Servalbear
Louisville, KY
Female, 63
We are a group of volunteers who escort clients and their companions past anti-abortion protesters. We are not security or clinic defense. We are present to support people and create space for them to be empowered while accessing reproductive healthcare. The time escorting can be stressful and emotional, but we feel it is important to support a client's right to make the decision best for them. Abortion is not a dirty word and should be accessible to anyone. Read our blog to find out more.
Basically, we just show up. We are an independent group of volunteers. We train new escorts as they show up and have guidelines in place to respect the clinic and their clients. We do not work for the clinic, but we have a close relationship with them. We consult them if there are issues we think they need to be aware of and they support us in our efforts.
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Yes, but it has rarely come up. Once someone decides to volunteer to escort they already have a sense of commitment to providing space to clients. We do have guidelines to follow and training we provide. Some reasons we might suggest a volunteer focus on other ways to help keep access to abortion in other ways besides escorting: a potential volunteer who does not respect women and other clients; a volunteer who escalates the chaos instead of engaging in de-escalating words and actions; a volunteer who has physical confrontations with the protesters; a volunteer who engages in counter-protests. There are many ways interested volunteers can contribute assistance besides escorting.
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No, the position is not paid. We are all volunteers.
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There are escorts there every day the clinic is open. Escorts arrive close to 7a. Questions about the medical procedures and times for patients should be addressed to the clinic. EMW Women's Surgical Center's website is: http://www.emwwomens.com/.
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How many protesters present at the clinic depends on the day of the week and the weather, but there are protesters present every day the clinic is open. We will have 5-15 protesters on the weekdays and then 30-70 protesters are usually present on Saturdays. The Saturdays before Mother's Day, Easter and Father's Day we have hundreds of protesters present. The Saturday before Mother's Day 2013 we had 315 protesters present. We count them that day every year for our annual fundraiser. It is not unusual to have 200 or more protesters the Saturdays before Easter and Father's Day. Escorts leave between 8:15a and 8:30a and most of the protesters leave at the same time. You are correct, if you were to arrive around 9a most or all of the protesters would be gone. Sometimes one or two protesters are out longer, but not usually. Thank you for your kind words. We believe answering questions about escorting helps to bring awareness to the public about the protester impact at abortion clinics. We are grateful to have the Jobstr forum to do this.
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