Protesters outside women’s medical clinics are a common occurrence in 2018. At the Choices Women’s Medical Center in Jamaica, Queens, protesters have been gathering since 2012. They arrive at 7 am, many are regulars, and their unwavering goal is to convince women entering the clinic not to have an abortion.
Of course, many of the women entering the clinic are there for the myriad of other medical services the center offers, but why discriminate? The protesters block the entrance of the center with large signs displaying the usual side-of-the-road garbage, distorted pictures of aborted fetuses next to heartwarming photos of fully developed fetuses (that are too far along to be aborted anyway). Witnesses say the protestors harass and make death threats toward both women entering the center for medical care, and the people escorting women inside.
Former New York attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman filed a lawsuit in June 2017 asking a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction, halting the protests, and create a 16-foot buffer zone outside the clinic. For years Schneiderman has been considered a crucial vote in terms of abortion rights. His decision to retire this year creates a new landscape for cases on abortion rights, ironically, such as his own. “He has been the defining force in American abortion law since the ’90s, so his absence means that Roe will be much more in peril.”said Scholar Mary Ziegler, who has done extensive writing and research on Roe v. Wade and its aftermath.
A ruling denied the request for injunction, and Judge Carol Bagley Amon said there was simply not enough credible evidence to show that any of the 13 regular protesters “had intent to harass, annoy, or alarm” patients or escorts. This is an unfortunate loss for pro-choice supporters, as it continues to lay groundwork for a much more conservative era in terms of women’s health. This issue is not only about our right to choose what happens to our bodies, but access to medical facilities and services, preferably without the harassment that women have to deal with on a larger scale every day.
This new paradigm shows its face again in a case out of California, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the state cannot require “crisis pregnancy centers” that are religiously oriented to supply women with information about how to end a pregnancy. The First Amendment is becoming a commonplace tool to disguise harmful speech, such as the harassment of women entering a medical clinic, and to conceal information from women who are seeking medical advice and attention.
While the protesters who have made Choices Medical Center in Queens their weekly hangout may seem harmless, they are playing a sinister role. Each one of them has added their voices to the cacophony that most women hear every day. Whether it be on the street, in lawmaking, from media, or the President himself, it rings of injustice and ignorance. They are not revolutionary, they perpetuate a tired cycle of misogyny. I feel for every woman who has bravely approached a medical center to assess her options, and been harassed, yet again, on her way in. Just as others will continue to use their voices for hate under the First Amendment, we will use ours for freedom.
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