In 1973, the now famous Roe v Wade case was decided by the Supreme Court, who stated that women have a constitutional right to privacy in making medical decisions. The decision to terminate a pregnancy was and still is included in that decision.
Imagine exercising any constitutional right – the right to purchase a gun, for example, or to vote – and being harassed and even verbally abused while exercising that right. This happens every day at clinics across the country. Photojournalist Wendi Kent told me via email that she made the protesters her focus when she realized that the harassment was going largely unnoticed and undocumented.
“I started this project because there is a dearth of photojournalism covering anti-abortion activists which I wanted to remedy. I decided I wanted to do this to bring behavior and identities front and center. I’ve been doing reproductive justice work for about five years now but focus primarily on abortion rights. Near the end of 2013, I started to hear more and more stories of these protesters’ methods… I realized that I didn’t know who was doing this kind of stuff, ‘Who are these people and how would they like it if everyone knew all about them? What if we publicized what they do to women at these clinics?’
So, I decided to do it. They want to intimidate and publicize the homes and places of employment of people who work in abortion care? We should know who they are.”
Clinic escorts often describe scenes of pushing, screaming, and name-calling by the protesters. The escorts exist solely to get patients in and out of the clinic safely because of the intensity of the protesters’ harassment.
Wendi Kent described one protester in an article from Bustle:
“The protesters are all different and all have different reactions to me. Some get riled up when they see me there with my camera. Some settle down. Many hide their faces. Some want to preach to me, some yell and call me names…Many of them begin to film and photograph me when I make it clear I’m not going to stop. A lot of them get angry I’m photographing them. It’s ‘an invasion of their privacy.'”
The decision to end a pregnancy is rarely an easy one. Whether that decision is made because of personal, financial, or medical reasons, the decision belongs to the woman who makes it.
Wendi Kent Photography’s Faces of the Fight is an ongoing project and an important one that needs funding. To donate, please go to Faces of the Fight.
