It may only take 15 seconds to walk from the Summit Women’s Center parking lot to its front door. But, in that time, a woman can encounter religious rhetoric, chants of condemnation, and pictures of aborted fetuses. A group of Wesleyan students works to help women make the trip.
The Abortion Clinic Escorts aim to provide moral support to women at a vulnerable moment.
“It’s one of the few times in my life where I am face-to-face with people who passionately disagree with me, and perhaps even hate me for my beliefs,” said Emily Polak ’05 one of the chief organizational chairs of the program. “But I am dedicated to being a force in continuing to ensure that women can receive abortions. This clinic serves many individuals and all their stories are different.”
Each week Polak, or fellow chair Gina Eichenbaum-Pikser ’05, take four Wesleyan students to this women’s center in Bridgeport, Connecticut to serve as escorts. They also help counter the overwhelming display from the anti-abortion activists who line the parking lot.
A policeman is required to keep the activists a safe distance from the entrance. The anti-abortion activists often hold signs with phrases like “God Calls it Murder,” “Murderers Go to Hell,” and “My Mother Loved Me.” Threats and warnings are shouted, sometimes with factual falsities like “Abortion causes cancer.”
The escorts remain quiet in response to the protesters. The escorts’ objective is to provide a service for women and not to engage in debate.
“We don’t engage in dialogue with the antis because we recognize that we will not agree with them and are at the clinic exclusively for the women coming, not for furthering political agendas,” Polak said. “However, by being there, we are absolutely politicized.”
Lauren Stossel ’07 was part of one of the first groups to escort this semester.
“[The activists] gave us these scornful, pitied looks like ‘poor, unenlightened kids,’” she said. “It was really hard not to talk back.”
Stossel said she was surprised at the impact she felt the escorts had.
“I sort of anticipated that I would feel useless,” she said. “What good would it do to walk with these women for 15 seconds? But when we got there, there was so much demand for it. They were thankful for any pointless polite conversation just to drown out the stuff that was being yelled.”
Stossel is one of about 60 Wesleyan students to have undergone the escort training session required to serve one time per semester.
The escorts agreed that their presence does not go unnoticed.
“You don’t do a lot,” said escort Hallie Cooper-Novack ’07. “We were just letting them know that there is another world out there who thinks differently. There are people out there who support their decision.”
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