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Friday, May 25, 2012
March 15, 2011

Nina Berman in Florida: Abortion Patient As Perp

Perp walk or a celeb-dodging papparrazi?  Neither.  The mushroom-like blob exiting a vehicle is an ordinary woman entering an OB/Gyn clinic operated by Planned Parenthood.

This is what women’s healthcare  looks like today. In the face of pro-life protesters and a history of violence against abortion providers, women, whether seeking abortions, morning after pills, pap tests, or HIV screening, are forcibly thrust onto an open stage where an extremely private undertaking becomes a public passion play. As one patient at this Planned Parenthood clinic in Naples, FL said in response to the scene,  “I felt like a criminal.”

What does it mean to do the mushroom walk, like a lowly defendant reduced to what? a black high heel? And then, given the poisonous moral atmosphere and your identity reduced to what’s on your feet, the high heel can even confuse the issue of who is the escort here, and what kind?


On the flip side, how do we perceive these permanent protesters using sadistic signs, symbols and proximity to wreak emotional violence on women at the most vulnerable moment?

Because anti-abortion protesters do operate inside given rules, such as respecting the 50-foot boundary line separating themselves from the entrance of this clinic, it seems we as viewers have similarly ceded the ground as well. Their presence has largely become matter-of-fact, secured as poster-children of the First Amendment.

With both sides hunkered down and no middle ground to give,  the visual choreography of access is one of our most politically-charged landscapes. The only thing bizarre at this point, in fact, is how the daily routine of golf umbrellas vs. red roses, candles, rosary bead and plastic fetuses riding around in live children’s little red wagons has become the new normal. This daily ritual is now so automatic, proscribed and stripped of drama that the only indication of potential derangement is the sign alerting protesters that they are being filmed, a nod to past acts of violence and a not-so-subtle suggestion that a future perp is on the horizon.

– Michael Shaw

PHOTOGRAPHS by NINA BERMAN / NOOR

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  • Anonymous

    When I was newly married and my husband and I were still in college, I received all my health care from Planned Parenthood – they gave me an annual checkup and kept me supplied with birth control pills. The demonization of this profoundly useful and necessary service is one of the most disgusting elements of the rightwing’s loathsome philosophy.

  • Candyce

    I’m instantly reminded of the women in Margaret Atwood’s novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Women were categorized by function and wore clothing to distinguish them from each other. The main character, Offred, wore a red cloak and white hat with wings, rather like that worn by the Flying Nun. Her purpose was to become impregnated and bear a child for her owner. The umbrellas around the woman here remind me of the ritual costume from the book, and especially that winged headdress.

  • Anonymous

    No middle ground to give? Roe v. Wade was a compromise, allowing states to prohibit abortion after the 2nd trimester except in cases where the life or health of the woman was at stake.

    As far as “the new normal” these scenes were the “new normal” in 1989 when I began escorting through 1999 when I retired to a rural area. After the 1996 bombings in Atlanta, Feds asked clinic workers if there had been any unusual activity recently. The clinic workers said “nothing unusual.” It took a bit of back and forth before the Feds understood that bomb threats, death threats, mailed “condolence” cards, cement blocks through windows, etc. were considered “usual.”

  • Anonymous

    I too received health care from planned Parenthood.
    Women go there when they have NO HEALTH INSURANCE.

    Why can’t republicans understand this?

    Because they want to control women. They want women pregnant and at home. They want women subservient to them.

    Women, don’t vote republican!!!

  • tinwoman

    Thank you for publishing this essay. It is very necessary in this time, and I wish some of the pro-life people I know could see how they are criminalizing women for wanting pap smears.

  • guest

    Any group of people that call a human baby a ‘P-A-R-A-S-I-T-E’ are the lowest forms of shit I could ever hope not to encounter. If you don’t want a baby then keep your fucking filthy legs closed (exception being to women who were raped).

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