by Mary Foltz
During my undergraduate career, I led our campus "Take Back the Night March" with the help of other student leaders, which focused on the issue of violence against women. When I came to work at Cedar River Clinic after graduating from college, I thought that this understanding of violence would be of little use, as an intake specialist in an abortion clinic requires little interaction with the outside world, but instead focuses on greeting and serving clients. Of course, I assumed that we would be serving survivors of violence ‹ so many women live through trauma. However, I did not understand the way in which terrorism against abortion clinics becomes a specific kind of violence against women forever shadowing our drive to work, or to the doctor's office, and our movement throughout our days as we wonder if today is the day for our clinic, our clients, or our employees to be watched, followed, targeted, or murdered.
I am your basic medical receptionist. However, I cannot talk about a day in my life without reminding the reader of the culture of terrorism which surrounds women's bodies as they seek to make choices about when and where they will have children or not have children. Each day I prepare medical charts for new and repeat clients as well as the paperwork needed to establish our clients' current health status and financial responsibility. Further, I greet clients with a smile as they enter our medical clinic. Some clients seem relieved to see me as the sight of the security guard out front of our clinic has sent them into a state of fear. Others are angry that they had to participate in a brief search of their belongings and to stand still while our guards moved a metal detector over their bodies. Although we explain that this is for their safety as well as our own safety, many of us here at the Feminist Women's Health Center's Cedar River Clinic recognize the irony of this security measure as feminists claim to welcome women with open arms. Yet the constant threat of extreme terrorists baptized in the hateful rhetoric of the Christian Right has convinced us of the need for self-protection. We must protect our clients and ourselves by greeting all that seek to enter our clinic with a gun before a smile.
Understanding the difficulty of claiming the right to make decisions for our lives and bodies, I welcome each client as a revolutionary, something of a freedom fighter. These basic duties of a medical receptionist become a greater service to the feminist movement as I make each woman's choice a little softer with the warmth, kindness, and awe that I would offer anyone surviving a world that seeks to eliminate women's voices. I offer them basic paperwork which outlines their method of payment, general health history and consent form. Further, I reassure each woman that the consent form need not be signed until after she has had time to speak with a counselor who will not only explain the procedure to her, but will also answer all of her questions.
Many of our clients face another form of violence: poverty. The majority of our clients at Cedar River Clinic opt to use coupons obtained through the Department of Social and Health Services in Washington State. These coupons may be received without parental consent by young women who depend on adults around them for financial support, and by working women with a limited income. Each day that I collect a coupon for payment I feel gratitude for my residency in this state where we truly give women a choice by offering to pay not only for prenatal care, early healthcare for both child and mother but also for abortion. These DSHS coupons truly help to eliminate financial barriers that would inevitably impede a woman's choice.
Although many clients receive help through the state, which covers the procedure, many women travel great distances and need help covering hotel costs or travel expenses. In order to accommodate these clients, we recommend calls to national funding assistance hotlines and further offer to help clients with our own Women in Need fund. Through this fund, filled by employees contributions throughout the year, we often pay for hotels, cabs, and food for clients. As intake specialist, I work with clients to set up a place to stay and transportation to and from the clinic.
When reflecting on my job at Cedar River Clinic, I always start by talking about the basic types of paper work that I do each day. Yet these small activities are part of a larger feminist movement which continually seeks to offer women agency and power in their own bodies and in their own lives. These simple tasks help to ensure women's choice. Although this seems like such an innocent goal, a beautiful way to live life, we are constantly reminded by the presence of armed security guards of the danger in this passion for women.
If you have any questions about any of the three Feminist Women's Health Centers in Washington State please call (425) 255-0471.
Printed in the Fall 2001 issue of CounterAttack
[posted 12/16/01]
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