probably smells like McDonald's. You wouldn't know good food. You ever been to BD Wong's? That's good food. But you wouldn't know it, because you can't afford it!" and we just loving LOST it. Bear in mind that the kid was probably 5'6 120lbs, Anecdotes aside, it's worth a try. It can be emotionally and physically draining being on the sidewalk in subzero weather at 7am on a Saturday morning getting called every vile name in the book, but it really, really does make a huge difference to the women just trying to get inside without getting hosed with. 
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Nov 26, 2015 18:22
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A few questions: 1. Do the antis do this as just a part time thing or have some of them managed to make this a full time job? If so, how do they do it? 2. Have you seen some of these people outside of your escort work before? How did that go? 3. How responsive are people to violent rhetoric coming from politicians? How long generally does it take for the effects of that rhetoric to fade once its made its way out of the news cycle? 4. Any more funny stories? Thanks for being awesome. Write a book.
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Nov 27, 2015 20:00
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It's a tiny irrelevant detail, but...ExplodingChef posted:(we have switched vest colors a few times over the years as the antis have copied them in order to confuse patients. We've found that they apparently will NOT wear rainbows because of the gay. No joke.). Gay kryptonite  ...which leads to me to ask about symbolism. So they put red paint on those plastic dolls and poo poo; do they have other typical phrases, imagery or memes they rely on? Do they emphasize the GOD WILLS IT side or the YUCK side? Are there trends in messaging (beyond recent newstuff like "baby parts", thanks Fiorina you rear end in a top hat), schools of thought, divergent approaches? (As a human, mad props to you all; as an historian, please do record everything and write it in excruciating detail please we need prime sources)
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Nov 27, 2015 21:13
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I did this for a few months at a clinic in the Bronx. Very different atmosphere - we only got a few antis showing up most days, and most of the women didn't want or need our help. Nothing like the tunnel you see here. I'm sure they appreciated having some allies outside though. We did call the cops once when one of the antis stepped onto clinic property. They looked at the tape, told them not to do it again, and that was that.
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Nov 27, 2015 21:21
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Tater Love 
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ExplodingChef posted:So, yeah, it's gotten nastier out there. They toe the edge of the law (and over, if nobody's looking) as far as blocking patients, blocking the door and sidewalk, physical aggression, etc. I really, honestly think it's going to keep ramping up all over the country until someone is again shot and killed. Then the pro-life side will wring their hands over the "lone wolf." Welp, that didn't take long :/ Shooter at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs. Sounds like they're mostly just taking potshots at random passersby, apparently Black Friday is not a big day for PP.
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Nov 27, 2015 21:36
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Ice Phisherman posted:A few questions: 1) It's a mixture of both. There's some people who come out around their work schedule, a fair number of retired old people, and some that actually get paid to come out. From what I understand it pays in the neighborhood of $12/hour for your average sidewalk stalker, with correspondingly larger compensation packages for people like the head of Pro-Life Wisconsin, an archbishop or two, and Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI). Not joking, by the way. They get paid by various pro-life organizations. 2) Once in a while I'll spot someone and decide to keep a low profile. I've never had any major static, but other escorts have. 3) Guess today's events have answered this question well enough. 4) I'll see what I can think of. The scene on the sidewalk is sometimes just ridiculous. Someday I should pitch a TV show called "poo poo My Anti Says." It can't be worse than some of the stuff on network TV. ecureuilmatrix posted:It's a tiny irrelevant detail, but... It's a lot of the same poo poo over and over and over. Typical things being shouted at women: "Black babies are beautiful! Love your baby! Mama! Don't kill me! Jesus hates the hands that shed innocent blood! Don't kill your baby. God gave you that baby for a reason. Get her out of there. Be a man. The safest place for a child should be in a woman's body. What's your babies' name? I'll adopt your baby! Don't make a decision that's final!" And over and over. Lots of pictures of "aborted babies" that have all been proven to be things like stillbirths or miscarriages. Little rubber baby dolls. Baby clothes. There's a bit of a schism that has developed between the "traditional" pro-life crowd and the more, I don't know, hardcore? Abolish Human Abortion assholes. The AHA are even MORE loud and obnoxious and use a lot more stuff like megaphones, drop carding, protesting at high schools, and protesting at churches that aren't "pro-life" enough. The antis also divide up along religious lines -- for the most part the Catholics do not associate with the fundamentalists who do not associate with the Lutherans, etc, etc. We've even got one lone pre-Vatican II Catholic that gets into arguments with the other Catholics. It's funny -- I was raised Jewish, and I had absolutely no idea that the different denominations ranged from simply disagreeing with to outright HATING the other groups. I just sort of assumed everyone under the "Christian" umbrella was in the same big "Yay Jesus!" camp with minor procedural differences. Bonus picture of the kid who spent a few hours trying to get me to fight him last month: 
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Nov 28, 2015 07:16
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