Anti-choice protestors give baby booties in gift bags to patients and even videotape patients as they walk into the clinic. On a weekly basis, the "regular" antis are there trying to shove pamphlets in cars trying to park and scream anti-choice slogans at patients. – Benita, Clinic Escort Chicago, IL #ProtectTheZone
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Anti-choice protestors give baby booties in gift bags to patients and even videotape patients as they walk into the clinic. On a weekly basis, the "regular" antis are there trying to shove pamphlets in cars trying to park and scream anti-choice slogans at patients.
– Benita, Clinic EscortChicago, IL#ProtectTheZone
You can see the terror and confusion in [the patient’s] eyes as soon as she hears the screaming. Then she sort of gets weak in her knees once she realizes that the picketers see her. Then, as they descend on her, screaming at her, whispering in her ear, trying to hand her…anti-abortion literature.
– Jane, Clinic EscortEnglewood, NJ#ProtectTheZone
I've personally been spit on, shoved into traffic, followed, screamed at, photographed, recorded, threatened, "featured" by anti-choice groups in their newsletters and told I was a murderer. None -- NONE -- of that compares to what is hurled at patients and their companions.
Patients are harassed daily at the clinic whether it is by protesters yelling at them as they go in or by shouting in the windows of the clinic which are close to the sidewalk.
I've seen patients followed to their cars and physically blocked from walking into the clinic. With no buffer/bubble law, the protesters will go right up to the door of the clinic and yell horrific things into the door so that the people inside can hear.
There were definitely times I feared for my safety while helping patients in the building. There were times, especially around the Roe anniversary, that especially aggressive protestors would show up and threaten us.
We often have as many as 35 people directly outside the clinic on a Saturday morning, yelling, carrying signs, pressing brochures on people who don't want them, singing, waving crosses and posters, and praying.
I’ve seen anti-choice protesters follow a woman two city blocks to a bus stop against her will and chase her across busy streets. I’ve also seen antis…use violent language meant to incite fear and panic.
– Beth, Clinic EscortChicago, IL#ProtectTheZone
I've walked with patients who started crying from all the attention, patients who were so angry at these people that they scream their reasons for being there at them.
I’ve been threatened by anti-choice protesters on a number of occasions. I was also recently assaulted by one of them. Unfortunately, when I called the cops, we got a sergeant who was unsympathetic to our cause and didn’t do anything about it.
– Dennis, Clinic EscortChicago, IL#ProtectTheZone
An anti-choice protester threatened to cut my neck as I was escorting a patient into the building.
I have escorted at a clinic where protesters regularly promise patients that they will financially support them and their babies until the age of 18. They routinely target racial and ethnic minorities.
– Debra, Clinic EscortGranite City, IL#ProtectTheZone
Every week anti-choice protestors are out calling "don't go in there" and "we want to help your baby" to women who enter the clinic. Some are pretty aggressive and try to touch the patients and escorts as they're entering the building.
Over the course of decades, the public has just internalized this idea that clinics are sites of harassment, even violence. And I don't think they're wrong. That's why buffer zones and clinic escorts are so important. – Michelle, Cherry Hill, NJ
– Michelle, Clinic EscortCherry Hill, NJ#ProtectTheZone