For These Abortion Clinic Escorts, The Vitriol From Protesters Has Gotten Way Worse As States Try To Restrict Access

“You never know who’s going to show up when you call 911. Nothing has ever come of it.”

Nicole Fallert, BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on October 16, 2021

Christine is used to being called a witch. As a volunteer escort at EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville, Kentucky, she’s accustomed to crowds of anti-abortion protesters shouting the word at her while she accompanies patients into the clinic. “Devil” and “Nazi guard” are also frequently used.

Christine, who has been an escort for eight years, said patients are never prepared for the harassment that awaits them as they attempt to enter the building.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolefallert/abortion-clinic-escorts-protesters-concern

Abortion: The great divide

OCTOBER 10, 2021
CBS NEWS

EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville is on the frontlines of the abortion conflict – one of just two clinics in Kentucky that provides abortions. Three-thousand women come here for those services each year, and every one of them must run a gauntlet of protesters. "This is not healthcare; this is killing human beings," said one woman standing outside the entrance.

Dr. Ernest Marshall co-founded the clinic in 1980. He told correspondent Rita Braver that there's a simple reason he offers women abortions: "You can never be equal if you can't control your reproduction."

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abortion-the-great-divide/

Standing Between Care and Violence

Abortion-clinic escorts and defenders serve as human shields protecting patients from angry, aggressive protestors. Now, with emboldened extremists and the COVID crisis, they face more danger than ever before.

By Garnet Henderson
Jun 2, 2021

Shelley, an abortion-clinic defender at Clinics for Abortion and Reproductive Excellence (CARE) in Bellevue, Nebraska, had a bad feeling on the morning of September 25, 2020. One of those gut bad feelings. It had been a volatile summer. Warmer months typically bring more anti-abortion-rights protesters to clinics, and the groups had been even larger than usual in 2020, likely due to high unemployment rates. By September, the crowds had begun to thin back down to the clinic’s 12 to 14 “regulars.” That morning, one of the regulars was camped out in his usual spot at the base of the clinic’s driveway.

Continued: https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/a36061740/abortion-clinic-escorts-defenders-face-violence/

Abortion Clinic Protests Are Still Happening in the Pandemic: ‘They Accost Patients Face to Face’

Abortion Clinic Protests Are Still Happening in the Pandemic: ‘They Accost Patients Face to Face’
“They don’t social distance. They block, stalk, push, shove, talk, scream. It’s business as usual out there for them.”

by Carter Sherman
May 26 2020

When Kelly Benzin arrived at the Grand Rapids, Michigan, abortion clinic where she works one recent Wednesday morning, everything seemed normal. Even in the midst of the pandemic, the Heritage Clinic for Women had been drawing about five to 15 protesters a day, she said. One was just setting up his chair as Benzin pulled in.

But around 8 a.m., when the clinic officially opened, Benzin realized that about 25 to 35 people had started to gather outside. Soon, they started to approach patients, handing out roses and trying to talk them out of getting abortions.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/889nnp/abortion-clinic-protests-are-still-happening-in-the-pandemic-they-accost-patients-face-to-face

USA – How Health Officials in Pro-Life States Are Quietly Dismantling Abortion Access

How Health Officials in Pro-Life States Are Quietly Dismantling Abortion Access
Without the fanfare of a bill signing or a Supreme Court decision, the first state without an abortion clinic is in sight.

Rosemary Westwood
July 31, 2019

One spring day in 2017, Dr. Ernest Marshall received an inauspicious letter from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the state's health agency. Marshall, a Louisville native with a round face and a trimmed mustache, has been an OB-GYN and teacher with the University of Louisville School of Medicine for nearly four decades. For just as long, he's owned what is now the state's last abortion clinic. EMW Women's Surgical Center sits on a stretch of sprawling, sparsely populated real estate in downtown Louisville, across from a cinema-sized money lender and down the block from a Subway restaurant.

Continued: https://psmag.com/social-justice/how-health-officials-in-pro-life-states-are-quietly-dismantling-abortion-access

31.07.2019

Commentary

Featured

American Civil Liberties Union

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

anti-choice restrictions

Brigitte Amiri

Capital Care Network

Center for Reproductive Rights

Dr. Ernest Marshall

EMW Women’s Surgical Center

Guttmacher Institute

Hope Medical Group for Women

Jennifer Branch

John Kasich

Kathaleen Pittman

Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services

KentuckyOne

Kim Greene

licensing of abortion clinics

Martin Haskell

Matt Bevin

Mike Parson

Operation Save America

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast

Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky

Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers

transfer agreements with hospitals

TRAP laws

Vickie Yates Brown Glisson

Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt

USA – Abortion Rights Got Two Important Legal Wins Last Week

Abortion Rights Got Two Important Legal Wins Last Week
Decisions from federal courts in Kentucky and Virginia protecting abortion access could not come at a more crucial time for reproductive rights.

Oct 1, 2018
Jessica Mason Pieklo

A federal court in Kentucky on Friday struck back at conservative efforts to restrict abortion access, ruling as unconstitutional a state law requiring abortion clinics to have written transfer agreements with ambulance services and hospitals.

At issue in the lawsuit is a 1998 law that requires abortion clinics have “transfer and transport” agreements with a hospital and ambulance service in the event a medical emergency were to take place at the abortion clinic.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2018/10/01/abortion-rights-got-two-important-legal-wins-last-week/

01.10.2018