Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8
      • Voter ID laws stand between transgender people, women and the ballot box

        Barbara Rodriguez · October 14
      • Emily’s List expands focus on diverse candidates and voting rights ahead of midterm elections

        Errin Haines · August 30

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Author Lauren Rankin sits with her palm on her face for a portrait photo.
A portrait of Lauren Rankin. Clarice Bajkowski (The 19th)

Abortion

Clinic escorts saw the assault on abortion rights coming, but they’re still working

A new book traces the history of abortion clinic escort work, showing a path forward for reproductive rights despite constant setbacks.

Jennifer Gerson

Reporter

Jennifer Gerson headshot

Published

2022-04-27 05:00
5:00
April 27, 2022
am

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Oklahoma just made it a felony to perform an abortion. Before federal courts blocked the law, Kentucky became the first state in the country where clinics could no longer provide abortion care because of the number of legislative restrictions. Idaho is on the brink of banning the procedure after six weeks’ gestational age. Florida, West Virginia and Arizona are all primed to ban abortion after 15 weeks. And observers believe the Supreme Court could weaken — if not totally overturn — Roe v. Wade this summer. 

Clinic escorts — volunteers who help guide patients from parking lots often filled with protesters — aren’t surprised by this assault on reproductive rights, says Lauren Rankin, an activist, journalist and the author of the new book “Bodies on the Line: At the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America.” 

“The writing has been on the wall for a long time,” Rankin told The 19th. 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

As Rankin’s book explains, clinic escorting emerged out of the almost immediate wave of hostility and violence toward abortion clinics in the years after Roe was decided. As anti-abortion activists began murdering and attempting to murder abortion providers in the early 1990s, clinic escort work became more prevalent as a means to show public support for providers and help make abortion more accessible to patients in the face of increased street picketing. Though abortion was in theory legal as soon as the Supreme Court issues their ruling on Roe, it remained inaccessible to so many patients for a myriad of reasons — and physically being able to walk in for their appointments at abortion clinics without being harassed was one of them. Clinic escorting became a way to bridge that gap. 

Rankin, herself a former clinic escort, says that the volunteer escorts she spoke with for her book’s history of this activism have not only witnessed the strategies and goals of the anti-abortion movement for decades but are committed to continuing the work of making legal abortion accessible. The 19th spoke to Rankin about her book and what clinic escorting means now, the way this work has anticipated this seeming legislative stranglehold on abortion access, and what reproductive justice work will continue to look like should Roe fall. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jennifer Gerson: What do you think is important for people to be thinking about in terms of what clinic escorts have seen through the years and what this tells us about the ways that the anti-abortion movement has evolved? 

Lauren Rankin: It was clear to abortion opponents in the 1980s and 1990s, “OK — we’re not giong to be able to overturn Roe v. Wade outright.” After they failed to do that with Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992, their goal was, “Let’s make it as difficult as humanly possible for people to access abortion.” So that meant they would blockade clinics. They would try to shut clinics down. They don’t need to do that anymore, because you don’t need to block a clinic if the clinic doesn’t exist. 

A lot of the really confusing and scary tactics we are seeing on the far right right now all originated with abortion opponents. Watching people storm the Capitol in the insurrection? Many of these folks were actually anti-abortion terrorists themselves.

  • More from The 19th
    A demonstrator prostrates before a line of volunteer clinic escorts in front of the EMW Women's Surgical Center.
  • Kentucky is the first state to end virtually all in-state abortions
  • Oklahoma just passed a near-total abortion ban. More restrictions are likely coming.
  • Medication abortions — the most common method of ending a pregnancy — are growing significantly more expensive

What used to be the radical fringe standing outside of a clinic, those people are now in the government and in the federal judiciary. 

The worst protesters at the clinic where I used to [be a clinic escort] were all young men who would stand there and scream. We normalize that so much in this country. 

It’s not a fight between two sides. It’s one side fighting and screaming at the other side who are trying to protect some semblance of humanity and dignity for people. It’s not a culture war. One side is in a war and the other side is saying, ‘I don’t want to fight about this, I just want to get health care.’ It’s not political for people who want to have abortions. They just want to have the abortion and move on with their life. 

Can you describe a typical day outside of an abortion clinic for patients coming in? 

Imagine you’re walking to a doctor’s office — maybe you’re a little nervous if you’re getting an abortion, maybe you’ve never had one and you don’t know what it’s like. You just want to get in there. You just want to talk to the doctor. You just want to have your procedure.

You pull up to the clinic and you see people in neon vests on one side and on the other side there’s a group of folks with signs screaming and it’s just noise, yelling. You think, “What the hell is going on?” Then someone in a neon vest rushes up to you to beat someone else from getting to you first to say, “Hi, there are protesters here — can I walk with you? I will walk with you and stay focused on me and just listen to my voice” while dozens, maybe even hundreds, of people are screaming, “You’re a murderer. You’re going to hell. You’ll still be the mother, just the mother of a dead baby.” People are pulling out their iPhones and shoving them in your face, filming you and telling you that you are going to die when you go inside that butcher shop. 

All of that is happening right in your face. I don’t mean six feet away, like social distancing. I mean literally in your face. Even if you have had an abortion before or have told yourself to prepare for protesters, this experience is so intense. We feel that as escorts. People just look at you like, “Why is this happening to me?”

There are federal laws surrounding what protesters can and cannot do in terms of accessing an abortion clinic. How do protesters balance what is legal and not legal? 

What is not legal doesn’t actually matter out there — who is enforcing the law is what matters. Technically, it is a violation of a federal law and a felony to block access to an abortion clinic or to intimade someone trying to access a clinic. However, how is that enforced? You have to have law enforcement. 

The FACE [Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances] Act prevents people from using their bodies to physically block access to a clinic, but the law doesn’t address what happens up until that point. It’s been the law for nearly 30 years and it’s basically worked at stopping protesters from physically blockading a clinic. But what the law doesn’t address is what we do about everything up until that point. So maybe you can’t stand in front of a door to block it. But what if you move around in front of the door, is that legal? Well, it depends on how we’re enforcing the law. Can you film someone walking into a clinic? If it’s a public sidewalk, that can be legal. 

Also, what does it mean if you call the police to a clinic? To Black and Brown patients, this might signal a lack of safety. What the law is and then what we believe is just and fair are not always the same things. 

A purple book with the words “Bodies on the Line: At the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America" on the cover.
Clarice Bajkowski (The 19th)

Right now we’re in a moment where we are seeing an unprecedented number of bills in statehouses that are effectively shutting down all clinics and all abortion access in a state and we’re on the brink of seeing if the Supreme Court is going to uphold Roe or not. What do you think clinic escorts would say about this moment?

I think that clinic escorts have understood for a long time that the law won’t save us and that we will have to do that for ourselves. That’s why clinic escorting emerged in the first place. 

Roe was established as the law of the land, but by the late ’70s, you already had the Hyde Amendment and so many virulent protests at clinics, and the law did nothing to address any of that. Roe was just a sticker we smacked on the issue and then said, “OK that’s solved and great,” but that’s never been the reality on the ground, especially not for marginalized folks, for Black and Brown patients, for undocumented patients, for low-income patients. 

I fully expect that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade. I believe and expect that half the states in our nation will then ban abortion. But the law is irrelevant. We’re going to have people who still need care and people like abortion funders, practical support organizations and clinic escorts who are going to be doing what we’ve been doing all along, which is finding a way to bridge the gap. 

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

What do you hope people take away from the history of clinic escort work in this moment?

My book basically says that we can’t do anything about the Supreme Court. I do not mean that I think it’s fruitless to protest. I think it is a moral imperative to protest injustice, but we can’t actually do anything to change Amy Coney Barrett’s vote, Brett Kavanaugh’s vote. 

What we can do is so much smaller and may feel less important, but it can be so meaningful. That is what clinic escorting has taught me. My small contribution of just walking with someone and holding them [to help shield them from the crowds while walking in] and saying, “It’s OK” helps that person do what they already wanted to do with their life. It is so tiny and so small and so miniscule, but it’s also the entire point.

What is the evolution of this work in places where someone doesn’t even have the option of walking into a clinic in their state, whether because Roe is overturned or because that state simply makes abortion too hard to access? 

If clinics simply don’t exist anymore, not a single clinic escort I spoke with for my book said, “Oh, well then I will just go on with my life.” People are dedicated to this issue because they understand the human stakes, and these people know that just because your clinic closes, that doesn’t mean that your sense of duty to the people you serve eradicates. Many have told me that they have become involved with practical support organizations that provide transit, lodging, or funding for gas and child care. 

That is a huge area for growth and they will need an unbelievable amount of resources if we’re about to need to move everyone from [about a third of the country to the rest of the country]. 

I refuse to be hopeless. That’s basically the point of the book. I just refuse to be hopeless.

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Help sustain what we started

Your monthly investment is critical to our sustainability as a nonprofit newsroom.

Donate Today

Become a member

Up Next

Abortion rights demonstrators hold signs at the Oklahoma state Capitol. One reads

Abortion

At Oklahoma abortion clinics, each day could be the last for care as new laws loom

No new abortion ban has taken effect, but the impacts are already being felt in clinics across the state.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram