The Buffer Zone Debate: A Tale of Two Clinics

[lagilman]

THIS IS NOT MY POST.  THIS WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED BY neadods at The Buffer Zone Debate: A Tale of Two Clinics

SCOTUS 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.")



Note to self: when home, change icon to "orange line" and add tag

Comments

[annietalbot.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'd have the courage to be an escort. (and that's a very lowering admission for me to make, because I like to think of myself as being brave)

THANK YOU for what you do.

[lagilman]

Um, not me who is the escort.... I was reblogging the link from another LJ (as per the header).

Me, I'd punch the first person who tried to harass, so I stay well away from the war zone.

[annietalbot.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. I read incompletely. (so much for my amazing editing skills!)

(and so would I, which would be a problem)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I used to take food to shove in my mouth to keep from shouting back. In the long run, though, it turned into a crash course in zen.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

You could have clipped the bit about changing the icon and adding the tag! :)

[lagilman]

Today's been a little stressful, trimming the post was kinda #73 on the list of things to do...

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

When I lived in downtown Philly, there was a Planned Parenthood on my route home from work, on my way to my favorite hang-out, where I picked up take-out. Basically, I walked by it a lot. And yeah, a woman can't walk by a PP without getting harassed by antis.

[paulliver.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how many of my liberal friends from liberal parts of America think the feminist battle is already won...

[lagilman]

Funny, most of the women I know - conservative or liberal- are well aware that the battle for respectful treatment, much less equality, is far from over.

It's not a "feminist battle," IME: it's a long slog by reasonable people toward convincing men (and some women) that equality isn't a bad word, and no, being patronizing is neither respectful nor endearing...

[paulliver.livejournal.com]

I guess whether it is a "feminist" battle depends on if one means it as a philosophical or political movement. Philosophically, I agree that feminist is too restrictive, I think we should be 'humanists,' but politically, this part of of it is being fought by people in the feminist movement.

[lagilman]

Saying that "feminist is too restrictive" suggests to me that you have no understanding of what it means to be a feminist, or why it's (still) important.

Also, it's not a philosophical nor a political movement, it's both and it's also a matter of equality. A thing which has not yet been accomplished, either legally or socially.

(as any woman who earns less than a man for the same job, and has her bodily rights come under attack very week can tell you)

[paulliver.livejournal.com]

I agree that the feminist movement is still very important; I'm just trying to say people in parts of the country where conservatives are in political retreat don't understand the problems women face in parts of the country where conservatives are on the offense.

And perhaps I don't understand feminism, but I've heard so many people argue about what feminism is, and there have been so many sub-catagories of feminism, that it is hard to know what exactly it is.

[lagilman]

No, it's really not hard to know what it is. The trick is not to assume it's a narrow experience or a political party that walks in lockstep.

A feminist, at base, is someone (male or female) who does not accept the male as social default.

I might suggest starting here: http://www.redletterpress.org/feminism101.html

"The demand for full equality for all women is profoundly radicalizing when it addresses the additional layers of discrimination women experience because of class, race, sexuality, disability, and age, and also the heightened impact on women and children of war, poverty and environmental degradation. Multi-issue feminism quickly develops into a critique of the whole social system."

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

I used to live on the same street as a clinic when I lived in Renton, Washington. There was one old lady who was there almost every day. The one thing I wanted to add, though, was that when we say 'anti-abortion signs', they're not handmade signs with pithy slogans. The most common one was of a newborn baby chopped into bits as if with a meat cleaver. It was an incredibly disturbing image, and was being waved about in public.

By and large, these are not nice people.