Bubble zones: my tale.

[politicat]

Bubble zones are the zones around clinics that keep protesters from camping out on the front door step. In Colorado, it's 50 feet from the property lines, and all other ordinances are enforced. Clinic protesters can't interfere with traffic, break noise regulations, etc.

So, back in the bad old days, before these bubble zones, when I was a wee lass of 12 or 13, I came down with one of my numerous cases of bronchitis. My pediatrician, being the kind, progressive lady that she was, shared office space and an office building with a whole range of health practitioners, including an OBGYN who performed a couple dozen abortions a year at the local hospital. It was a pretty small town.

Mom was never the sort to take the kid to the doctor until it was beyond a cold, so by the time I got in to see my pediatrician, I was one sick kitten. Feverish, sore throat, hacking up my lungs into my hankie. I think Mom got me into jeans that day, but I might have been wearing sweats. (Sweats in our house were not something worn outdoors except in an emergency or to exercise.)

As we came up to the building, a group of protesters was shouting, waving their filthy signs about and shoving literature into everyone's hand as they walked by, that nasty, grotesque literature that's been debunked a few times and still gets printed. And they shove some of it into my barely teenage hand and shout at me to not kill my baby.

I was 12 Freaking years old. I wore, at best, an A cup. (Probably an AA or AAA) I was not an early bloomer. I was 4'10 and 82 pounds. And I look sick when I get feverish - glassy eyes, hectic skin, cracked lips. There was no way I looked pregnant. The problem was that I knew nothing about abortion. I knew what sex was - vaguely - and how babies came into existence - sort of - but the idea of abortion? I think I still thought of pregnancy as voluntary!

So my mother and my pediatrician got to explain abortion to me, right then and there, that day, because, being feverish, I thought my Pediatrician killed babies or something.. and I knew she wasn't cruel.. Once I understood, I was horribly angry, and had I had a voice, I would have screamed back at them as we left. And I never forgot, and I've never forgiven those terrible protesters for subjecting me to their filth when I was ill. Thus, I support bubble zones.

I don't believe they impede the freedom of speech. The protester is still free to speak. The difference is that zie have to work a little harder. (It's not like a free speech zone where they're a couple miles away. It's fifty friggin feet.) It doesn't seem to change their success (or should I say, failure) rate. It prevents them from tresspassing and keeps them from getting hit by some irate person heading out of the clinic after picking up her birth control pills.

What say you?

Pcat

[katmondoo]

1. I'm OK with that

[ET Awful]

2. Rather than a bubble zone, couldn't we just put them in a bubble?

We could have a pass-through slot for their bird-cage lining literature, and an arrangement with headphones so those who want to hear their incoherent screeching can do so without interfering with anyone elses day :)

[politicat]

3. this isn't very kind of me, but can it be air-tight?

EOM

[HockeyMom]

4. Birth Control Pills?

THAT is abortion to them too. We already have pharmacists across the country refusing to dispense birth control pills (not Morning After Pill, plain old BIRTH CONTROL Pill) case it MIGHT prevent a fertilized egg from implanting.

[politicat]

5. yes, I know. We just changed pharmacies for that.

Our neighbor's daughter is 14, very, very bright, and has some of the worst physical menstrual symptoms I've ever seen, so her pediatrician put her on oral contraceptives to try and manage the symptoms (the alternative being monthly D&E) until she's done growing.

The guy at the safeway pharmacy (the closest one) refused to fill her scrip because she'd just "go have sex" if he gave them to her. (Did I mention she's very, very intelligent and not going to risk her future?) Fortunately, my neighbor's daughter was not at the pharmacy when he said this so she didn't have to be embarrassed. Her mother, however, was LIVID.

So most of the neighborhood has now moved to another pharmacy in town and Safeway has lost much of our business.

Pcat

[rebecca_herman]

6. UGH

Sickening. My symptons are nowhere near as severe as that girl's, but I am on birth control pills because my cramps were so painful I had difficulty getting out of bed a couple of days out of the month. So far, none of these incidents seem to have happened in my region (northeast), but these people keep getting crazier and crazier...