Denisha, from Triptrotting
Update: This is now the first of two parts. In this post, I talk about my experiences and reaction to the protesters and clinic escorts outside of Her Medical Clinic in Los Angeles. In “Abortion, Cont.“, I revise my outlook based on the comments I received on this post.
This past weekend, I went down to LA to hang out with people from Triptrotting. My first time meeting anyone off of this soon-to-be-relaunched hospitality exchange website.
We hung out at Denisha’s 5-girl college house and hit up bars in the area of USC and downtown LA. While fun, it all felt like a generic American university experience. I knew that if I was somewhere else, I’d be trying to understand some deeper part of the culture. I tried to change my perspective to that of a foreigner coming to America for the first time. What was different? The marauding shirtless guys on campus? Strip malls? Pancake places?
The last on the list is where I found something that offered insight into current American culture/discourse.
At the entrance to the parking lot on Figueroa Street, there were two guys, one Caucasian, one Hispanic, holding “Abortion Kills Children” signs. I lit up. This was America. Something that a lot of people would literally turn away from was light for my mothness.
Next to Jacks N Joe (said pancake place) is Her Medical Clinic, a place that performs abortions.
I figured I could get some interesting footage of me talking to the guys with the signs. No, not so much. They said they weren’t cool with that, for their own safety. They told me a bit about what they do, which they said was non-confrontational, offering other options to the women coming to the clinic.
What endeared me to them most was the stuff they said their organizations did. From talking to them, I began to see a distinction between anti-abortion and pro-life. These guys were pro-life. Instead of the Westboro folks going and yelling, these guys volunteered to get resources for women so they’d be able to handle the babies they brought to term. Having drives for toys, diapers, etc. It felt like a much more positive approach than the way I’m frequently seeing anti-abortion/pro-life people portrayed as.
A couple feet from the guys were two women with T-shirts that said in English and Spanish that said they were clinic escorts. They were suspicious of me. Whereas the other guys were cool talking if they weren’t on camera, the girls wanted to know who I was working for. I told them that I blog, travel and do travel vids and that I was really here to have brunch, but figured I’d say hi. They said that their reason for being there was to help women that were making a tough choice, to make sure that they weren’t harassed on the way to the clinic and that the pro-life guys didn’t go on private property, which the parking lot was. Apparently, there had been fairly minor incidents before and the girls were there to prevent recurrence.
Both sides made their points well and, while not immediately trusting of me, were forthcoming and not proselytizing. It didn’t change my own views on abortion in the slightest, but the guys did give me pause when they said that a lot of abortion clinics are not properly overseen and abortion doctors are generally just unsuccessful doctors. I would need to look into the former, but the latter does have a degree of logic to it. Would you rather be a surgeon at a hospital or perform abortions at a strip mall clinic?
What made me most sad was that while they vehemently disagreed on this subject, I’m sure they have a lot of other things in common. I mean, they had to be about the same age, if nothing else. If they really aren’t in a contentious, war-like mentality, as it felt like they weren’t, it would have been cool to see them talking about something else and getting along. I considered trying to be peacemaker, but went to have pancakes instead.
For more from this Triptrotting experience, check out the ROL:
In the sequel post, “Abortion, Cont.“, I revise my outlook based on the comments that I received on this post.
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