Anti-Choicers, TRAP and the Buffer
(AKA: Your Cards Are Showing)
By now, just about everything about the importance of the buffer zone that can be said, has been said. We need that zone to protect patients, clinic workers and escorts. I'm not going to rehash that. And if there is one thing this ruling has shown, it is that anti-choicers don't care about the health and safety of anyone who has actually been born.
I'd like to think that we already knew that, but sadly, anti-choicers have a great charade going in which they pretend that they care about women. They talk about how they are looking out for our safety while passing laws that restrict our freedom. I am talking, of course, about what the pro-choice movement has dubbed Targeted Restrictions of Abortion Providers, or TRAP laws. These laws are pushed by conservatives under the guise of worrying about our care. They make demands upon abortion providers that are wholly unnecessary, knowing that it will force many clinics to close and then claiming that it's just a happy coincidence. And if pro-choicers point out that grass growing near a clinic in South Carolina or 43 inch wide doorways in Missouri have nothing to do with protecting patients, well, anti-choicers just use that as fodder for their abortion mill myths.
But then we have buffer zone laws and suddenly all the manufactured care for patients is thrown out the window. Never mind that almost all abortion providers report that their patients have felt that their safety was threatened by anti-choice protesters (a claim that cannot be made about five and a half foot wide hallways). In this case, when patients safety is actually at risk, suddenly, the anti-choice movement doesn't care. Or should I say, doesn't bother to pretend to care. Suddenly, safety is no longer a concern. Sure, block the entrance of a medical facility. No biggie. So long as they get their "message" across, safety clearly isn't much of a concern.