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neadodsSCOTUS is debating the Massachusetts law regarding buffer zones around abortion clinics, with a side order of "are these zones even necessary?"
The anti-abortion side says no. Quotes from antis include "free speech," "my rights," "comfort women going in." In all the newspaper quotes, I have yet to see any anti mention the rights of the actual women actually going in, much less if they feel "comforted" as opposed to "harassed."
The pro-abortion side tells stories of harassment, intimidation, spitting, even impersonating officers of the law in order to obtain patients' personal information.
Me, I'm going to tell two stories.
CLINIC #1. The "quiet" clinic, where I do most of my escorting. It's a private facility, so the attached parking lot is also private property. However, protesters can (and do) line up on the sidewalk, and prowl up and down the parking lot of the business next door in order to patrol the outer edge of the clinic parking lot. One of the first instructions I received when I started escorting there was to park very close to the sidewalk so that patients would be forced to park deeper in, further from the protestors.
Also, so that we could rush to shelter behind the car if the guy who tried to bomb the clinic showed up again now that he was out of jail. Yeah, first thing on the job, I was being shown a perp shot. And he *has* shown up again.
In theory, protesters are not allowed in the parking lot; they have to lure people down by calling to them. I say "in theory" because Eeyore became noted for rushing into the lot in her zeal to shove pamphlets at people. I've told the story before of how the cops got called and the conflicting stories of what happened when Eeyore ended on her ass in the parking lot and then escorted back to the sidewalk. Father Corleone, a massive man the size of a quarterback, did eventually learn that shouting "COME HERE! COME HERE SO I CAN TALK TO YOU!" wasn't getting him the response he wanted and toned that down too.
The most I usually say is "we have protestors. They make noise, but they stay on the sidewalk." After all, Eeyore's been gone for over a year now.
On the whole what happens is a lot of shouting to the patients as they walk through the parking lot, with a side order of shoving pamphlets at them as they try to make the turn out of the parking lot and a sprinkling of Praying Mantis (aka Kneeling Boy; I'm adopting another escort's nickname for him) edging up and offering rosaries. I once distracted him long enough to let somone out of a car by complimenting the free rosary du jour. (It was pretty, all pink and white plastic.)
We mostly stand by the door, a good 3-6 feet away. I've been given the DVD Blood Money and I could probably get a rosary if I asked Praying Mantis nicely, but there is generally little contact. We talk to each other; they pray.
CLINIC #2. Downtown, where the antis successfully sued to have the walkway from the sidewalk through the gated yard up to the door declared "public space" so that they could line both sides of the yard. In theory, the buffer zone is 6 inches from the door. In reality, it does not exist.
The only time I was there was on Roe v Wade day, when things are extra-special crazy with a large helping of insanity sauce. People lined the block, literally lined it shoulder to shoulder on the curb to the street, people who had been bussed in (!) and were taking shifts (!!) because at one point the busses pulled out and everyone on the sidewalk filed in and fresh protesters came out. There were people on the other side of the side walk too; a couple of escorts were slowly patrolling up the center to make sure that a walkway was clear. I could hear the footsteps of the anti right behind me; every escort who did it was shadowed by a protestor making sure that their public right to be on public land was also being upheld.
It went double for escorts actually escorting through this gauntlet. We tried to have an escort on each side of a women; as the antis certainly had enough bodies to have a minimum of 2 per woman on each side, talking to her the entire way. Escorts also try to talk to them, to try to drown out the antis. There's a guy who was banned from protesting this clinic. The antis say we escorts hated his zeal. We escorts point out that he was following a woman so closely that when he stepped down, he actually pulled off her shoe.
As patients turned in at the gate, someone with a huge anti-abortion poster would jump out into the gate for a moment, shaking it at them. This would last about 2-4 seconds, and then he'd step back... just enough time to legally claim that he was not, in fact, impeding access.
Both sides of the gated yard are choked with people, mostly praying. Mostly standing, because there wasn't much room to kneel. Another few shouts, maybe another poster waved over the pathway just as the door is opened, and she's finally in.
At clinic 1, we open the door as a courtesy. At clinic 2, we open the door to make sure that the door is kept clear and unblocked.
Although it hasn't happened to me, I've heard of both spit and holy water ending up on escorts at clinic 2. Certainly my clothes were plucked at when people got too close, although we are trying hard to avoid each other - touching is, after all, legally assault and battery, and everyone is watching everyone else like a hawk.
This is the difference between a buffer zone and not. And bear in mind, this is happening to EVERY woman who enters, despite the fact that both clinics offer full-service women's health issues - not just abortions, but well woman visits, pregnancy monitoring, post-partum followups, etc. Yes, this means that a woman who has *given birth* and is coming in for her checkup after is going to hear "mommy, mommy, don't kill me."
Heck, at Clinic 2, it applied to every single woman who walked on that side of the street, even if she was just trying to get down the block or to the businesses on either side!
Side note: buffer zones as a concept are legal. There are buffer zones around polls, there is even a buffer zone around the Supreme Court itself (something the news is making much of, and something SCOTUS is irritatedly saying "it's different when it's us.")
The anti-abortion side says no. Quotes from antis include "free speech," "my rights," "comfort women going in." In all the newspaper quotes, I have yet to see any anti mention the rights of the actual women actually going in, much less if they feel "comforted" as opposed to "harassed."
The pro-abortion side tells stories of harassment, intimidation, spitting, even impersonating officers of the law in order to obtain patients' personal information.
Me, I'm going to tell two stories.
CLINIC #1. The "quiet" clinic, where I do most of my escorting. It's a private facility, so the attached parking lot is also private property. However, protesters can (and do) line up on the sidewalk, and prowl up and down the parking lot of the business next door in order to patrol the outer edge of the clinic parking lot. One of the first instructions I received when I started escorting there was to park very close to the sidewalk so that patients would be forced to park deeper in, further from the protestors.
Also, so that we could rush to shelter behind the car if the guy who tried to bomb the clinic showed up again now that he was out of jail. Yeah, first thing on the job, I was being shown a perp shot. And he *has* shown up again.
In theory, protesters are not allowed in the parking lot; they have to lure people down by calling to them. I say "in theory" because Eeyore became noted for rushing into the lot in her zeal to shove pamphlets at people. I've told the story before of how the cops got called and the conflicting stories of what happened when Eeyore ended on her ass in the parking lot and then escorted back to the sidewalk. Father Corleone, a massive man the size of a quarterback, did eventually learn that shouting "COME HERE! COME HERE SO I CAN TALK TO YOU!" wasn't getting him the response he wanted and toned that down too.
The most I usually say is "we have protestors. They make noise, but they stay on the sidewalk." After all, Eeyore's been gone for over a year now.
On the whole what happens is a lot of shouting to the patients as they walk through the parking lot, with a side order of shoving pamphlets at them as they try to make the turn out of the parking lot and a sprinkling of Praying Mantis (aka Kneeling Boy; I'm adopting another escort's nickname for him) edging up and offering rosaries. I once distracted him long enough to let somone out of a car by complimenting the free rosary du jour. (It was pretty, all pink and white plastic.)
We mostly stand by the door, a good 3-6 feet away. I've been given the DVD Blood Money and I could probably get a rosary if I asked Praying Mantis nicely, but there is generally little contact. We talk to each other; they pray.
CLINIC #2. Downtown, where the antis successfully sued to have the walkway from the sidewalk through the gated yard up to the door declared "public space" so that they could line both sides of the yard. In theory, the buffer zone is 6 inches from the door. In reality, it does not exist.
The only time I was there was on Roe v Wade day, when things are extra-special crazy with a large helping of insanity sauce. People lined the block, literally lined it shoulder to shoulder on the curb to the street, people who had been bussed in (!) and were taking shifts (!!) because at one point the busses pulled out and everyone on the sidewalk filed in and fresh protesters came out. There were people on the other side of the side walk too; a couple of escorts were slowly patrolling up the center to make sure that a walkway was clear. I could hear the footsteps of the anti right behind me; every escort who did it was shadowed by a protestor making sure that their public right to be on public land was also being upheld.
It went double for escorts actually escorting through this gauntlet. We tried to have an escort on each side of a women; as the antis certainly had enough bodies to have a minimum of 2 per woman on each side, talking to her the entire way. Escorts also try to talk to them, to try to drown out the antis. There's a guy who was banned from protesting this clinic. The antis say we escorts hated his zeal. We escorts point out that he was following a woman so closely that when he stepped down, he actually pulled off her shoe.
As patients turned in at the gate, someone with a huge anti-abortion poster would jump out into the gate for a moment, shaking it at them. This would last about 2-4 seconds, and then he'd step back... just enough time to legally claim that he was not, in fact, impeding access.
Both sides of the gated yard are choked with people, mostly praying. Mostly standing, because there wasn't much room to kneel. Another few shouts, maybe another poster waved over the pathway just as the door is opened, and she's finally in.
At clinic 1, we open the door as a courtesy. At clinic 2, we open the door to make sure that the door is kept clear and unblocked.
Although it hasn't happened to me, I've heard of both spit and holy water ending up on escorts at clinic 2. Certainly my clothes were plucked at when people got too close, although we are trying hard to avoid each other - touching is, after all, legally assault and battery, and everyone is watching everyone else like a hawk.
This is the difference between a buffer zone and not. And bear in mind, this is happening to EVERY woman who enters, despite the fact that both clinics offer full-service women's health issues - not just abortions, but well woman visits, pregnancy monitoring, post-partum followups, etc. Yes, this means that a woman who has *given birth* and is coming in for her checkup after is going to hear "mommy, mommy, don't kill me."
Heck, at Clinic 2, it applied to every single woman who walked on that side of the street, even if she was just trying to get down the block or to the businesses on either side!
Side note: buffer zones as a concept are legal. There are buffer zones around polls, there is even a buffer zone around the Supreme Court itself (something the news is making much of, and something SCOTUS is irritatedly saying "it's different when it's us.")
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-16 03:44 pm (UTC)That clinic is much less bad not on Roe - but yeah, I've escorted both, and Downtown is worse.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 12:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 12:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-16 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 12:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-16 04:12 pm (UTC)The only time I had to deal with anyone like that was when I went to a PP for a yearly exam because I didn't have a regular PCP at that point. There were two people on the edges of the parking lot, East and South, and they looked at me and my other half with a lot disgust and hatred. I did my best to ignore them and went on with my day. My sig-other was just as content to ignore them as well.
Apparently there were always at least two protestors outside that particular PP clinic, always on the edges of the parking lot. They couldn't come in any further because the PP clinic was in a section of what was essentially a strip mall and the other businesses/shops that were there acted as a buffer zone by way of simply being there and having customers come in and out.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 12:04 am (UTC)And they get picketed all the same. :/
no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-16 04:34 pm (UTC)That's what I was wondering just this morning: if courts have upheld "free speech zones" outside national political conventions, how is this any different? Oh, right, because those don't have anything to do with controlling what a woman can do with her body.
I wish I could be optimistic about how the Supremes will rule here, but with its right wing being *so* right wing, I'm not convinced this law will survive.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 12:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-16 06:10 pm (UTC)Cases like this are why a majority of SCOTUS are Catholic: the GOP assumes they'll be anti-abortion.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 10:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-16 07:18 pm (UTC)(There's an internet opinion poll site called isidewith.com, which asks your opinion on issues and then tells you where you fall, politically. I was not surprised, but greatly amused, to find that I wound up 93% Democrat, 46% Libertarian (on immigration, mostly), and 13% Republican--I didn't agree with them on ANYTHING.)
no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 12:10 am (UTC)Don't you see? Not allowing the antis to follow a woman every step of the way is persecuting their religious faith!
Seriously, I have yet to see an anti argument that actually acknowledges the wishes and rights of the woman involved. Not once. I have heard that my opening the door is "intimidating" women and "forcing" them to go in, though.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 12:20 am (UTC)Considering I live in the state which is the plaintiff in this case, and I damned well remember the incident that set it off -- which was perpetrated by an apparently not-entirely-well Catholic -- I have absolutely zero patience for this argument.
And yet, you know that's the argument that's being made.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 05:06 am (UTC)I could never be an escort. I'd be way too tempted to beat the absolute shit out of those assholes, especially the first time one of them tried to touch me. WHY is what they're doing not called terrorism and WHY are they not treated as such. Anybody else pulling that crap would either wind up in jail or a big plastic bag courtesy of the cops.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 11:42 pm (UTC)I think in Praying Mantis' case, he sees us and himself like agents on different sides - how many movies have you seen where enemy agents chat quietly, knowing that only the other understands what's going on? I can actually see that potentially happening with me and Praying Mantis in about another 6 years.
That said, having seen what no buffer actually means, I fear a nation-wide buffer ban. That will get very ugly very fast.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-18 02:12 am (UTC)Things are bad enough now; if the buffer is eliminated it would be like throwing up a giant sign that says 'open season on all escorts, doctors and patients'. And the crazies are foaming at the mouth for just such an opportunity. :(
no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 12:42 pm (UTC)Those people are insane. 35 feet isn't *enough*, let alone too much.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-17 11:44 pm (UTC)I once got approached at a gas station near the quiet clinic, and was begged, while I filled my tank, to not abort my baby because it would make my boyfriend leave me and then I'd get breast cancer.
I was just trying to pump gas, for fuck's sake! That clown is long gone now, though. And I do mean clown - he dressed like one to picket the clinic.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-18 08:48 pm (UTC)