There’s more than just a storm brewing in New York this weekend. Possible backlash to the City Council and Planned Parenthood’s new abortion Clinic Protection Program might be as well–the first volunteer training sessions are this Sunday October 28th and Monday, October 29th. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced the service last Friday, October 19th and anti- abortion protests followed shortly after in Queens.
City Council
Planned Parenthood and the New York Civil Liberties Union will conduct the training sessions, which plan to teach volunteers how “to accompany women when they visit [abortion] facilities”according to the City Council’s Action Center. After learning protest law and “conflict de-escalation” at the training session, volunteers will begin escorting patients outside city clinics from 8am to 11am every Saturday, starting November 3rd and running through the end of the year.
Planned Parenthood
The day after Quinn announced the project a pro-life protest at Choices Women’s Medical Center in Jamaica, Queens voiced their disapproval. Activists criticized the City Council Speaker and the city for unequal representation. Around 80 demonstrators carried signs and chanted hymns, according to the Daily News.
Following suit, Rebecca Downs, a young anti-abortion writer, expressed her thoughts for Live Action News, “a youth led organization dedicated to building a culture of life” by using journalism to “expose threats against the vulnerable and defenseless.”
Rebecca Downs Posing with Priest in a Picture From her Facebook
The recent Fordham University grad chastised Quinn for promoting the procedure, which is legal in the state of New York. Additionally, Downs made claims that the new escort program “frowned upon” a pro-lifer’s right to demonstrate.
“Those who are against abortion also have a right to protest outside abortion clinics,” she wrote. “And attempt to persuade abortion-minded women to choose life for their unborn child.”
However, the program says nothing about restricting or kicking clinic demonstrators out from their posts. It only mentions the importance of ensuring women have access to reproductive healthcare options. I would argue that a part of access is ease. And it certainly can’t be easy for women to cross swathes of demonstrators “praying for their souls” as Merle Hoffman, president of the Choices clinic, suggested in the Daily News article from above.
Ladette City 