Heather Frederick, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent
Today is the 41st anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in the United States. As the U.S. waits for the Supreme Court to issue a ruling on the “Buffer Zone” laws regarding how close to an abortion clinic entrance protesters can be, I was struck by the fact that I have never heard anyone describe what goes on outside these medical facilities as street harassment. I know that abortion is a difficult and controversial subject but what we’re talking about here is the right to exist in public free from violence.
Women and their partners, clinic workers, and even delivery drivers get yelled at as they enter offices where abortions are performed. Even if we completely disregard the fact that anti-choice protesters take pictures of patients, post employee names and personal information (license plate number, address, phone number, picture, etc.) in public forums ripe for digital harassment, and write threatening letters to businesses that provide services to clinics, just the yelling alone makes everyone uncomfortable. And let’s not forget that most clinics do not only provide abortion care, they provide cancer screenings, breast exams, birth control and all manner of reproductive healthcare, including abortions.
In his dissent against the Buffer Zone law passed in 2000 Justice Antonin Scalia seemed disgusted at the“unheard of right to be let alone on the public streets.” If this is the mindset of one of the men whose decisions shape not only the law of the land but public opinion in the U.S., we’re screwed. Even if what protesters are yelling is not violent or mean, even if they are yelling that they will pray for you, even if the signs they are holding are of Jesus and not aborted fetuses, they are harassing women in public spaces. Stopping street harassment is about respecting everyone’s bodily autonomy, as is the Reproductive Justice Movement.
