DSA monthly abortion clinic escorts

by Catherine Hoffman

As socialist feminists, we strongly believe in the right of women to control their own bodies and to make their own reproductive decisions. This includes the right of women to choose abortion. One way in which we put that belief into action is through volunteering as clinic escorts each month at a women’s health clinic in Detroit. People who are seeking the services of this clinic have to walk past a gauntlet of anti-choice protesters in order to enter the clinic. These protesters, who are overwhelmingly men, harass the patients and try to give them all sorts of misinformation about the clinic.

Our job as escorts is to provide a buffer between the protesters and the patients. We let the patients know that we work with the clinic, and offer to walk them to the clinic door. It is important that we do not interact with the protestors. They may try to goad us into responding to their taunts, but we do our absolute best to ignore them. Our primary concern is the comfort of the patients coming and going from the clinic.

Detroit DSA has been serving as clinic escorts for over two years now. We escort on the third Saturday of each month, from 8 am-11 am. Folks are welcome to join us. You do not have to stay for the entire time, and often the protesters get discouraged and leave. For more information about volunteering as an escort, please contact the socialist feminist working group at socialistfeminism@metrodetroitdsa.com.