Thin Orange Line

[neadods]

The hardest part about being a clinic escort is that it's your job to get people in the door as safely and quietly as possible.

PERIOD.

You don't get to counter-demonstrate. You don't stop people from walking over to pick up the anti-choicer's flyers, and you don't get to present the case against them. The one and only thing you can do for the couples who sit in their car for a very long time, talking, arguing, is to make sure that the people calling "you deserve better than abortion, please take my flyer" stay on public land.

We call it choice. Well, here's where the choice is made, and we don't have the right to influence that.

The second hardest thing about being an escort is knowing that you are part of the problem. That some of the demonstrators are there only because you are, and that they will stay longer than you just to prove a point. That despite being covered shoulders to ass with a safety orange vest labeled "PRO-CHOICE CLINIC ESCORT," many of the clients think that you are also protesters and are just as afraid of you as the people on the sidewalks with the flyers and signs.

So you don't huddle together, at least not for very long (because the temptation to just stop and chat when things are slow is irresistible... but can also lead to things like the protesters targeting a client while you're geeking out among yourselves about the merits of Angel v Buffy. *ahem*)

Escorting is...

Going in a little dehydrated (no bathroom access) and learning how to make your drink stay cold and last the entire shift.

Figuring out what clothing to wear, not only for the weather but just in case someone throws something this time.

Hearing that the clinic you're at has a reputation for being quiet... at least until the guy who tried to bomb it gets out of jail next year.

Discovering what not to say ("you don't have to do anything" may refer to taking protester flyers, but it comes across like an anti-choice slogan).

Watching. Watching the passersby and learning to spot patients walking in from parking their cars elsewhere. Watching hands, when men come up to the door clutching something, trying to figure out what it is.

Having the escorts outnumber the protesters and thinking, "this is overkill." Or being outnumbered 5 to 1.

Marking the dates of Roe v Wade and Lent on your calendar, neither of which meant diddly to you previously, because it's all hands to the pumps then.

Knowing that every time you go out will be different.

Knowing that as long as doctors are being murdered and access is being chipped away, you'll keep going out.

Comments

[tencrush]

Wow. I didn't know you did this. You have my utmost admiration, it sounds like a hard job.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I mentioned going in for training right after Dr. Tiller got killed, and then stopped talking about it until I'd done it enough to feel I had something valid to say. That... took a lot of processing.

Most of the time the biggest challenge is staying upright in the heat and not talking with the other escorts to the point that you forget what you're doing. But then... this is the quiet clinic. It'll be a whole different ball game when/if I'm at any of the others.

[museclio]

Greenbelt really is different - though the Drs don't argue with the antis or speed through the driveway so much other places. Remind me to tell you the story of the time he came down and argued.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I waffled a bit about cutting this to keep the name of the place anonymous, and then decided it wasn't that big a secret.

The Dr. did yell at them last week because N caught him going in and called out asking him to come down and talk to them. The Dr gave them an earful, but without budging from the door.

[museclio]

That's why I just gave the city rather than the name or anything. He's a pretty feisty guy. I'm glad he didn't come down.

[museclio]

It's not easy. You get holy water on your shoes. I get told that I'm going to hell. Your job is to keep people whose opinions you despise from getting punched. Sometimes it sucks... and sometimes you walk a woman in past the crazies, and she thanks you and you know you had to do it.

[stoplookingup.livejournal.com]

I imagine escorting is also not getting thanked very often, so...thank you very, very much for doing a job that should not have to be done, and that should certainly not be so dangerous, and doing it as a volunteer.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Agreed with this on all counts. *salutes*

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I imagine escorting is also not getting thanked very often

It's hard to tell which group is meant when someone honks their horn or flips the finger. It's such an unspecific action.

ETA: I am just the newbie of the local group, which has, alas, been doing this for 20 years now.

[beledibabe.livejournal.com]

Thank you for doing this, dear.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'm just the newbie of a group that's been doing this for a very long time.

[j00j.livejournal.com]

Thank you to you and to the group.

[shaggydogstail.livejournal.com]

I am horrified and saddened that there is a need for people to do this. More than this, I'm full of admiration at your courage and compassion for doing it. Much respect.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I had to do SOMETHING other than blog when Dr. Tiller was killed. SOMETHING! I couldn't live with myself otherwise.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Especially given how energized and happy they must be now that one of their own murdered another doctor, I salute you.

"Marking the dates of Roe v Wade and Lent on your calendar, neither of which meant diddly to you previously, because it's all hands to the pumps then."

I was raised Catholic and all Lent signifies to me anymore is, "The endless six weeks when total Christian strangers begin screaming at me about becoming one of them even as they simultaneously scream at me about how I'm too perverted 'intrinsically disordered' ever to be one of them." Must be that much more fun if you do anything really disgusting with your life like, say, fill birth control prescriptions.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

one of their own murdered another doctor

Randall Terry is in Virginia and not here, of all small mercies; the group we get is downright tame and meek in comparison. But I was far from the only person to cite Dr. Tiller as the reason why they showed up at the first escort training class after his murder.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

I know we've talked about this before, but I'm not sure that I told you how I respect and admire you for doing this. So I'm saying it now.

And, yes, as someone else said, this is so much a role that should not be needed - but unfortunately is. It's such a contradiction, given that it's conservative and religious Americans who talk so much about defending their freedoms, that they want to take away the perfectly legal freedom of someone else. It's a disgrace, preying on such very vulnerable people.

More power to you :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It's such a contradiction, given that it's conservative and religious Americans who talk so much about defending their freedoms, that they want to take away the perfectly legal freedom of someone else


As I mentioned in your LJ; if you have it, it's a right. If someone you think is icky wants it, it's a "special privilege."

Some are more equal than others...

[mydeira.livejournal.com]

You have my utmost admiration and respect.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

I think it's totally awesome that you're doing this.

But it's also immensely depressing that someone has to do it . . .

[neadods.livejournal.com]

But it's also immensely depressing that someone has to do it . . .

Yes... The first Amendment gets a bit ugly in practice...

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

Please see icon.

[lordshiva.livejournal.com]

Wow, you do brave shit. You walk the walk of the takers. I took my surrogate daughter to the clinic and walked her inside several years ago. And now she's a happy mother of a beautiful child. She knew what was the right choice for her and when.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

*nods* I know a fair number of women who had an abortion that they don't regret and also a child/children they adore. I also know women who would never abort who had D&Cs after miscarriages. The protesters don't care if the fetus is sick (or already dead) or the mother is sick or the father is violent or the time is just wrong.

I figure it's none of my business why. They're adults taking advantage of a legal procedure for their own reasons.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Great work. It is an appalling thing that it's even necessary, but thank you for doing it.

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

Adding my thanks and admiration; I can't imagine how tough it must be to put yourself in this place, and I'm grateful that there are people who do so with so much sensitivity to the dynamics of the situation.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

In a way I feel a cheat, because this is the "easy" clinic. Sometime I'll have to go down to the other one to feel properly escortish.

The group has, alas, had a very long time to hone their presentation and their advice. It would be nice to see the day when it's not needed anymore and can disband.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Thanks for doing this and thanks for writing this as well.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Nobody talks about it. I thought somebody should.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that you (and the others) do it.

[fyrdrakken]

Agreed with all of the above -- glad you're doing this, very unhappy that it's necessary. (Someone at my previous job found out she was pregnant the week she was graduating high school. The father was someone we'd been nudging her to break up with for quite some time beforehand, and his reaction to the news was to quit his job because it was where her father worked and he was afraid to face him. She specifically said she wasn't getting an abortion because she couldn't handle fighting her way into a clinic to get it. Haven't heard from her since I got laid off from that job immediately after the weekend she checked into the hospital with impending liver failure a week before her due date, so no idea how she and her little family are doing now.)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

She specifically said she wasn't getting an abortion because she couldn't handle fighting her way into a clinic to get it.

*long, heavy sigh*

[flaviarassen.livejournal.com]

I'll say the same thing to you that I do to all the Orthodox women who manage to have all those kids: "Thanks for taking up the slack."

Seriously - you are doing something that I want very much to do, know I should do & yet will never be able to do.

I do not do clinic duty because I would be lucky to only mouth off to those bigoted @$$wipes - I would most likely end by taking a swing at them & being the one going to jail.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

We're not allowed to strike back. Or be insulting... too loudly.

[flaviarassen.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know - that's why I couldn't do it.
I salute you for being able to do it.