A clinic escort outside the Planned Parenthood - Carol Whitehill Moses Center
An abortionclinic escort is an individual who volunteers at an abortion clinic or family planning clinic. Their role is to assist patients and staff to enter and exit these facilities safely, and to prevent any potential harassment or danger to individuals. A clinic escort's role at a family planning clinic encompasses myriad different tasks, which can also vary between clinics.
Instances of anti-abortion protesting and violence have occurred throughout history, where groups or individuals have protested outside of family planning clinics, and in other instances, used violence against clinic escorts, doctors, and patients.
Abortion laws also vary across different countries and jurisdictions, with some enacting laws to protect clinic escorts, other clinic staff, and patients in family planning clinics.
Role of an abortion clinic escort
There are various rules and guidelines that exist at each family planning clinic, but the role of abortion clinic escorts is to approach patients and inform them why they are there and that they work with the clinic.[1] The clinic escorts walk patients and staff to and from the clinic entrance when they believe there is a need for assistance, protecting them by acting as a buffer. The abortion clinic escort is there to protect a patient's legal right to access the family planning clinic's services, whether or not that be for the purpose of an abortion.[2] Often, the clinic escorts are told never to stand in front of, or block a patient or staff's path to the entrance of the clinic, and not to make any contact if protesters are present.
In order to protect the abortion clinic escort's own privacy, usual practice involves refraining from referring to each other by name.[1] Additionally, an abortion clinic escort is asked to equally respect the wishes of a patient if they do not want to be escorted to and from the family planning centre.
It is the policy at certain family planning clinics for clinic escorts to uphold and respect others’ right to freedom of speech and the freedom to protest. In raising this point, abortion clinics will inform clinic escorts to distinguish between maintaining this right and recognising when a law has been broken. If the latter occurs, abortion clinic escorts are directed to report this, as their role is to protect a patient's legal right to access the family planning clinics' services.
It is worth noting that laws will differ country to country, however, examples of illegal activity include trespass, assault, or battery. In the US, it is illegal to ‘intimidate, interfere with, or threaten a client entering a clinic; it is illegal to block the entrance or driveway, or disturb clinic services with noise or unruly behavior’.[2] In some countries, patients have a right not to be photographed, if this is the case, clinic escorts are directed to step in front of, or shield a patient, if an attempt is being made by someone to photograph the patient.
Generally, rules setting out the role of clinic escorts suggest that they should always be aware of their surroundings and any unusual behaviour occurring near them, or near the premises of the family planning clinic. They should follow security procedures that their local clinic has informed them to adhere to, and report any suspected dangers to the family planning clinic.[2]
The debate surrounding abortion
Abortion is a contested and polarising issue that has been the topic of substantial debate. This is due to differing moral, religious, political, and legal views and perspectives that individuals, groups, and societies hold.
Groups or individuals who believe in abortion rights usually identify as being “pro-choice”. This means that they believe that human beings should have the right to decide whether or not they wish to have a child. Further, these groups believe that women should have reproductive rights and a right to choose whether or not they wish to carry out or to terminate a pregnancy. On the other hand, groups or individuals who are anti-abortion sometimes describe themselves using the term “pro-life”. This view believes that an embryo, or a foetus, is a human being who has the right to life, and some individuals or groups believe that abortion can be equated to an act of murder.[3]
While these two opposing sides exist in the abortion debate, note that there are shades of diverse beliefs and opinions that exist outside of, or within these two groups. The complexity of the debate may not be fully realised if the debate is reduced to these two labels.
The topic of abortion is an issue of moral debate surrounding women's rights, the rights of a foetus, and when personhood commences. While this is the case, these normative debates of what is morally correct can then lead to legal implications and legal debate over what the laws surrounding abortion should be. While some push for the expansion of an individual's right to access abortion, others seek to enact laws to make abortion illegal.
Anti-abortion protests and violence
Expressions of anti-abortion sentiment occurs in various ways. Protesting from various groups can occur outside of a family planning clinic or a facility that performs abortions. This can possibly be in the form of peaceful picketing or could lead to harassment and large demonstrations. On occasion, extreme acts of violence and terrorism have occurred in different forms, which clinic escorts, doctors, staff and patients have been exposed to.
Usually, daily picketing outside of a family planning clinic involves individuals or groups gathering outside of a facility with anti-abortion posters, who approach patients entering in an attempt to convince them not to have an abortion.[4]
Other forms of protesting that has been carried out include: the mass scheduling of no-show appointments by anti-abortion groups, to prevent people from accessing their abortion rights; calling the clinics in order to occupy all the telephone lines so patients are unable to get through; and vandalism of facilities.
More extreme measures that have occurred against doctors, abortion clinic escorts or other staff include: tracing the license plate numbers of individuals, and picketing at the homes of staff and patients. Photos of patients, doctors and staff, as well as their number plates have also been reported to be uploaded to anti-abortion websites, along with lists of their names.[5] Usually, these activities are not isolated events, but are continual and patterned pressure that is directed at the family planning centres and its staff.[4]
Additionally, acts of violence and terrorism have even taken place. One instance of violence occurred in 1993 in Pensacola, Florida where a doctor, David Gunn, died after being shot outside of an abortion clinic. Michael Griffin was the perpetrator of this act of violence.
Another occurrence took place on July 29, 1994, when a man named Paul Hill shot Dr. John Britton and clinic escort James Barrett with a 12-gauge shotgun outside of a family planning clinic. Hill first shot and killed Barrett, before shooting Britton in the head and injuring June Barrett, Barrett's wife. Britton was even wearing a bulletproof vest at the time. Hill later revealed that he had a suspicion that Britton was wearing a bullet proof vest, and thus deliberately aimed at his head. This case fuelled more anti-abortion protesters to voice their opinions and was a platform for various groups to mobilise, speaking to the polarisation surrounding the abortion debate.[6]
Some Anti-Abortion protesters will dress up as Clinic escorts and intentionally try to misinform people trying to enter the clinic.[7]
Clinic escorts and abortion laws
The laws surrounding the right to access abortions are extremely diverse and differ country to country, and sometimes even across regions within a country. On one hand, some jurisdictions have made abortion completely illegal, while other jurisdictions have not only legalised the procedure, but provide public funding for abortions to be carried out.[8] This, too, has meant that an individual's access to a safe abortion is incredibly varied depending on where they are in the world.
According to a 2013 United Nations report, 93 per cent of countries allow abortion where its purpose is to save a woman's life. Around two thirds of the countries surveyed permit abortion when the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman is put at risk, and only in half the countries where a pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. 36 per cent of global governments allow abortions for economic or social reasons, or on request. These countries, however, contain 61 per cent of the world's population because they include countries such as China and India, which have very large populations. Six countries do not permit abortion under any circumstances. These countries are: the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Malta, the Holy See, and Nicaragua.[9]
It can be seen that regardless of moral debates, even where abortions in certain countries are illegal, they are still taking place. According to the United Nations, in countries where abortion laws are restrictive, there are much higher unsafe abortion rates. The unsafe abortion rate was over four times greater in countries that had restrictive abortion laws, compared to countries that had more liberal abortion laws. The former had 26.7 unsafe abortions for every 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years old, whereas the latter only had 6.1 unsafe abortions for every 1,000 women of the same age range.[9]
In certain jurisdictions, governments have responded to and taken measures to protect an individual's legal right to access abortion, or accessing general clinic services. Countries such as Australia and the US (in select states) have legislation in place to protect staff and patients against picketing, intimidation, harassment, and obstruction from the entrance to family planning clinics.
Governments in certain regions have passed legislation to create a radius around a family planning or abortion clinic in which certain activities, such as protesting, is prohibited. These areas are referred to as a ‘safe zone’, ‘access zone’, ‘buffer zone’ or ‘bubble zone’. This legislation allows patients and clinic staff to enter and exit family planning clinics, free from anti-abortion protesters.
There are different ways in which these protections have been legislated. In some jurisdictions, there are fixed protective zones, which are specified areas of a fixed radius around the entrance to family planning clinics, in which individuals are prohibited from engaging in certain activities. Additionally, there are floating protective zones, or bubble zones, in place which ‘float’ around individuals or vehicles who wish to access these clinics.[5]
Alongside this legislation, other laws are in place in certain countries or states to limit or restrict certain protestor behaviour. This includes prohibiting photography around the entrance of abortion clinics to protect against the invasion of a patient's privacy. Additionally, there have been similar zones in place to protect the homes of doctors and clinic staff.
Individuals who support these laws put forward that these ‘safe zones’ are necessary to ensure a woman's legal right to abortion, and that these zones protect the safety of patients and clinic staff, and their right to feel safe and free from harassment.[5]
The United States abortion-rights movement is a sociopolitical movement in the United States supporting the view that a woman should have the legal right to an elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy, and is part of a broader global abortion-rights movement. The movement consists of a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body.
Henekh "Henry" Morgentaler,, was a Polish-born Canadian physician and abortion rights advocate who fought numerous legal battles aimed at expanding abortion rights in Canada. As a Jewish youth during World War II, Morgentaler was imprisoned at the Łódź Ghetto and later at the Dachau concentration camp.
Abortion in Australia is legal. It has been fully decriminalised in all jurisdictions, starting with Western Australia in 1998 and lastly in South Australia in 2022. Access to abortion varies between the states and territories: surgical abortions are readily available on request within the first 16 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, although with no limit on gestational term in the Australian Capital Territory. Later term abortions generally require the approval of two doctors, though are heavily restricted in Western Australia after 20 weeks.
An abortion clinic or abortion provider is a medical facility that provides abortions. Such clinics may be public medical centers, private medical practices or nonprofit organizations such as Planned Parenthood.
Anti-abortion violence is violence committed against individuals and organizations that perform abortions or provide abortion counseling. Incidents of violence have included destruction of property, including vandalism; crimes against people, including kidnapping, stalking, assault, attempted murder, and murder; and crimes affecting both people and property, including arson and terrorism, such as bombings.
The United States anti-abortion movement contains elements opposing induced abortion on both moral and religious grounds and supports its legal prohibition or restriction. Advocates generally argue that human life begins at conception and that the human zygote, embryo or fetus is a person and therefore has a right to life. The anti-abortion movement includes a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body. There are diverse arguments and rationales for the anti-abortion stance. Some anti-abortion activists allow for some permissible abortions, including therapeutic abortions, in exceptional circumstances such as incest, rape, severe fetal defects, or when the woman's health is at risk.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act is a United States law that was signed by President Bill Clinton in May 1994, which prohibits the following three things: (1) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is obtaining an abortion, (2) the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is exercising or trying to exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship, (3) the intentional damage or destruction of a reproductive health care facility or a place of worship.
Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York, 519 U.S. 357 (1997), was a case heard before the United States Supreme Court related to legal protection of access to abortion. The question before the court was whether the First Amendment was violated by placing an injunction on protesters outside abortion clinics. The court ruled in a 6–3 decision that "floating buffer zones" preventing protesters approaching people entering or leaving the clinics were unconstitutional, though "fixed buffer zones" around the clinics themselves remained constitutional. The Court's upholding the fixed buffer was the most important aspect of the ruling, because it was a common feature of injunctions nationwide.
The Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand (ALRANZ) is New Zealand's national abortion-rights advocacy group in existence since 1971. Since the decriminalisation of abortion in 2020, the organisation continues to monitor and lobby for changes to the law. The organisation is based in Wellington, puts out a quarterly newsletter, and has its own website.
Governments sometimes take measures designed to afford legal protection of access to abortion. Such legislation often seeks to guard facilities which provide induced abortion against obstruction, vandalism, picketing, and other actions, or to protect patients and employees of such facilities from threats and harassment.
Susan Wicklund is an American physician. Until her retirement, Dr Wicklund was the sole provider of abortions in some areas of the midwestern United States and was a prominent target of violence and harassment from opponents of abortion rights.
Madsen v. Women's Health Center, Inc., 512 U.S. 753 (1994), is a United States Supreme Court case where Petitioners challenged the constitutionality of an injunction entered by a Florida state court which prohibits antiabortion protesters from demonstrating in certain places, and in various ways outside of a health clinic that performs abortions.
Abortion-rights movements, also self-styled as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pregnancy without fear of legal or social backlash. These movements are in direct opposition to anti-abortion movements.
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionistmovements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in response to the legalization of elective abortions.
While some protests of the anti-abortion movement use violent methods, most protesters use a range of physically non-violent tactics, which may nonetheless include emotionally violent acts, such as intimidation or harassment.
Abortion in Michigan is legal beyond fetal viability. A state constitutional amendment to explicitly guarantee abortion rights was placed on the ballot in 2022 as Michigan Proposal 22–3; it passed by 57 percent, adding the right to abortion and contraceptive use to the Michigan Constitution. The amendment largely prevents the regulation of abortion before fetal viability, unless said regulations are to protect the individual seeking an abortion, and it also makes it unconstitutional to make laws restricting abortions which would protect the life and health, physical and/or mental, of the pregnant individual seeking abortion.
Abortion in Florida is currently legal until the 15th week of gestation and is governed by the State Legislature. The State of Florida banned abortion with limited exceptions in 1900. This ban was overturned in 1973 by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case Roe v. Wade. The Florida Legislature eventually repealed it, and as of 2023, a new case challenging the 15-week abortion ban is pending under court for review.
The Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Amendment Act 2022 is an Act of Parliament in New Zealand that will provide a regulation-making power to set up safe areas around specific abortion facilities on a case-by-case basis. The Bill passed its third reading on 16 March 2022 and received royal assent on 18 March.
A safe access zone (SAZ) is a form of legal protection of access to abortion and is a specified distance around a reproductive healthcare clinic or service in which anti-abortion picketers cannot demonstrate, stand or communicate with patients and/or staff that enter and exit the reproductive facility. This helps to prevent pregnant girls and women that are seeking abortion services from being intimidated and harassed by anti-abortion picketers. In most states in Australia, safe access zones are an area of 150 metres around the entire reproductive health facility, which is equivalent to approximately 492 feet. Safe access zones are a legislative matter, meaning laws allowing safe access zones are necessary.
Sister Supporter are a British advocacy group who campaign for the introduction of buffer zones around abortion clinics. The group also runs a hotline to gather information about harassment by anti-choice protestors outside of clinics.
1 2 Cozzarelli, C (1994). "The Effects of Anti-Abortion Demonstrators and Pro-Choice Escorts on Women's Psychological Responses to Abortion". Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. 13 (4): 404–427. doi:10.1521/jscp.1994.13.4.404.
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