"Blue-Vested Vultures:" A Summer as a PPSP Clinic Escort

I was a patient escort for Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania (Westchester) the summer after my freshman year of college, and therefore related on a very personal level to one of the videos we watched for class this week. I'm from Massachusetts, where buffer zones are the law, so protestors cannot be within 35 feet of a family planning clinic. The situation at PPSP therefore shocked me. In the attached image, there is a white line in the lower-left hand corner. This was the line that protestors could not cross. It was literally a foot from the back of where the cars would pull in. As a result, when we walked in patients (most of whom were visiting Planned Parenthood for birth control, STD testing, or other preventive services), we would end up standing several feet from protestors screaming at us and the patients. Planned Parenthood has a non-engagement policy, so we were not to look at the protestors in the eye, nor respond to them, nor provoke them in any ways. I witnessed first-hand the racist tactics the protestors used to try to reach out to the patients: if someone looked remotely Hispanic, they would shout in broken Spanish ("el aborto mata!") African-Americans who entered the clinic were told that Planned Parenthood was conducting a Holocaust against black babies, specifically targeting black mothers.

I recorded some of the things the protestors would yell at us and the men and women entered Planned Parenthood, but the files were too large to upload here. What follows are the transcriptions from seven videos that I took on two separate days in front of Planned Parenthood of Westchester, PA during the summer of 2009.

We all want to pretend like it’s not because we can’t see it.

I dare you to look at your ultrasound.

Go get your money and run away from this death camp.

Choose life for the little baby.

So many people can’t have babies!

They don’t deserve to be tortured and murdered.

It’s something you can’t handle? Adoption is a great option! So many people would love your baby. People have to go out of the country to adopt babies.

A little time, a little nutrition! A little time and a little nutrition for your baby!

You may not think it’s going to ruin your life right now. Think it sounds like a simple solution. But it isn’t. God gave you a conscience for a reason. To help you make the right choice. Not a heartless, self-centered, wicked choice. A cruel choice, involving torturing and murdering an innocent person.

The baby’s done nothing to deserve death. Nothing!

You’ll never live it down. If you choose life for your little baby, you’ll have peace. The weight will be lifted off of you. Because you’ll know in your heart of hearts that it’s the only right thing to do. God will have mercy on those who have mercy.

Torturing and murdering an innocent person – you may think you’ll get away with it, but you won’t.

Did you bring coffins for the little babies? Are you going to bury the babies? Torture the babies, don’t torture terrorists.

Please don’t do this.

Don’t do it. Don’t do it today. Give your baby a chance at life.

Do not murder your child, ma’am.

Mom, you have a beautiful daughter, she has a beautiful baby in your room. Do not let her murder her child.

Did you bring a coffin to bury the baby in?

Are you going to do anything with the head when it separates from the body, are you going to put it in a separate bag? What are you going to do with the little legs?

Woe unto you. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. You will reap what you’re sowing.

You’re blind, too.

Do you think we should torture terrorists that bomb our country? No? But you can torture babies.

You look confused! Are you confused?

They looked confused when they were born.

You got the wrong message, ladies. The wrong message.

You girls are going to have to move a little faster!

En español!

Escort 1: Just ignore them.

Me: You don’t have to take that pamphlet if you don’t want to.

We can help you. You’re not alone. Don’t be afraid.

It’s a child in your womb, mommy!

The child don’t have to end up like this! We can give you help!

It’s a sad day for a mother.

All of you could have been aborted! Every one of you! Go home and thank your mothers! Thank them for giving you life.

Are you going to abort your child, too? Go home and thank your mother for giving you life!

Who ever told you this was right, killing a child? You’re all so misinformed! None of you believe in God, none of you! And it could have been you.

JULIANA! WAKE UP!

Juliana. That child is baptized Juliana.

Your mother would be ashamed.

Escort 3: (An older man who had been a volunteer escort for many years) You’re going to be ripe targets for awhile.

Me: Why?

Escort 3: They’re going to test you – they’re going to test you.

***

On my drive home from work later that day, I called my mom and told her what the protestors had said, how they had called us sluts and whores, "blue-vested vultures" (in reference to the blue "Clinic Escort" aprons we wore). I told her they said she would be ashamed.

She's never been prouder of me.