Another controversial issue in current society is abortion. In short, I consider abortion a private matter between the woman in question, her medical care provider, and others as SHE sees fit. Regardless of whether I know her, it's not my decision to make.
(more after the jump)
In other words, I'm adamantly pro-choice. It would be great for abortion to be less common than it is, but I see the means toward that end to be education about the process of conception and how to use contraception properly. It is also realistic, in my own view, to say that until such time as abortion is unneeded by any woman, it must remain a reasonable option for all women.
I would not, therefore, have our government, which is supposedly acting in our collective names, get into the mix. It's not the government's business.
Nor is it the business of the many overly-religious folks who congregate in front of clinics where women get abortions.
However, those vehement anti-choice people do just that. And, in response, there has developed a group of folks who spend an hour or two one or two or three mornings a week escorting clinic clients and client companions past the anti-choice crowd. For a bit more than a year, my wife has been one of these escorts.
The escorts are all volunteers. There is no hierarchy. Each escort is acting as an individual, responsible for his or her own actions. There is a group ethical code to follow--I think the term is "points of unity." It's important to keep in mind that escorts are not there to strut. They are there to help clients have space to do what they have decided to do. Escorts act as a buffer.
It's pretty intense at times. Human nature is such that tempers can flare--indeed, that seems to be the goal of many of the antis (as the escorts call them). One of the points of unity is that de-escalation is important. Escalating a dispute does not serve the clients or client companions.
I know myself well enough to know that avoiding such escalations is tough for me--enough so that I probably do better to help Jenn decompress and maintain her self than get in there myself. I encourage Jenn to tell me about what happens with this in mind.
Every now and again, though, I'm tempted to go watch. See for myself how things go. I allowed myself to indulge my curiosity this morning.
There are times when the number of antis is expected to be heavier. Easter weekend, Mother's Day weekend, and Father's Day weekend all see larger turnouts from the religious zealots who wish to impose their belief system on others. Shortly before such weekends, the call goes out via word of mouth and social media for extra volunteers. I figured that today was a good day for me to see the action first-hand.
Jenn and I left the house earlier than she normally leaves, as there was concern over street side parking availability. It's a race to see who can get into some key parking slots first--escorts who can then move their cars to allow clients and client companions to have the spots or antis to prevent use of the slots by clinic clients. In the car en route to the clinic, Jenn and I discussed possible ways I might be most useful. Once we arrived, others in the group felt that I would be most helpful standing by a corner of the awning in front of the clinic, to help keep a way clear for clients to enter the building. I was, in a way, a human rock, there to keep a specific anti from blocking access. I had two other folks to my right that made my job even easier.
The folks who are protesting access to the clinic have some heartfelt opinions on the issue at hand, to be sure. They have their reasons for their opinions, as well. To a person, they cite the Christian God and Jesus as commanding people to not abort pregnancies. There is much reading of prayers. That's fine.
What is not fine, or even acceptable to me, is that they use their religious beliefs to bully the clients. Many of them verbally bludgeon people heading for the clinic, ignoring who the client is, and with zero knowledge of the client's background. They assume the pregnancy to be some gift from their invisible friend, and refuse to accept that there could be any valid reason for terminating a pregnancy. They lie about supposed risks. They lie about the agency next door that "provides free ultrasounds, provides help placing the baby for adoption, provides help for the mother who needs a place to live or a job or money for food or health care. Those lies are well-documented elsewhere.
As my tasking was to stand in one place, moving as needed to allow clients access to the building, I was in place to see and hear some of the regular antis as they shouted their verbal bullying. I had heard Jenn talk of this anti or that one, usually by nickname--we don't know their names, and don't really care to. Some of the antis spend their time preaching. Some lead prayer groups. Some chase clients, trying to talk them out of what they came to do. Some do all they can to block or at least delay access. Some take it upon themselves to try to shame escorts.
Some of the sermons are pretty funny. The level of delusion and belief in a clearly immoral and anti-ethical religion is astonishing. Standing where I was, I got to "enjoy" the experience of having a couple of antis yell at folks who had already gone inside the building, telling them of their god's love, admonishing them for not obeying their god's commands, and on and on and on and on. One male anti spoke of Jesus' supposed commands to leave the building, to go next door to explore good alternatives to the evils of abortion. One was standing in front of the man standing beside me, trying her best to talk to people through the gap between our shoulders. Since the people were inside, she was talking at almost a yell. Her spiel was clearly practiced over many such days of doing her shaming act, and elements of her spiel were repeated and repeated and repeated...
Having been partially prepared for this, I just let their words flow on by me. I didn't take their shaming personally. How could I? They don't know anything about me, beyond their imagined reasons for my being there. I kept thinking about the soldier character in Life of Brian, as seen about 3:15 into this video, as I tried to not laugh at their ludicrous words:
At other times, I mentally went back to scenes from old military movies where the drill instructor yells at recruits and the recruits are supposed to just stand there at attention. Or at parade rest. Not responding to the yelling.
And by not responding to the attempts at shaming, making the anti even more upset. I'm letting the anti escalate his or her verbal nonsense, knowing that the outcome isn't going to go physical, even if the anti wants me to think it might. Eventually, though, they tire of trying to elicit a reaction, and walk away. And then come back to try again. In retrospect, I realize that it's a pretty powerful feeling, watching them let my stoic non-reaction to their vitriol get them more antagonistic. They are giving me that power.
And I'm still ignoring their words.
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