theclinicdefender/TikTok
September 9, 2021, 5:05 am
Abortion clinics across the United States have always been tricky places to navigate, often requiring “defenders” to help people get in and out safely with as little harassment from protestors as possible. And the six-week fetal heartbeat abortion ban (SB8) in Texas certainly hasn’t helped.
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A number of these regular defenders have TikToks dedicated to showing what the volunteer work is like, and what sort of people they’re up against. Some scream out religious decrees while others get distracted arguing with the defenders or causing other drama.
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Kennedy, or @theclinicdefender, recently shared a video from the clinic she volunteers at in Charlotte, North Carolina, to show what kind of stuff they’re up against even when protestors aren’t quite as loud and destructive as we see in other cases.
The bulk of the video focuses on a man named Greg who appears to be a part of an organization called Love Life, a religious group dedicated to protesting clinics that offer abortion services.
Kennedy wrote that “Greg [was] trying to stop cars down the road from entering the clinic,” while simultaneously directing protestors from his group towards the clinic to picket it, all of which was made possible by a headset he and presumably other members of his team wore, keeping their determination to disrupt health services well-organized.
And it’s clear these folks have been at it for some time, even just by Greg’s reluctance to engage too much with Kennedy. But that didn’t stop her from going right on ahead and confronting him, starting with asking why he wouldn’t give out his last name.
“Why not? You don’t want people to know you’re here trying to control other people’s bodies?” she asks. “You don’t want the world to know that?”
She also takes a moment to call him an “entitled white privileged man” and suggests he “must think that [he is] so holy and so good being here.”
With Greg alternating between silence and short answers, Kennedy briefly turns her camera to another guy in a Love Life shirt across the street but ultimately decides he “probably got dragged here” because he looks too young.
Trying to engage Greg further, she reads the text on his shirt — “We Love Life” — out loud and asks him if he’s vaccinated or wearing a mask, despite the latter being obvious.
“I’m assuming no, so you can’t love life that much,” Kennedy determines. “That’s kind of funny, isn’t it?”
A car heads down the road and she notes on the video that Greg used that time to warn someone in his group as much, before taking off down the sidewalk.
At that point, Kennedy opts to go check in with the young-looking guy. Christian music is blasting as she approaches, and when she asks him what he’s doing there, he says he’s “praying for the pre-born.” And that’s where the video leaves us.
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Seeing protestors down the road from an abortion clinic is par for the course, but patience for such controlling behavior is down to zero for many people right now.
And people couldn’t help but comment on the headset gear as well.
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There are “The Men’s Clinic” offices operating all over the U.S. They need the same rules and protesters as Planned Parenthood has. They run endless commercials on tv.
— Annie
Wear A Mask or Casket
“I understand this can be alarming for many,” Kennedy commented on her own video. “But these anti-choice protestors have always been here—15+ years…it’s time for changes. Individuals NEED safe & legal access to abortion health care—free from harassment, shame, and stigma.”
*First Published: September 9, 2021, 5:05 am
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