Thin Orange Line
Sep. 5th, 2009 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsThe 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-05 09:59 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-06 01:04 am (UTC)