Marjorie Campbell, marjorie@marjoriecampbell.com
I have continued participating in the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil at the Planned Parenthood Golden Gate location at 815 Eddy Street in San Francisco. We can see patients and staff coming and going from the building from our position on the sidewalk across the street. There, we pray quietly, sometimes sing, sometimes keep silence, and we hold onto rosaries, prayer books, a few pamphlets or signs that say things like "Women Deserve Better Than Abortion" and "Abortion Hurts".
There, I have watched grim faced young women walk unsteadily out of the door, sometimes to vehicles where a silent man sits waiting. Unless they tell us, we do not know which women have had abortions, but, when I see sheer suffering in their faces, I add prayers for the baby they may have left behind.
There, too, I have observed a disturbing circumstance. Sometimes young women wearing strangely blood red bibs that say "Clinic Escort" position themselves in front of the entrance. Often, these young women laugh, joke, whisper, point at us, scribble madly in a notebook and, generally, seem to have quite a bit of fun. Today, I watched one clinic escort smiling, laughing and doing a hip-grinding dance as she held the door for an unsteady young woman - quite near her own age - who looked on the verge of tears.
I could not understand the lack of compassion, empathy and respect for the departing women - whose despair contrasts so blatantly with the happy, light-hearted behavior of the "escorts". So, I checked the PPGG website and found out why.
The clinic escorts are not put in position to comfort or console patients - although they are most certainly aware that all of the patients are there for birth control, STD diagnosis and treatment or abortion. They would know this because this PPGG "clinic", ironically, does not provide prenatal care. No, these young women are put in front of the abortion clinic for a different, far more sordid reason.
"Clinic Escort" is an advertised volunteer position at PPGG. Here's what PPGG wants from them: We are looking for committed, highly reliable volunteers who can remain calm while facing loud and negative protest activity. Positive and supportive customer service skills . . . are a must."
"Customer service skills"? "Remaining calm while facing loud and negative protest activity?" ~the behavior I have watched among the clinic escorts started to make more sense. These young women are positioned in front of PPGG, not to support patients, but to bolster the charade upon which this death industry relies. By characterizing demolished women patients as "customers", by characterizing prayer and outpouring of love as "loud and negative protest activity", PPGG attempts to dehumanize the women and invalidate the deep suffering that attaches to each aborted child.
Put another way, consider what would happen if the young women positioned as clinic escorts behaved with compassion, respect and concern for the women? ~if they actually treated these distressed women with the love and care a "patient" deserves? The behavior of the clinic escorts would start looking awfully similar to the "protest activity" - and the tragedy of this death business would be fully exposed.
PPGG surely realizes this - and trains these young women, who can appear so hard of heart, not for the benefit of women in distress, but in their ongoing struggle to keep open and operating a business that specializes in killing the unborn.
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