Abortion rights activists held a staged re-enactment Saturday at the site of what was once the state's only surgical abortion clinic. Little Rock Public Radio's Josie Lenora spoke with News Director Daniel Breen about the event; you can listen to their full conversation above, or read a transcript below:
Daniel Breen: Almost three years have passed since abortion was outlawed in Arkansas. Over the weekend, abortion rights advocates staged a reenactment of the experience, as they try to look for new ways to offer services. Little Rock Public Radio’s Josie Lenora has more. Hi, Josie.
Josie Lenora: Hi, Daniel.
DB: So, they started the experience the moment you got out of your car?
JL: Yes, so I drove to the Little Rock Family Planning Services in West Little Rock Saturday. This was where abortions used to be performed in Arkansas. People would come from all over the region. And just a note, I'm not using all the names in this story. Many of the people I talked to were worried about privacy and safety.
JL: To start the event, I parked in a nearby parking lot. I walked up not knowing what to expect from the experience. The fake screaming started pretty quickly.
Josie: These people both worked as former clinic escorts so they were yelling things at me that had been yelled at them. They were both dressed as, and this is not my language, “trad wives.”
DB: That sounds a little intense.
JL: Well, the volunteer protestors committed to the bit. They had signs saying things like “don't kill your baby.” Twice, staff mentioned to me a ten-year-old who came for an abortion, and the protestors allegedly climbed over the fence that day.
JL: Democratic state Rep. Denise Ennett went through the experience Saturday. She recognized the volunteers and, not realizing they were playing characters, stopped to talk to them. The volunteers tried to act the way they say protests would have three years ago. They hounded her car.
JL: It was an odd experience because as a reporter I am just trying to do my job, meet people and ask questions. Generally, I try to have a firm resolve when I am out in the field. So, you can hear them in that clip yelling as I try to introduce myself to the “clinic escorts” to begin an interview.
DB: And did the clinic escort talk to you?
JL: Yes, I was escorted by a mother and daughter played by Karen and Colleen Musick. They used to actually be clinic escorts. Colleen Musick told me being yelled over and over again took its toll on her.
Colleen Musick: “It's mentally exhausting work. Not just from the harassment from them, but also from trying to shield people from the harassment while they're going through something so traumatic.”
JL: Colleen and her mother had big rainbow umbrellas and rainbow vests. The umbrellas serve to sort of shield patients from the screaming and from having their faces shown. Colleen told me the protestors don't like to wear rainbows and they want to stand out when people come for their procedures so it's the pattern they chose.
DB: It's interesting because they don't actually perform abortions at the clinic anymore.
JL: Exactly. At one point I referred to the experience as a “historical reenactment.” Which I think is pretty fair. The clinic still exists, now it's run by the Arkansas Abortion Support Network. They offer services but they can't perform abortions. It genuinely felt like I was walking around a ghost town or a museum still under construction.
JL: When Roe v. Wade was overturned, the clinic was performing abortions. Remember, the draft of the decision had leaked ahead of time so everyone knew it was coming. Colleen Musick said the protestors got the news first. She says they were heard yelling “we won.” And Colleen supposes they did. They stopped performing abortions after that.
DB: Did you get inside the clinic?
JL: Okay, so if this was real, I wouldn’t have been able to bring my phone. They are worried about people who aren't really interested in an abortion booking appointments, filming them and uploading them to the internet. So apparently, people like to bring a book instead. An employee told me she got interested in the novelist Louise Penny after talking to a patient about it in the waiting room.
JL: As I went into the entrance, there were metal detectors and a security guard. They gave me a card with my made up life story. Everyone had a different scenario. So, I was supposed to be pretending to be a 32 year old woman, 21 weeks pregnant with a baby that was wanted but was “incompatible with life.” Another person I was with had a late-in-life pregnancy, someone else was pregnant through assault. I was told these scenarios were taken straight from real-life patients the clinic had, with details changed.
DB: Did you try to get into character at all?
JL: No, first of all I am a terrible actor. Also, it was a tenuous situation to be in as a reporter. There is nothing in the lengthy NPR ethics policy about covering a reenactment of recent history where you are a part of it. So, I was just very honest about who I actually was throughout the day.
DB: So you get into the waiting room. What was that like?
JL: Because my fake pregnancy was past 20 weeks, they were required by law to inform me that the baby could feel pain. This is the result of a 2005 law called the Unborn Child Pain Prevention Act. The sheet said “an unborn child at twenty week gestation or more is fully capable of experiencing pain.”
JL: Again, in the scenario the clinic wrote and gave me, the fetus is “incompatible with life.” And staff told me people this far along in pregnancy usually need, but don't want, an abortion.
DB: What happened after you entered the waiting room?
JL: If this was real, the wait could take hours. And I was told, three years ago, you could hear the screaming protestors ring through the walls. There is not much to do in the waiting room besides sit and wait.
JL: Then we went into a room to get an ultrasound. By law the ultrasound technician was required to show the image of the fetus to the pregnant person, even if they didn't want to look at it. The person could shield their eyes or turn their head, but they had to be given the option and the screen had to be turned toward them. The ultrasound technician said these laws go against how she was trained to do her job.
Technician: "When I was in school for ultrasound, there big thing is this is a medical device and its not to be used for bonding and things like that. It's to be used for medicine."
JL: And sometimes she says people did have second thoughts. She said the clinic was always very clear: “you do not have to do this.”
Technician: "Somebody who's being talked into it by someone, a spouse or a boyfriend or even a friend."
JL: Then there was another meeting that would have been done alone to make sure no one is influencing the woman's decision.
DB: This sounds like it could take all day.
JL: I imagine it would. I was getting that anxiety you get when you're at the doctor. I had to remind myself this isn't real.
JL: So next, I was in a small room with a nurse and she would by law be required to give me this pamphlet called: “A woman's right to know” and also a DVD with the same title. The pamphlet takes you through the stages of fetal development. It tells you the chances of survivability for each stage of pregnancy. It tells you the risks of each type of abortion. It tells you that fathers are required by law to pay child support, and has sections on the “emotional reaction to abortion.”
JL: The nurse said this document is not how she would have talked to patients if she had autonomy over the process.
Nurse: "It would be much more patient focused much more giving them the information that they want."
DB: And is this a surgical abortion they were performing?
JL: You had two options depending on how far along you were. The clinic also had medical abortions. This is a pill you take at home. Meanwhile, some pregnancies require surgery.
JL: But this is all history. I asked the nurse to talk about the day Roe v. Wade was overturned. She became overcome with emotion as she told me about it.
Nurse: "We had prepared, we called our partners out of state for them to be protected, and we made arrangements for them to be seen as best as we could."
JL: Then we went into the room where the abortion procedure would happen.
DB: Tell us about that.
JL: So, the surgical chair was wrapped up and the ultrasound was a prop, it looked like something out of the 80’s film "War Games." They don't have the equipment they actually used for abortions anymore. A volunteer pretended she was coming into the room to get a procedure, and the nurse acted out how that conversation would go if it were real. And the fake patient acted out the facial expressions of someone who wanted the procedure but was a little nervous.
Nurse: "Hi, Hannah. My name's Jennifer, I am going to be your nurse today."
JL: This nurse told me she had an abortion when she was 24. She had a drug addiction issue then. She says the abortion was the right decision for her because she now has a career and is in recovery, which would have been difficult with a baby.
DB: Was that the end?
JL: Next, you go to the recovery room. We sat in these big armchairs and were given after care advice. For example, you’re not supposed to take a bath or go swimming for two weeks after the procedure. An employee guessed that 80% of people left with a birth control prescription after the procedure.
JL: By law, they have to dispose of the fetal remains. Because my made up pregnancy is so far along and it was a wanted pregnancy, they would offer the footprints of the fetus.
DB: So this was not real, but the building is still in use?
JL: Arkansas Abortion Support network now helps people either get abortions out of state, get birth control, or Plan B. They had a wall of boxes filled with Plan B. They are, and I am quoting one staffer “handed out like candy.”
JL: Everyone I talked to missed the days when the clinic was operational, there was a camaraderie among the staffers who remembered that time. They described it as both stressful and meaningful. There was still this vibe of “we will do whatever we can for patients,” but now they have to outsource. The nonprofit may have to evolve in the future if more laws limiting reproductive health care are passed.
DB: Okay, that was Little Rock Public Radio's Josie Lenora. Thanks Josie.
JL: Of course, Daniel.
