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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Pridget and you're listening the stuff Bomb

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Speaker 1: never told you. Now today I want to give a

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Speaker 1: quick trigger warning. We're talking about abortion, and today's conversation

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Speaker 1: includes mentions of gun violence. So if that's something that

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Speaker 1: is hard for you, just know that's what we're talking

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Speaker 1: about today. Now. Today's episode is the first in a

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Speaker 1: series called All About Abortion. You may already know some

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Speaker 1: of the basics about the abortion debate, but on this series,

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Speaker 1: we're really breaking down some different aspects of abortion that

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Speaker 1: you might not know about. And we're starting with clinic escorts.

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Speaker 1: When I worked at Playing Parenthood, most of my work

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Speaker 1: was done behind a computer. Occasionally it took me to

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Speaker 1: an in person rally outside Congress or the Senate, but

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Speaker 1: for the most part, my colleagues and I helped reproductive

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Speaker 1: justice from the comfort of a temperature controlled office. Clinic

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Speaker 1: escorts are different. If there's a war on women's health,

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Speaker 1: they're at the front lines. You see them in brightly

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Speaker 1: colored vests, walking people into planned parent and health centers,

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Speaker 1: using their bodies to create a physical barrier between throngs

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Speaker 1: of screaming, praying, anti abortion protesters and patients seeking abortions.

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Speaker 1: But what exactly does a clinic escort do and what

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Speaker 1: does it take to become one? For answers, I attended

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Speaker 1: to training for soon to be clinic escorts in Washington,

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Speaker 1: d c. UM. Our focus is the patient. We are

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Speaker 1: not counter protesters and UM that is something we're going

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Speaker 1: to be repeating frequently throughout this training because it's very

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Speaker 1: important and it's it's not for everybody. So if you

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Speaker 1: decide at the end it isn't for you, that's just fine.

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Speaker 1: UM there's a UM does it. We are appro choice

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Speaker 1: organization obviously, and some of us are very passionate about

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Speaker 1: being pro choice, but our focus when we're on site

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Speaker 1: of the clinic is to be UM non political in

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Speaker 1: that in that we do not engage with protesters who

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Speaker 1: show up. That is not our focus. Our focus is

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Speaker 1: a patient, So our agenda is going to be too.

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Speaker 1: UM Olivia is gonna talk a little bit about the

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Speaker 1: history of the organization. You're welcome to ask questions at

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Speaker 1: any time. So I'm just doing just a little history

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Speaker 1: and lactif UM and this will roughly correspond with whatever

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Speaker 1: you read on cage two. UM WATIF was and originally formed.

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Speaker 1: UM we always sort of we sort of say, we

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Speaker 1: have this kind of cumbersome name, the Washington Area Clinic

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Speaker 1: Defense Task Force because watch it was originally formed in

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Speaker 1: the late nineties when there starting to be a lot

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Speaker 1: of clinic flood. Paige and a lot of clinics were

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Speaker 1: experiencing her asplant patients were being blocked, and so a

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Speaker 1: bunch of different area activists were trying to help out,

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Speaker 1: and they found that they were all sort of converging

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Speaker 1: on um on the same clinic on the same days,

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Speaker 1: and other clinics were not getting any protection, and so

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Speaker 1: they formed. But they thought was sort of an ad

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Speaker 1: hoc back in the last very long a group, the

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Speaker 1: Washington Area Clinic Defense Task Force whactive we call ourselves,

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Speaker 1: and uh in fact, WACKTIF has now been around for it.

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Speaker 1: We're probably closing about thirty years. So it wasn't as

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Speaker 1: ad hoc as we hoped, but it's it's kind of

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Speaker 1: I think it's a typical DC story and that you

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Speaker 1: have a lot of activists, you have a lot of

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Speaker 1: people who like organized so um so in interesting I

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Speaker 1: was told by the security director of the National Abortion

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Speaker 1: Federation in two thousands seven, I believe that whacked IF

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Speaker 1: is the only free standing, not specifically clinic affiliated clinic

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Speaker 1: defense group that she knew of in the nation, most

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Speaker 1: other Uh, if you've a scored it anywhere else, and

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Speaker 1: we might will probably ask you if you have. If

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Speaker 1: you have scored anywhere else, you're probably organized by the

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Speaker 1: clinic by to be a clinic volunteer. And so Wactive

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Speaker 1: is very unusual and that we are completely we are

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Speaker 1: our own five oh one C three UM, and we are,

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Speaker 1: as Megan said, all volunteer run. We also run on

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Speaker 1: a consensus um also legacies from the original founding and UM.

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Speaker 1: And so when you when you're volunteering with WACT, if

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Speaker 1: you are a wactic volunteer, you're not a clinic volunteer. UM.

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Speaker 1: So that's one change. I don't know if I need

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Speaker 1: to say much else about the history of WACKED. If

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Speaker 1: we're going to talk a little bit about if we

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Speaker 1: got through the goals and bedlines, we'll talk about some

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Speaker 1: stuff that you still apply more and we still talk

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Speaker 1: about it. UM. But we're gonna try to give you

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Speaker 1: a really good picture of what a sporting looks like,

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Speaker 1: what a typical Saturday lessite quoteille expective of you UM

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Speaker 1: certainly UM Megan and I both escort at the UM

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Speaker 1: at the the Planned Parenthood that's actually not that far

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Speaker 1: from here UM. But we've also escorted at a few

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Speaker 1: other sites. We can give you some things about that.

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Speaker 1: They asked me to shut off my recorder and I did.

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Speaker 1: But here's what you need to know. The trainers say

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Speaker 1: the most important goal in escorting is making sure the

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Speaker 1: experience is as calm as possible for the patient entering

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Speaker 1: planned parenthood. When a patient enters a health center, sometimes

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Speaker 1: they're confused. Sometimes they're understandably in their own head and

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Speaker 1: not fully aware of their surroundings. This is where escorts

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Speaker 1: come in. It's important that patients visually identify clinic escorts

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Speaker 1: as their friend right away. They can be physically overwhelmed

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Speaker 1: by anti choice protesters rushing towards them to offer pamphlets,

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Speaker 1: screaming in their face, or otherwise invading their personal space.

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Speaker 1: It seems kind of unbelievable, but in d C, protesters

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Speaker 1: can legally get pretty close to someone entering the Planned Parenthood.

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Speaker 1: It's considered public property, and they reached the door. And

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Speaker 1: while they can and often do and pose on their

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Speaker 1: physical space, protesters can't physically block plan parenthood doors. This

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Speaker 1: is thanks to FACE, or the Freedom of Access to

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Speaker 1: Clinic Infrances Act, signed into law by Bill Clinton in

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Speaker 1: May of nineteen. It's the only law of regarding protest

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Speaker 1: at reproductive health centers in the US. Enacting this bill

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Speaker 1: to provide freedom of access to clinics has been a

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Speaker 1: priority because protecting the freedoms of our citizens is surely

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Speaker 1: chief among the responsibilities of the President of the United States.

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Speaker 1: This bill is designed to eliminate violence and coercion. It

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Speaker 1: is not a strike against the First Amendment. Far from it.

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Speaker 1: It ensures that all citizens have the opportunity to exercise

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Speaker 1: all their constitutional rights, including their privacy rights under the Constitution.

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Speaker 1: Faith was enacted after the murder of doctor David gunn In.

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Speaker 1: Guns children were in the audience during the signing. From

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Speaker 1: there were six murders of doctors who provide abortions and

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Speaker 1: their staff. Now FACE prohibits three things, one the use

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Speaker 1: of physical force, to threat of physical force, and three

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Speaker 1: physical obstruction to intentionally interfere with any person who was

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Speaker 1: obtaining or providing reproductive health services. Now Before FACE, anti

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Speaker 1: abortion protesters would physically block health enter doors, but this

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Speaker 1: law forced them to change their tactics to cite. Clinic

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Speaker 1: escorts are organized and trained on a specific set of tactics.

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Speaker 1: Anti abortion protesters who stand outside clinics, well, they're trained

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Speaker 1: and organized too. They arrive in shifts. After Face made

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Speaker 1: it illegal for them to physically block clinics, they divided

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Speaker 1: into two major camps. Prayer sayers people who stand outside

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Speaker 1: on the sidewalk and pray out loud and quote sidewalk consolers,

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Speaker 1: or what the trainers just called stalkers. These are people

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Speaker 1: who rush at the patients and desperately talk them out

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Speaker 1: of trying to have an abortion. The anti abortion protesters

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Speaker 1: have a whole slew tactics, but mainly it sounds like

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Speaker 1: they just want to get the clinic escorts vote and

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Speaker 1: make them lose their cool. One train or even shared

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Speaker 1: a story about one particular anti abortion protester who walks

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Speaker 1: slowly in front of clinic escorts and stops abruptly. If

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Speaker 1: the escort who's walking behind her bumps into her, she

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Speaker 1: causes a scene and threatens to call nine one one.

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Speaker 1: You might be thinking, why don't they call nine one one, Well,

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Speaker 1: it turns out the flashing lights and police outside of

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Speaker 1: a health center does not make for a coming experience.

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Speaker 1: Walking into a clinic and providing a comic experience for

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Speaker 1: the patient is a clinic escorts number one goal. Another

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Speaker 1: thing to know about these protesters is that they have

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Speaker 1: a surprising secret weapon, politeness. Many of these protesters are older,

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Speaker 1: some look like kindly grandmothers. Many of them are white

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Speaker 1: and male. Many of the people entering a health center

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Speaker 1: will be young people of color. The anti abortion protesters

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Speaker 1: know this. They know that the social moray is to

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Speaker 1: be polite, particularly if you're young and the other person

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Speaker 1: is old. Think about it. When you're hands at a

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Speaker 1: pamphlet on the street. Usually just take it, even if

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Speaker 1: you're planning on throwing it in the trash later. Abortion

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Speaker 1: clinic protesters know this, and they use it to their advantage.

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Speaker 1: The trainers tell me that politeness is one of the

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Speaker 1: biggest enemies to their work. Part of their role as

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Speaker 1: escorts is simply giving the patient permission to be rude.

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Speaker 1: You don't have to take that flyer. I can throw

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Speaker 1: it away from you, or those protesters might say some

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Speaker 1: nonsense to you as you walk in, but you don't

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Speaker 1: have to listen. They simply remind the patient that it's

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Speaker 1: okay to not engage. The escorts seemed to almost have

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Speaker 1: a working relationship with these protesters. They know most of

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Speaker 1: them by name, and if not by name, by nickname.

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Speaker 1: They know their personalities and behavior. Some are described to

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Speaker 1: me as manic pacers, others as big, loud personalities who

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Speaker 1: get in your face. Some are sulky and unassuming. The

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Speaker 1: thing that surprised me most about the women running the

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Speaker 1: training volunteers who've been escorting for years is how much

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Speaker 1: of a sense of humor they have. They joke about

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Speaker 1: the best insults they've heard on the job and the

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Speaker 1: most memorable things they've seen. They almost sound like military

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Speaker 1: buddies swapping war stories, and in a kind of way

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Speaker 1: that makes sense, as the fight for reproductive freedom at

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Speaker 1: times can seem like an actual war. I think there's

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Speaker 1: definitely a war on women's health. It's sounds like such

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Speaker 1: a catchphrase. It sounds like marketing propaganda, but it's kind

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Speaker 1: of the only way you can describe it um looking

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Speaker 1: at it from a number of angles. The first thing

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Speaker 1: is that simple access to healthcare for women, or reproductive

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Speaker 1: health care for anybody, becomes so politicized as soon as

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Speaker 1: legislation is introduced or an issue is being discussed in

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Speaker 1: the national dialogue about access to women's healthcare quote unquote,

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Speaker 1: the assumption is that this is a trojan horse from

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Speaker 1: a militant left wing agenda, and and and and we

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Speaker 1: have to stop this when really, sometimes no, it's just

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Speaker 1: about women deserve to see the doctor. People deserve to

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Speaker 1: have reproductive healthcare. But it can never be talked about

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Speaker 1: just in those terms. It's always hyper politicized. Known as

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Speaker 1: clinic escort on Twitter, Michelle has been escorting since the

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Speaker 1: murder of Dr Tiller into thousand nine. After the shooting

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Speaker 1: at a planned parenthead in Colorado killed three and injured nine,

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Speaker 1: Michelle began tweeting out the details of a hundred tacks

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Speaker 1: on planned parenthoods using the hashtag is a hundred enough?

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Speaker 1: You also have to look at the numbers on maternal

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Speaker 1: mortality in this country are shameful, They're egregious. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: have to be that way, but it is that way.

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Speaker 1: Directly connected, I think to politicization of health care access

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Speaker 1: is the fact that women in America are much more

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Speaker 1: likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than they are

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Speaker 1: in most of the other so called developed countries. UM.

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Speaker 1: And it's of course that's worse when you look at

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Speaker 1: different socioeconomic classes. Um. There's parts of the country where,

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Speaker 1: for example, black women are twelve times as likely as

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Speaker 1: white women in those same communities to die in childbirth.

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Speaker 1: What is that? That is? That is politicized access, That

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Speaker 1: is racism, that is economic disparity, and and yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: warfare because that's killing people. Um. Another way in which

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Speaker 1: there is a war on women's health is the atmosphere

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Speaker 1: outside of so many of our clinics is deeply politicized,

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Speaker 1: deeply contentious. It is a site of conflict when it

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Speaker 1: should just be a site of somebody trying to walk

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Speaker 1: through a door to see a doctor for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: they need to see the doctor. But in order to

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Speaker 1: do that, they've got this this gauntlet they have to

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Speaker 1: run of people with signs or propaganda or condemnation. And

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Speaker 1: that's madness, that is absolute madness. I can't say that

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Speaker 1: that doesn't happen anywhere else in the world, because American

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Speaker 1: anti choices have in fact exported clinic harassment to numerous

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Speaker 1: places around the world via the forty Days for Life campaign,

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Speaker 1: via any number of other other attempts to politicize healthcare.

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Speaker 1: They're the same way they have here. It's growing, it's spreading,

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Speaker 1: and it's shameful. Where all have you done clinic escorting?

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Speaker 1: So I've done clinic escorting in nine states, UM A

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Speaker 1: couple of states, Pnsylvania and New Jersey were places where

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Speaker 1: I was a regular kind of weekly escort. But I

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Speaker 1: also go to protests that are kind of a big

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Speaker 1: national event when anti choicers mobilized to harass the crap

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Speaker 1: out of one particular clinic. And that has been in Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska,

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Speaker 1: and in North Carolina. How did you get into this

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Speaker 1: kind of work? I started volunteering as a clinic escort

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Speaker 1: in June of two thousand and nine, which was one

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Speaker 1: week after anti choicers killed Dr George Tiller in his

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Speaker 1: church in Kansas. Dr Tiller was a pretty well known

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Speaker 1: provider of later pregnancy abortions. He had been harassed badly

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Speaker 1: for many years. There had been in the nineties thousands

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Speaker 1: and thousands of arrests of protesters at his clinics. There

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Speaker 1: had been attacks. He had even been shot once before

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Speaker 1: but survived and came back to work. In two thousand

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Speaker 1: and nine, a former protester and militia A member named

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Speaker 1: Scott rhoder Uh set a trap and waited at Dr

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Speaker 1: Taylor's church where he was an usher, and and shot

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Speaker 1: him in the head for for having had the temerity

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Speaker 1: to give women reproductive health care that they needed. And

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Speaker 1: I knew that I needed to get involved. I remembered

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Speaker 1: the nineties. I'm on n f that I remembered the

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Speaker 1: clinic violence of the nineties. I remembered when other doctors

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Speaker 1: were being killed that hadn't happened at all in years.

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Speaker 1: The entire Bush administration went by without a single doctor

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Speaker 1: getting shot. But but within months of President Obama's election,

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Speaker 1: um right wingers went nuts in this country and they

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Speaker 1: began the violence again. I knew that I had to

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Speaker 1: get involved because it just it just pisces me off

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Speaker 1: the idea that that that that people in this caring

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Speaker 1: profession who helped people in a very vulnerable place, they

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Speaker 1: have to risk their lives to do that, and patients

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Speaker 1: have to show up afraid to go to the doctor.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if I can help that, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: help that. And so that's why I started. Do you

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Speaker 1: think that when Obama was elected. That changed the way

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Speaker 1: that anti choicers were operating. When Obama was elected, UM,

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Speaker 1: you saw things change in anti choice kind of engagement,

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Speaker 1: in in the culture and in politics. I think that

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Speaker 1: when w was president, the second Bush presidency, UM, I

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Speaker 1: think that they felt pretty comfortable that their kind of

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Speaker 1: ultimate aim, which is, of course, to end abortion. I

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Speaker 1: think that they felt that goal was being advanced in

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Speaker 1: legislative means and that they didn't have to take matters

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Speaker 1: into their own hands. When Obama was elected, that change.

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Speaker 1: They could no longer rely on the Department of Justice

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Speaker 1: to kind of turn a blind eye to to clinic harassment. UM.

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Speaker 1: And so yeah, clinic violence began to increase. The National

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Speaker 1: Abortion Fed Ration tracks numbers, so does the Feminist Majority Foundation.

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Speaker 1: Both of those organizations watch clinic violence over time, and

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Speaker 1: you can see in the incident reports that absolutely things

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Speaker 1: got a little wild outside of the clinics. UM, as

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Speaker 1: soon as Obama was elected. Let's take a quick break

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Speaker 1: and we're back. What's the most memorable thing you've seen

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Speaker 1: as an escort. I have seen some kind of crazy

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Speaker 1: things as a clinic U S Court. UM. I mean,

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Speaker 1: most of the time, it's boring. And that's good because

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Speaker 1: if it's boring, that means that the anti choicers are

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Speaker 1: choosing to use their manners that day and um, and

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Speaker 1: that means that patients are having an okay experience getting

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Speaker 1: in past them. But the other ten percent of the

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Speaker 1: time things can get crazy on the sidewalks I have seen.

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Speaker 1: So the first clinic where I regular really escorted in

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Speaker 1: New Jersey, we had an evangelical biker gang who showed

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Speaker 1: up um every Saturday. They would roll up on their bicycles,

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Speaker 1: on their on their motorcycles, excuse me, and they would

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Speaker 1: roll up real quiet, and when they were done harassing

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Speaker 1: people for the day, they tear off with a great

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Speaker 1: roar of engines. Um. These evangelical bikers at this clinic

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Speaker 1: in New Jersey war biker drag is how I think

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Speaker 1: of it. They had these like big leather jackets with

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Speaker 1: like God stuff written on the back, and they had

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Speaker 1: like chains and and and long hair and like they

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Speaker 1: were in drag. They were wearing a costume. They were

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Speaker 1: playing the part. And they show up on their motorcycles

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Speaker 1: to to scream things like don't go in there, it's murder.

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Speaker 1: We can help you. Well, I just gonna look at

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Speaker 1: the Jesus screaming biker gang at the end of the

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Speaker 1: clinic driveway and be like, Yes, you're the guy who's

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Speaker 1: going to help me. You're exactly the savior I needed

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Speaker 1: in this moment um. That was always a fun time.

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Speaker 1: I have seen I have seen anti choiceters outside of

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Speaker 1: clinics um decorate snow banks with bottles of ketchup to

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Speaker 1: make it look like blood, and like plant a sign

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Speaker 1: at the top of this snow bank that says abortion

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Speaker 1: kills and then they use ketchup to make blood. And

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Speaker 1: I guess that makes a very personally super argument to

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Speaker 1: somebody somewhere. I guess I don't know. Um. I have

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Speaker 1: seen anti choiceters put a closed sign at the end

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Speaker 1: of a clinic driveway to try to turn people away,

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Speaker 1: which is absolutely a violation of the Freedom of access

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Speaker 1: to clinic inters Is Act, but they don't care. Um

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Speaker 1: my god. I have gone chest to chest with dudes

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Speaker 1: who felt like trespassing it was a thing that could

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Speaker 1: get away with if nobody stopped them, and I felt

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Speaker 1: it was my obligation to try to stop them. And

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Speaker 1: when you are standing there with your chest pressed up

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Speaker 1: against a dude who six five and three hundred pounds

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Speaker 1: if he's an ounce, you realize that that you have

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Speaker 1: no control over where the situation is going to go. Um.

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Speaker 1: It ended up fine, by the way, but it was

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Speaker 1: kind of terrified for a few minutes. There. There's a

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Speaker 1: lot that happens outside of a clinic that that would

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Speaker 1: be acceptable in no other social context. In this country,

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Speaker 1: it is targeted harassment. You don't see people standing outside

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Speaker 1: of steakhouses screaming meat is murder and like, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: flinging propaganda at people. You don't see people standing outside

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Speaker 1: of tobacco stores vape shops shouting about lung cancer with

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Speaker 1: giant six foot tall blow ups of cancer as lung tumors.

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Speaker 1: That doesn't happen, But somehow this is just kind of

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Speaker 1: accepted outside of clinics. So what do you think motivates

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Speaker 1: people who feel this way? People who stand outside of

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Speaker 1: clinics in the cold and shout at strangers as they're

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Speaker 1: going in. What do you think would make someone to

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Speaker 1: do that? I cannot begin to imagine what goes through

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Speaker 1: somebody's head to think that, Like, who would Jesus harass today?

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Speaker 1: Jesus would probably not actually harass anybody, um, and yet

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Speaker 1: anti choicers do it. I do think that on the

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Speaker 1: anti choice side, there is a myth that is purposely

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Speaker 1: propagated about the efficacy of what they call sidewalk counseling.

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Speaker 1: I call sidewalk bullying. They call it sidewalk counseling. Um.

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Speaker 1: They put out these numbers like, oh, you know, we

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Speaker 1: saved X number of lives today, and and it probably

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Speaker 1: makes them feel really good. But also those numbers are crap.

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Speaker 1: And I can tell you they're crap because having been

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Speaker 1: inside and outside of clinics where these counts are happening,

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Speaker 1: I know that a life saved by an anti choiceters

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Speaker 1: account may very well be just a patient who walked

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Speaker 1: in and was sent out the door again because she

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Speaker 1: was at the wrong location. That happened frequently at my

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Speaker 1: New Jersey clinic, where there were two clinics very close together.

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Speaker 1: A patient would show up at the wrong clinic and

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Speaker 1: be sent out, and the anti choices on the sidewalk

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Speaker 1: would rejoice, hallelujah, she changed her mind. We saved a baby. Woo.

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Speaker 1: That's not a safe She's going around the corner and

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Speaker 1: she's getting that abortion, dude, so so, but so they

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Speaker 1: they have this kind of hero narrative. Sidewall caressers have

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Speaker 1: a hero narrative where they kind of feed on each

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Speaker 1: other like we're making a difference, We're actually doing the thing,

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Speaker 1: but you're you're not. You're just making life harder for

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Speaker 1: people whose life in that moment is actually probably already

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Speaker 1: pretty difficult. Does your work as a clinic escort ever

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Speaker 1: make you want to give up on humanity? You see

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Speaker 1: such horrible things, You see people harassed during what's probably

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Speaker 1: a tough time in their life. Does it ever make

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Speaker 1: you want to give up? Like? How do you say

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Speaker 1: saying when you see this kind of thing all the time.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to give up on humanity from what

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Speaker 1: I've seen as a clinic escort, but I do less

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Speaker 1: of it now at this point. I'm no longer a

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Speaker 1: regular escort at anyone clinic. I just kind of travel

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Speaker 1: to the larger, national scale events because it does kind

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Speaker 1: of wear on you to drag yourself out of bed

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Speaker 1: before dawn on a Saturday morning and get screamed at

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Speaker 1: for hours. Um. But I'm not going to give up

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Speaker 1: escorting completely, and I'm certainly not going to give up

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Speaker 1: talking about the need for safe, legal abortion access because

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Speaker 1: it's a fact of life. People need this service, people

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Speaker 1: deserve this service. And it as much as it makes

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Speaker 1: me just despair for the way humanity can treat each other,

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Speaker 1: to see some of what happens outside of clinics, it

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Speaker 1: also does motivate me to realize that somebody needs to

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Speaker 1: be fighting back. Somebody needs to be helping and supporting

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Speaker 1: and defending the people who need to access clinics and

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Speaker 1: get whatever form of health care that they need. If

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Speaker 1: you could tell the protesters outside of clinics, one thing,

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Speaker 1: would it be, I'll tell you something that I have

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Speaker 1: told a protester or two. UM. I don't engage as

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Speaker 1: a clinic protester. It is not my job to counter protest.

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Speaker 1: It is not my job to shout back. It is

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Speaker 1: my job to get a person in the door safely

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Speaker 1: and without incident and in the most stressful, stress free

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Speaker 1: way possible. Um. But in context where I have had

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Speaker 1: business at a clinic personally on a day when I

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Speaker 1: wasn't escorting and there were no patients involved, I might

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Speaker 1: just shout back. And what I have said to some

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Speaker 1: of these protesters is that Jesus would be really ashamed

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Speaker 1: of you. I went to Catholic school. I have read

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Speaker 1: my Bible. Jesus was not about harassment, he was not

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Speaker 1: about shaming um. In fact, he hung out with some

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Speaker 1: of the same sorts of women that would be called

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Speaker 1: sluts and horrors by the religious right today. So I

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Speaker 1: have told protesters that Jesus would be ashamed of you

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Speaker 1: because is your practice is a mockery of Christian love,

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Speaker 1: and they should be ashamed. They're not, but they should be.

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Speaker 1: After talking to Michelle, I wanted to know more, so

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Speaker 1: I went to Planned Parenthood. You'll hear how that went down.

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Speaker 1: After a quick break and we're back, I spend the

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Speaker 1: morning outside of a Planned parent at health center in Washington,

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Speaker 1: d C. A health center i've actually gotten routine preventative

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Speaker 1: services myself. When I arrived, it's thirty degrees at eight

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Speaker 1: am on a Saturday, and already a handful of women

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Speaker 1: outside the clinic are holding signs. One of the protesters,

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Speaker 1: an older black woman, smiles warmly at me. I can

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Speaker 1: see how it would be difficult to be in polite

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Speaker 1: to her. She actually looks a lot like my own grandmother,

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Speaker 1: and I realized that a lot of being an escort

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Speaker 1: is just waiting and waiting and waiting. I remember something

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Speaker 1: the clinic escort trainer said as clinic defenders, the best

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Speaker 1: day is a bo ring day. A day where no

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Speaker 1: one shows up and the escorts do nothing is considered

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Speaker 1: a good day on the job. Today is not one

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Speaker 1: of those days. As people begin to enter the clinic,

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Speaker 1: protesters rush at them, pleading them not to go in.

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Speaker 1: We can help you, They say, your mind, you can

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Speaker 1: help you. Please come time. You don't have to do

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Speaker 1: your child times. What would it takes you not to

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00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:34,720
Speaker 1: go through with the abortion. We will do anything anything

432
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 1: to help you in the name of Jesus. We will

433
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:43,840
Speaker 1: do anything to help you anything. We're here to save lives.

434
00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:47,719
Speaker 1: Despite their protests, all of the women still enter the clinic.

435
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:51,919
Speaker 1: By eleven, there's a larger crowd. The crowd includes a

436
00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:54,240
Speaker 1: few young people in their twenties and thirties, the sort

437
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:56,159
Speaker 1: of people you'd imagine will be a brunch at eleven

438
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:58,840
Speaker 1: a m on a chili Saturday, not shouting. Outside of

439
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:01,840
Speaker 1: planned parenthood, I see a nun shuttling car pulls up

440
00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:04,919
Speaker 1: people a few times back and forest, some holding prayer beads.

441
00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:08,160
Speaker 1: A priest leaps the group in prayer, but stops because

442
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:20,879
Speaker 1: he wants to know what I'm doing, all right. The

443
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 1: older black woman, the one I pegged as a sweet grandma,

444
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 1: asked me if I'm married, and I shake my head. No,

445
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 1: that's because your husband was probably aboarded, she tells me.

446
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:32,880
Speaker 1: A young black couple enters the clinic cradling each other.

447
00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:38,680
Speaker 1: Two older women, one black, one white, began to engage them.

448
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:46,440
Speaker 1: They continue even after they disappear into the building. Found

449
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:57,840
Speaker 1: plan Margaret. In case you can't hear that, she says,

450
00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:00,680
Speaker 1: I would hope a black man wouldn't take a child

451
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:04,120
Speaker 1: to a place like that. For her, this is racially charged.

452
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:07,120
Speaker 1: She hands me pamplets about abortion and being black, chenocide,

453
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:10,360
Speaker 1: and about how mlk's niece says she regrets for abortion.

454
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:14,199
Speaker 1: I knew I'd feel really angry, but mostly I just

455
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 1: feel sad. It made me sad that patients are made

456
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 1: to deal with this. It makes me sad that anyone

457
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:22,520
Speaker 1: would choose to spend their Saturday berating strangers for their choices.

458
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:25,480
Speaker 1: What's your advice for someone who might want to get

459
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:31,040
Speaker 1: involved in escorting? So my advice for potential aspiring clinic escorts.

460
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:35,520
Speaker 1: UM Number one, Not every clinic uses escorts. There are

461
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,919
Speaker 1: some that actually think it just kind of makes things worse.

462
00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 1: UM Number two, Not every clinic um needs escorts. Fortunately,

463
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: it is not every clinic in this country that does

464
00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:54,120
Speaker 1: have a harassment problem, although it is many of them. UM.

465
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 1: But if you live in an area that uses clinic

466
00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,639
Speaker 1: escorts at the local clinic, and that needs clinic escorts

467
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:03,040
Speaker 1: at the clinic, the thing I would say is that

468
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:06,480
Speaker 1: it's not for everybody, and that's okay, because you really

469
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:10,720
Speaker 1: do have to bite your tongue. The anti choicers on

470
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:12,719
Speaker 1: that sidewalk are gonna mock you. They're going to get

471
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:15,000
Speaker 1: up in your face. They're gonna shout at you, they're

472
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 1: gonna shame you, they're gonna take your picture. They're going

473
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:20,960
Speaker 1: to try everything they can to harass and intimidate you.

474
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:25,119
Speaker 1: And you cannot react at least not they're on the sidewalk,

475
00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:30,520
Speaker 1: because the entire goal is getting patients, visitors, and staff

476
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:35,119
Speaker 1: inside of that clinic safely and without incident. If you

477
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,359
Speaker 1: want to counter protest, if you want to argue with

478
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:40,120
Speaker 1: anti choicers, I'm here for that. I do that, but

479
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:43,479
Speaker 1: I do that at a rally, I do that on Twitter.

480
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:48,680
Speaker 1: I do that away from this place of conflict that

481
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 1: should be simply a place of healthcare. So, if you

482
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:54,479
Speaker 1: are the kind of person who can't bite your tongue

483
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:58,400
Speaker 1: when somebody is trolling you hard to your face, I

484
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 1: thank you for your interest in helping with our cause,

485
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 1: but I would ask you to stay away from our clinics.

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00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 1: Well sminthy listeners, this was a tough one. I want

487
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 1: to know. Are you a clinic escort? Is it something

488
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 1: you'd ever consider doing? Have you seen clinic escorts in

489
00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:16,960
Speaker 1: your town? Let me know. You can find us on

490
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,600
Speaker 1: Instagram at stuff I've Never Told You, on Twitter at

491
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:22,239
Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast, and as always, we love getting your

492
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:35,520
Speaker 1: emails at mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com