Speaker 1: Welcome to it could happen here. It's the show with
Speaker 1: things fall apart and we put them back together again.
Speaker 1: And there may may not be enormously about lawnmowers in
Speaker 1: the background. Yeah, this is this is This is a
Speaker 1: podcast also about abolishing lawns, although I guess I guess
Speaker 1: not today it's only about abolishing lawns because I'm extume
Speaker 1: we know it about neighbors. But we can we can
Speaker 1: do an anti line episode in the near fu Yeah,
Speaker 1: one day, one day, but but it is on on.
Speaker 1: On a more serious note, is I have Garrison with me,
Speaker 1: and I have Tanya with me, who is an abortion
Speaker 1: clinic escort and has been doing this for a very
Speaker 1: very long time. Tanya, thank you for joining us, Thank
Speaker 1: you for having me. Yeah, I'm I'm really excited to
Speaker 1: talk with you about this because, um, this is well,
Speaker 1: this is something we've been wanting to do for a
Speaker 1: while because I think not enough people know what this is.
Speaker 1: So I guess I guess the first thing is is, yeah,
Speaker 1: can you explain to people who are familiar with this
Speaker 1: what clinic escorting is? Absolutely so. There are a number
Speaker 1: of volunteer clinic escorts across the country, and many are
Speaker 1: they're they're not necessarily organized nationwide, but many metro areas
Speaker 1: do have organizations where you can volunteer to be a
Speaker 1: clinic escort. And what that means is that you are
Speaker 1: essentially someone who goes to a clinic that performs abortion services,
Speaker 1: and you stand outside that clinic and you help the
Speaker 1: patients get into the clinic, uh hopefully free of harassment
Speaker 1: from protesters outside, and just ensure that protesters don't block
Speaker 1: access to the clinic and that the patients are able
Speaker 1: to get inside, you know, know where they're going and
Speaker 1: get insanely Yeah, and that seems like it seems like
Speaker 1: a really hard job in a couple of ways, but
Speaker 1: both of the sense that like there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: extremely angry and very weird people with really disturbing signs
Speaker 1: and very sincerely held beliefs on in a different uh
Speaker 1: side where they they do want to stop people from
Speaker 1: going and convince them not to go in. Um, you know.
Speaker 1: And it is interesting as as a clinic escort, you know,
Speaker 1: you're you're really you don't have an opinion, Like I
Speaker 1: don't have an opinion on whether someone goes in, someone
Speaker 1: can go in, someone cannot go in. It's not you
Speaker 1: know where the people who do the clinic escorting are
Speaker 1: there because we believe that women and their partners should
Speaker 1: have a choice about what to do. And so if
Speaker 1: a woman chooses that she doesn't want to go into
Speaker 1: the clinic, you know, that's fine by me. I'm just
Speaker 1: there to ensure that she has the choice to go
Speaker 1: into the clinic um and and get whatever services she needs,
Speaker 1: whether it's uh, whether it's crenatal care or contraception or
Speaker 1: abortion services. So um, it's it's fascinating because yeah, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people. You know, the protesters on
Speaker 1: the other side can really run the gamuts. Some of them, um,
Speaker 1: are very angry and have very interesting signs, but some
Speaker 1: of them, you know, you they also range to those
Speaker 1: who are just standing there saying the Rosary, walking up
Speaker 1: and down, and the carrying crucifixes. And you know, if
Speaker 1: it was just people saying the Rosary and then going
Speaker 1: coming saying the Rosary and going, I probably wouldn't do
Speaker 1: what I do because that's neither here nor there from me.
Speaker 1: It's the people who are you know, they will try
Speaker 1: to get in the window of a car when and
Speaker 1: a car pulls up if if they happen to have
Speaker 1: the windows down and uh, you know, get in the
Speaker 1: like put their heads in the car to try to
Speaker 1: talk to the people or hand them literature. Um. And
Speaker 1: I've seen some of the literature that you know, people
Speaker 1: have shared with us after it's been given to them,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's a lot of it is full
Speaker 1: of misinformation. Um and and kind of also you know,
Speaker 1: as someone who was raised Catholic. Uh and and it's
Speaker 1: coming from people many many of the people who are
Speaker 1: protesting are Catholic. It's very emotionally manipulative and not actual
Speaker 1: information on some of them. I remember seeing one once
Speaker 1: around Christmas time that was like a whole cartoon about
Speaker 1: how excited Mary was to be Jesus mom and uh
Speaker 1: and and how therefore that means that you should not
Speaker 1: have your pregnancy terminated because you should be more like
Speaker 1: Mary and be excited to Jesus. Yeah. Yeah, pretty fascinated. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I guess that's another thing that that I was
Speaker 1: wondering about to what extent, Like, so obviously there's a
Speaker 1: physical component of this, right is okay, trying to make
Speaker 1: sure that people aren't physically interfering, um. How much of
Speaker 1: it also is sort of like providing emotional support to
Speaker 1: the to the people you're with, sure, because it's really
Speaker 1: stressful it can be. I mean, the clinic where I'm
Speaker 1: an escort is is uh has a little bit of
Speaker 1: a perimeter where uh there's there's a parking lot and
Speaker 1: between the people where they can actually protest out on
Speaker 1: the sidewalk which is public property obviously and the actual
Speaker 1: entrance to the clinic. Um. But there are people who
Speaker 1: come in off a public transport to and not necessarily
Speaker 1: aren't necessarily coming in a car where they can get
Speaker 1: sort of beyond where the protesters are um to the clinic.
Speaker 1: And so I actually have a vivid memory. I've been
Speaker 1: doing this for sixteen years, and I have a vivid
Speaker 1: memory of a woman who came off the bus. She
Speaker 1: got down off the bus at the bus stop like
Speaker 1: and the protesters really got up in her face. And
Speaker 1: one of them in particular was a guy who is
Speaker 1: I'm not a small person, I'm about five ten and
Speaker 1: and and pretty decent size, but he's definitely over six
Speaker 1: ft tall and he was just like looming over her
Speaker 1: and I had to physically insert myself in between her
Speaker 1: and him and say, hey, you want to go to
Speaker 1: the clinic, this is how you get there. You don't
Speaker 1: have to listen to these people. If you want to
Speaker 1: talk to them, you can, but you know you don't
Speaker 1: have to, and you know, and and really, you know,
Speaker 1: they're in such a fragile moment, most of them. Interestingly,
Speaker 1: that that particular individual come to find out, wasn't even
Speaker 1: coming for termination services. She was coming to get an ultrasound.
Speaker 1: She was having twins, and it was the lowest cost
Speaker 1: place that she could go to actually find an ultrasound
Speaker 1: to make sure that her twins were okay, um and so.
Speaker 1: And she even came out afterwards with the ultrasound and
Speaker 1: like shoved it in the guy's face and was like,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, go take a flying leap, but
Speaker 1: um so, but yeah, I mean, part of it is
Speaker 1: just showing that there are people who believe that you
Speaker 1: have the right to make the choice you're making and
Speaker 1: that we're not judging you. We're not here. You know.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of women in the position of
Speaker 1: who feel that the need to terminate a pregnancy, they
Speaker 1: feel very judged. It's it's it's society is very judgments
Speaker 1: Bault and I think you know, being there, we have
Speaker 1: so many people who come up to us, UM just
Speaker 1: say hey, thanks for being just thanks for being right.
Speaker 1: It's it's just helpful to know that someone is here, uh,
Speaker 1: and and and and believes that I have the right
Speaker 1: to make this decision and that I'm the best person
Speaker 1: to make this decision about me and my body and
Speaker 1: my family. UM is really it's it makes it that much,
Speaker 1: It makes it better. And and people will come up
Speaker 1: and tell the most personal stories as well. We've had
Speaker 1: someone who came up to me once and said, hey, no,
Speaker 1: ten years ago, my wife was pregnant UM and we
Speaker 1: had been trying for so long to have a baby,
Speaker 1: and we found out that there was this massive, you know,
Speaker 1: genetic defect that was not really compatible with life. And
Speaker 1: we had we had we faced the tough decision about
Speaker 1: do we go ahead and terminate this pregnancy and and
Speaker 1: try to start again and how it and and and
Speaker 1: get bring it again, or do we carry this to
Speaker 1: term knowing that this child isn't going to live UM
Speaker 1: for very long. And that individual um you know, and
Speaker 1: his wife and decided to terminate the existing pregnancy, knowing
Speaker 1: that the baby wasn't going to live. And he said,
Speaker 1: and when we went to actually have the abortion, we
Speaker 1: had to run the gauntlet of all of those people outside,
Speaker 1: all those people like this telling us how we were
Speaker 1: killing our baby. Um, I wanted baby. You know that
Speaker 1: we were killing our child and we were murderers and
Speaker 1: all of that. And so he was just like, just
Speaker 1: thank you for being here, thank you for being here
Speaker 1: and showing because you don't know what what's going on
Speaker 1: in the lives of all of these people who are
Speaker 1: coming in here, and they don't know all what's going on.
Speaker 1: And so and he said, I really wish we had
Speaker 1: had someone like you know, you standing here to let
Speaker 1: us know that it was okay, you know, at the
Speaker 1: in that moment of time to do this. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting people will tell very very personal stories.
Speaker 1: The next thing I was wondering is about how how
Speaker 1: this has changed over time. I mean, yeah, you've you've
Speaker 1: been in this for like longer than I've been, like
Speaker 1: very seriously a conscious person. So yeah, So so I'm
Speaker 1: wondering what has it been like, how how has this
Speaker 1: changed over the past sort of like a decade and
Speaker 1: a half, And has there been a change like very
Speaker 1: very recently, as in in in the sort of like
Speaker 1: as as row looks like it's dying, and what do
Speaker 1: you think that's going to mean going forward for this? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yes, it has changed over time. Um, and and
Speaker 1: yes it has changed very recently as well. Um what
Speaker 1: I what I can say. You know, when I first
Speaker 1: started doing this, it was really just kind of you know,
Speaker 1: the same hand and and it still is the same
Speaker 1: handful of usual suspects who show up at least at
Speaker 1: the clinic I escort at um. But it was really
Speaker 1: it was it was a small handful and uh, it
Speaker 1: was the same people every week, week week, week after
Speaker 1: week after week. And um, you know on the clinic
Speaker 1: sport side, you know, we're volunteers, so you know, we
Speaker 1: need people to come and be sort of energized, and
Speaker 1: so you know, we have a cadre of people who
Speaker 1: have been doing it. Yes, I've been doing it for
Speaker 1: sixteen years, but there's a woman that I I askeport with.
Speaker 1: There are several women that I a skeport with who've
Speaker 1: been doing it decades longer than I, right, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean really amazing, really amazing women and who probably
Speaker 1: have even more interesting stories than I do. But you know,
Speaker 1: in the you know, and we would see after after
Speaker 1: something happened, like when m George Tiller was murdered, we
Speaker 1: had an influx of volunteers who came people who were
Speaker 1: angry and said, you know, I was so upset and
Speaker 1: I realized I needed to do something about it. UM.
Speaker 1: So periodically there have been you know, obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: the murder of George Schiller was a tragedy, but we've
Speaker 1: had things like that that have energized people and brought
Speaker 1: them in two actually doing a clinic escorting UM and
Speaker 1: there's been a little bit of a pickup recently in
Speaker 1: the number of escorts, but it's nothing like the pickup
Speaker 1: that I think I've seen in terms of antis and
Speaker 1: to custerers. And it's you know, and it's important because
Speaker 1: you know, if you really believe that people should have
Speaker 1: the right to bodily autonomy and the right to make
Speaker 1: this choice UM, that that requires people to actually make
Speaker 1: it happen for them, and there are a lot of
Speaker 1: people trying to make it not happen. And I actually
Speaker 1: I was actually sporting UM because the clinic esports. Uh
Speaker 1: they you know, we actually change off we have a schedule.
Speaker 1: We don't all go every week at least with the
Speaker 1: clinic where I am, because you know, we also want
Speaker 1: to have our own lives and not just be standing
Speaker 1: at this clinic every every weekend. Um. But I was
Speaker 1: esporting the weekend after Ruth bader Ginsburg died and I
Speaker 1: was standing by myself kind of it went end well,
Speaker 1: another person went and just I think picked up a
Speaker 1: sign or took a bathroom right or something, and one
Speaker 1: of the newer anties um stood across from me and
Speaker 1: yelled at me that Ruth bader Ginsburg was was burning
Speaker 1: in hell now and that if I didn't repent, you know,
Speaker 1: that the same thing would happen to me, and that
Speaker 1: that's just God's plan that you know, people who believe
Speaker 1: in in killing babies, uh, just are going to rotten
Speaker 1: hell for eternity. And and so that was an interesting
Speaker 1: you know, and it was the first time. Most of
Speaker 1: the time they don't really try to engage us in conversation,
Speaker 1: but it was the first time someone was really just
Speaker 1: saying super super like sort of inflammatory stuff to me
Speaker 1: as an personally, as an escort. We certainly had heard,
Speaker 1: you know, they'll they'll say things to patients where they say,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't go in there, it's not safe,
Speaker 1: you're good mom to your baby, and that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: which is a so you know, obviously incredibly originality to
Speaker 1: women going through uh, you know what they're going through
Speaker 1: when they feel that they have no better choice than
Speaker 1: determinate pregnancy. UM. But uh, yeah, the actual sort of
Speaker 1: the vitriol towards towards the escorts is a little is
Speaker 1: increasing UM and I would say around the time Ruth
Speaker 1: Bader Ginsburg died, we also have seen an enormous uptick
Speaker 1: in the number of protesters outside the clinic um each
Speaker 1: each week, as well as the length of time that
Speaker 1: they will stay. UM. They they've actually about doubled the
Speaker 1: length of time but they should stay UM. And so
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's been a challenge. It's been a
Speaker 1: challenge for us on the escorting side to actually cover
Speaker 1: the ships because you know, we are again we're all
Speaker 1: volunteers who have lives and want to live our lives.
Speaker 1: You know, we're women who are mothers, grandmothers, men who
Speaker 1: are you know, father's, grandfathers, who just you know, want
Speaker 1: want to do something good and help out Um. And
Speaker 1: you know, more and more at the time, we were
Speaker 1: having to stay later, come earlier, stay later to ensure
Speaker 1: that there's someone there, that there's a there's there's a
Speaker 1: friendly or at least protective presence. Uh. For the women
Speaker 1: coming into the have they gotten like, have they gotten
Speaker 1: more violent? Um? You know, like I said, there's actually
Speaker 1: so for us. It's where we are in kind of
Speaker 1: the clinic where I work, are in kind of a
Speaker 1: privileged position, so to speak. And that where they are stationed,
Speaker 1: you know, out on the sidewalk is uh is far
Speaker 1: enough away. Um, you know, across a parking lot from
Speaker 1: from the clinic that you know that the physical altered
Speaker 1: you know, interactions are are relatively rare. Um. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you know that that wouldn't really be better A question
Speaker 1: better place to a clinic escort who's on a clinic
Speaker 1: at a clinic where you know, the entrance to the
Speaker 1: clinic is right on a public sidewalk, right where I
Speaker 1: think you know, they definitely do have significantly more physical interactions. UM.
Speaker 1: I guess it's hard to say. It depends on how
Speaker 1: you define that. Is it there from a long time
Speaker 1: the one of the signs outside the clinic was a
Speaker 1: photo of of the doctor who provided the termination services. UM,
Speaker 1: a photo of him and his name, and it said
Speaker 1: retire this person you know his name and the retire
Speaker 1: abortionist and then his name. UM. And that that showed up,
Speaker 1: I think, as I vaguely recall around the time George
Speaker 1: Schiller was was murdered. UM, So what does that mean? Right?
Speaker 1: So that's that's violent in and of itself. It's it's
Speaker 1: a suggestion there of UM. You know, I won't pretend
Speaker 1: that it's not you know, it doesn't sometimes go through
Speaker 1: my head like you know, because there are clinic esports
Speaker 1: who have been murdered. Um. And and so it doesn't.
Speaker 1: It sometimes does go through my head, especially like you know,
Speaker 1: certain times of year when we're bundled up and it's
Speaker 1: called Um, you know, someone could come up behind me
Speaker 1: and I you know, wouldn't necessarily always hear them or
Speaker 1: see them. Um. And so it is. It's you know,
Speaker 1: there's definitely always an undercurrent in a feeling of you know,
Speaker 1: something would escalate. We're fortunate at my clinic that it
Speaker 1: it hasn't too much recently, but we you know, I
Speaker 1: would say, you know, again, as Rose dying you know,
Speaker 1: they're getting more bold. Um. They're not supposed to trespass,
Speaker 1: they're not supposed to come on into the parking lot. Um.
Speaker 1: And yet there are some who are really trying to
Speaker 1: test that boundary now, who will go to their car
Speaker 1: not in the clinic parking lot, and then as they leave,
Speaker 1: drive into the parking lot and around the by the clinic,
Speaker 1: just to sort of um, intimidate people and and and
Speaker 1: to can make the escorts concerned because obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: when we're on foot, it's very hard to get physically
Speaker 1: between them and something when they're when they're driving, um.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, it's it's there's definitely an escalation in
Speaker 1: that front, and and an escalation in in the rhetoric. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, there are more, I would say, kind of
Speaker 1: pointed signs, uh that that are used to try to
Speaker 1: intimidate the women into not going into the clinic. There
Speaker 1: was actually there's a sign that had been used for
Speaker 1: it actually has been used for a little bit longer,
Speaker 1: but it basically it had the names of two women who,
Speaker 1: according to the antis uh had died under the care
Speaker 1: of the services of the doctor at our clinic, which
Speaker 1: in the end, when I actually did my own research.
Speaker 1: Wasn't true. One one just very unfortunately had an allergic
Speaker 1: reaction to the anesthetic, which is not something you know
Speaker 1: unless you've been under anesthesia, and uh the other and
Speaker 1: and it wasn't and neither of them was actually the
Speaker 1: provider at at our clinic who was performing the service
Speaker 1: at the time. Uh, those those individuals died, but it said,
Speaker 1: you know, dead, and it had these two women's names,
Speaker 1: um and a hundred and fifty thousand babies and um,
Speaker 1: which is a little bit inflammatory. And then it's and
Speaker 1: also misleading when you think about it, because you know,
Speaker 1: the maternal mortality rate in the United States is like
Speaker 1: over twenty three women per hundred thousands. So I was like, well,
Speaker 1: even if this is accurate, even if this sign was accurate,
Speaker 1: which it's not. You know, two women out of a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand, that's way safer than actually for
Speaker 1: pregnancy UM. And you know, so it's those kinds of things.
Speaker 1: It's it's the mind games. And you know, as someone
Speaker 1: who uh you know has seen this for while, like
Speaker 1: you know, to me, the mind game is part of
Speaker 1: the violence, even though it's not physical, it's it's really
Speaker 1: you know, trying to to make people feel ashamed and
Speaker 1: feel that they shouldn't come out. And I think that
Speaker 1: you know, as as we're looking at Robe possibly being overturned,
Speaker 1: you know, you're suddenly seeing all of these people coming
Speaker 1: out of the woodwork. Because you know, so many women
Speaker 1: in this country actually do abort a pregnancy at some
Speaker 1: point in time, do terminate a pregnancy, and yet it's
Speaker 1: not something anyone talks about because it's it's still because
Speaker 1: of the dialogue in this country and because of the
Speaker 1: way it is portrayed. It is something that most people,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to be public about, not
Speaker 1: just because of the politics of it, but because you know,
Speaker 1: there are people who are made to feel ashamed and
Speaker 1: as opposed to you know this, This was the right
Speaker 1: choice for me at this point in time. Um. And
Speaker 1: maybe under different circumstances it might have been a different choice. UM.
Speaker 1: But yeah. So I think it's hard to say whether
Speaker 1: violence has increased, um, because it's always had that undercurrent.
Speaker 1: I mean ever since I've been starting, ever since I
Speaker 1: started doing One of the things that we've talked to
Speaker 1: a few other people, we talked to someone who was
Speaker 1: doing security for the start of security plans for clinics,
Speaker 1: And one of the things they were talking about was
Speaker 1: like a shift in the kinds of people who were
Speaker 1: getting involved in these clinics. And I'm wondering, in these
Speaker 1: clinic protests, like I wonder, have have you have you
Speaker 1: seen like I don't know, they were talking about, like
Speaker 1: there's been some specifically fascist groups getting involved, And I
Speaker 1: was wondering if like the kinds of people who've you've
Speaker 1: seen have been like that, or like, you know, in
Speaker 1: terms of the new people who are getting involved, are
Speaker 1: they closer to like the kinds of people you usually
Speaker 1: see see outside these clinics. So that's actually an interesting
Speaker 1: point that I hadn't I hadn't thought too much about.
Speaker 1: But I think you know, the previously, you know, when
Speaker 1: I first started doing this, it tended to be kind
Speaker 1: of your older Catholic uh, folks who are you know,
Speaker 1: coming and saying the Rosary, you know, uh, standing there
Speaker 1: with the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary like in
Speaker 1: front of the clinic and um, and and you know,
Speaker 1: some could be pushy, UM. But I think it is
Speaker 1: accurate to say there is actually a younger element of
Speaker 1: anti abortion protester or anti choice really because the end
Speaker 1: it's really about the choice, not and and so I think, yes,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing younger and younger people. And it's interesting that
Speaker 1: you mentioned that because a lot of them are men. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're young, almost almost entirely white. There is a few
Speaker 1: a handful of people of color, but um, they they
Speaker 1: tend to come very very rarely. Um. And you know,
Speaker 1: the it's interesting, So it was largely older white men
Speaker 1: and women previously, and now I would say there are
Speaker 1: many more younger men getting involved, a few women. But
Speaker 1: when for most of the young and when I say young,
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, well, well for the for
Speaker 1: the clinic i'm at, I would say anyone under probably
Speaker 1: the age of forty. But you also, um, you know,
Speaker 1: really when when you know, even under the age of
Speaker 1: thirty or five, it's with the exception of one, it's
Speaker 1: meant it is it is white men. Um. And uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's that's interesting. I hadn't It's quite possible. Um,
Speaker 1: certainly there are some that but you know, we as
Speaker 1: clinic escorts are not actually engaging these individuals and conversation.
Speaker 1: That's not something that you know. In fact, we have
Speaker 1: to sign pledges that were, you know, at least for
Speaker 1: the for the organization that we volunteer with, that we're
Speaker 1: not going to engage in conversation with them. That we're not,
Speaker 1: you know, because no one you know, and I guess
Speaker 1: this is sort of the whole point of your podcast.
Speaker 1: No one's going to change each other's minds on this issue, right, um,
Speaker 1: and you know over over the parking lot, uh and
Speaker 1: and one uh, you know sort of interaction. So we
Speaker 1: actually we we don't and actively don't because we we
Speaker 1: just you know, it's it's not worth it. We're there.
Speaker 1: The point of being there is not to try to
Speaker 1: get to know the other people, the the anti choice demonstrators.
Speaker 1: It's not to try to you know, change their minds.
Speaker 1: It's just to ensure that the women who have made
Speaker 1: their decision are able to freely access the healthcare services
Speaker 1: that they have made the decision access. Yeah, that makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense. That that's definitely seems like the like,
Speaker 1: it definitely seems like the best strategy for this. It
Speaker 1: seems like something that like other people could learn from
Speaker 1: as like a tactic to deal with this kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: because yeah, and engaging with those people, it doesn't I
Speaker 1: have limited experience with this, but they showed up to
Speaker 1: my well, okay, show to my high school. But then
Speaker 1: they also show up to my college, and we just
Speaker 1: like they were trying to like get in use footage,
Speaker 1: and so we wound up just like sitting down in
Speaker 1: front of the like just sitting down in front of
Speaker 1: their signs so people couldn't see them, and then just
Speaker 1: like refusing to talk to them, And that I think
Speaker 1: worked a lot better than like, I don't know a
Speaker 1: lot of the other stuff that I've seen, because yeah,
Speaker 1: like definitely right, like yeah, like you're not gonna those people,
Speaker 1: like yeah, like because there's no way you're gonna change
Speaker 1: the mind of like someone if holding a sign there.
Speaker 1: And I guess that's also another thing that that that
Speaker 1: it's interesting about this, which is yeah, like it's like
Speaker 1: your your emphasis on it's not about the audiological debate
Speaker 1: as much as it is, like, it's not about like
Speaker 1: you going to confront these people. It's about making sure
Speaker 1: that the people who need the services are safe and
Speaker 1: are able to do it. And that that seems like
Speaker 1: a very powerful way to sort of like bypass this,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know, bypass is weird. Like discourse circuit
Speaker 1: that everyone gets in. Yeah, I mean I think you
Speaker 1: know what I what I can tell you. I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: I would love to sleep in on my Saturday mornings.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't like to to get up and
Speaker 1: give up, you know, you know two to four hours
Speaker 1: of my Saturday um, you know, in the freezing rain
Speaker 1: or the you know wind and cold, run a really
Speaker 1: hot some more day and get up out of bed
Speaker 1: to do that. But you know, on those you know,
Speaker 1: there are cold winter mornings where I'm like, oh gosh,
Speaker 1: it's it's early. I'm that that alarms awfully early and
Speaker 1: it's really cold outside. But I always just in my mind,
Speaker 1: the thing that I tell myself is you never know
Speaker 1: who's coming in today, who just needs to see you
Speaker 1: and just needs to see someone there too. You know,
Speaker 1: whether it's to give her the directions because she's so
Speaker 1: distraught after having to drive or walk by a number
Speaker 1: of protesters telling her how she's you know, going to
Speaker 1: regret her decision and how she's a terrible human being
Speaker 1: and she's a killer, and she's at this, she's a slut,
Speaker 1: she's a whole lady. Whatever, you know, whatever the message
Speaker 1: that someone in that um situation gets by walking past
Speaker 1: those protesters. Um, you know, I never know who needs
Speaker 1: to just see me there, and whether it's that she
Speaker 1: just needs directions because she's so distraught after going through,
Speaker 1: you know, running that gauntlet, that she's kind of lost
Speaker 1: her bearings and she's like, Okay, which door do I
Speaker 1: need to go in? How do I do this? Or
Speaker 1: actually just needs to see you know, a friendly face,
Speaker 1: or you know, have someone tell her that it's okay
Speaker 1: to not listen to what they have to say to her, um,
Speaker 1: and it's okay to not internalize that, which you know, UM,
Speaker 1: I think it is probably very very hard when you're
Speaker 1: already in a somewhat emotionally frauds because how could how
Speaker 1: could people who want to start escorting what what would
Speaker 1: be the best way that they could go about doing that?
Speaker 1: Or learning more information about how to do it and
Speaker 1: the different places that that allow it and well not
Speaker 1: not allowed, like the different places where different groups that
Speaker 1: help facilitate uh this type of work. Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: mean I think there there isn't necessarily that I'm aware
Speaker 1: of one sort of national site, but I think um,
Speaker 1: a lot of individual uh sort of local providers have
Speaker 1: clinic escorts. UM. I know that if you most like most,
Speaker 1: if not many planned parent goods will have um, you know,
Speaker 1: a clinic escort program. And so I think you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes your best that maybe just to google you know,
Speaker 1: clinic escort in my area or contact a provider in
Speaker 1: your area to say, hey, how do I get involved? UM?
Speaker 1: Because you know, based in my area where I where
Speaker 1: I live, there is one that sort of covers the area,
Speaker 1: but it is by no means nationwide, and there definitely
Speaker 1: are sort of localized groups that do it. So I
Speaker 1: think it may be just a matter of reaching you know,
Speaker 1: googling the clinic esports or reaching out to your local
Speaker 1: planparenthood or if there's another abortion provider in your community
Speaker 1: that isn't plan parent, because there are still many that
Speaker 1: are not unparented, uh that you know they may know.
Speaker 1: And I guess my other thing is so for people
Speaker 1: who for whatever reason can't to escorting but want to
Speaker 1: help support. I mean it basically people who want to
Speaker 1: support the providers and the people who need these services.
Speaker 1: UM is like, yeah, what would you recommend that they do?
Speaker 1: So there are also similarly to to those those groups,
Speaker 1: there's UM, there's abortion funds throughout the country UM that
Speaker 1: whether you know, many of them are you know, sort
Speaker 1: of dedicated to individual areas, like local areas. But you
Speaker 1: can look up the abortion fund in your area and
Speaker 1: that is a you know, an organization that will actually
Speaker 1: take donations from from individuals who want to help UM
Speaker 1: and provide, you know, provide financial support to women who
Speaker 1: are seeking abortion, whether they it's because they have to
Speaker 1: travel out of state, uh or to somewhere even within
Speaker 1: their state but not where they live in order to
Speaker 1: to actually obtain an abortion. UM. And you know, because
Speaker 1: many women who are are seeking seeking termination services, they
Speaker 1: can't always pay for them, you know, especially if they're
Speaker 1: publicly ensured, you know, a lot of public insurance, you know,
Speaker 1: federal dollars cannot be spent on abortion services, and so
Speaker 1: they can also help pay for the abortion for those individuals.
Speaker 1: If you it's it's a little bit um tougher out
Speaker 1: that we're in, you know, sort of in the midst
Speaker 1: of a coronavirus pandemic. There are some organizations that also
Speaker 1: if you live in an area that where there are
Speaker 1: providers and there are people potentially traveling from out of state,
Speaker 1: especially if you're in an area where there is a
Speaker 1: provider who provides um, you know what they call, you know,
Speaker 1: later term services for people who you know, find out
Speaker 1: that there's a major genetic abnormality along far into the
Speaker 1: pregnancy or whatever, and they need to terminate their pregnancy. UM,
Speaker 1: you know, there are organizations that will actually help you
Speaker 1: volunteer to house them or provide even transportation services to
Speaker 1: and from appointments if if you so choose. UM. But
Speaker 1: then you know, there's also all of the sort of
Speaker 1: national if if you're looking to kind of get more
Speaker 1: you know, involved at the sort of overarching national legal level. UM.
Speaker 1: Certainly there are a number of organizations, whether it's you know,
Speaker 1: the Planned Parenthood Federation or nay Ral or any of
Speaker 1: those organizations that you could certainly don't eat too as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we will, we will will put some of the links
Speaker 1: in in theset description. And I'm sure that there are
Speaker 1: many things I forgot, but those are the ones that
Speaker 1: jump to mind right now. People listening to this, please
Speaker 1: like go help in whatever way you can, because like,
Speaker 1: if like if abortion services continue to be a thing
Speaker 1: where them existing is a small number of volunteers, they're
Speaker 1: not going to so yeah, please please do that. Yeah, Tanya, Tanya,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you so much for joining us, Thank
Speaker 1: you for having me. Yeah and yeah, this has been
Speaker 1: Make it happen here. Uh yeah, it's happening here. Do
Speaker 1: the things that you can do to make sure it doesn't.
Speaker 1: It could Happen Here is production of cool Zone Media.
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