Cons of abortion counter-protesting

March 15, 2019 6:23 PM

I was reading this twitter thread that was linked to in the comments about the mansplaining poem and the author wrote that counter-protesting abortion clinic harassers does not work. Where can I find more to read about this?

This is something I'd noticed before and vaguely wonder about and the twitter thread brought it into focus in my mind. Googling it, however, leads me to articles about counter-protesting the March for Life, which while excellent, doesn't help me. Also, if anyone has the time to explain it, I'd be happy to read, but links to resources are just as welcome.

posted by Hactar to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

Best answer: It's not that it "doesn't work" it's that more protesters makes the experience of visiting a clinic even more stressful. The appropriate response to abortion protesters is clinic escorts, who are often present in large numbers but serve a higher purpose. Clinic escorts are commonly trained to ignore the protesters completely and avoid engaging with them entirely.

Additionally, I suppose it "doesn't work" in that it deters the anti-choice protesters not one bit, and causes them to start working their rabid phone trees to get more feet on the ground in response to the pro-choice numbers. It's an escalating arms race that serve no purpose but to bar safe entry to the women who need help.
posted by DarlingBri at 6:33 PM on March 15, 2019 [56 favorites]

Response by poster: That makes complete sense, thank you. Treating the space as a battleground instead of a health clinic would make things worse for everyone who needs the services.
posted by Hactar at 12:47 AM on March 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

It does make the point of view of the protesters more visible than it might otherwise be. Not only are they on site, they get as much news coverage as the other protesters.

Having one point of view present, and "louder", can make it seem like the other point of view is less common and powerful than it is.

The escorts can serve the same purpose, but I hope they are as visible to the larger world.
posted by amtho at 9:39 AM on March 16, 2019

Also, people who are doing this are seeking martyrdom. It's part of their religious thing: they do this for their religion, and the more injury they get from it, the more credit in heaven (and bragging points in their congregation) they think they're earning. So, since what they're looking for is confrontation, don't give it to them.
posted by Lunaloon at 5:31 PM on March 16, 2019