Clinic escort

Their role is to assist patients and staff to enter and exit these facilities safely, and to prevent any potential harassment or danger to individuals.

In order to protect the abortion clinic escort's own privacy, usual practice involves refraining from referring to each other by name.

This is due to differing moral, religious, political, and legal views and perspectives that individuals, groups, and societies hold.

On occasion, extreme acts of violence and terrorism have occurred in different forms, which clinic escorts, doctors, staff and patients have been exposed to.

Usually, daily picketing outside of a family planning clinic involves individuals or groups gathering outside of a facility with anti-abortion posters, who approach patients entering in an attempt to convince them not to have an abortion.

[4] Other forms of protesting that has been carried out include: the mass scheduling of no-show appointments by anti-abortion groups, to prevent people from accessing their abortion rights; calling the clinics in order to occupy all the telephone lines so patients are unable to get through; and vandalism of facilities.

Photos of patients, doctors and staff, as well as their number plates have also been reported to be uploaded to anti-abortion websites, along with lists of their names.

[5] Usually, these activities are not isolated events, but are continual and patterned pressure that is directed at the family planning centres and its staff.

One instance of violence occurred in 1993 in Pensacola, Florida where a doctor, David Gunn, died after being shot outside of an abortion clinic.

Hill later revealed that he had a suspicion that Britton was wearing a bullet proof vest, and thus deliberately aimed at his head.

This case fuelled more anti-abortion protesters to voice their opinions and was a platform for various groups to mobilise, speaking to the polarisation surrounding the abortion debate.

According to a 2013 United Nations report, 93 per cent of countries allow abortion where its purpose is to save a woman's life.

Countries such as Australia and the US (in select states) have legislation in place to protect staff and patients against picketing, intimidation, harassment, and obstruction from the entrance to family planning clinics.

Governments in certain regions have passed legislation to create a radius around a family planning or abortion clinic in which certain activities, such as protesting, is prohibited.

This includes prohibiting photography around the entrance of abortion clinics to protect against the invasion of a patient's privacy.