In the parking lot, a man parks his van, gets out, removes a bag from the back seat.  There is no woman in the car.  Mary, one of the protesters, approaches him.

“Did you just take your wife to the clinic?” she asks.

He turns toward her, “Yes, I did,” He says.  “And don’t start with me.  We don’t want to be here, we don’t have any choice.”

“Well,” Mary says, “We have another clinic, why don’t you get her and bring her to our clinic?  We’ll do a free pregnancy test and a free ultra sound.”

That’s a free ultrasound.  Quite the salesperson, our Mary is.

He is a big man.  He looks down at Mary.

Patiently, he says again, “Don’t start with me.   My wife was pregnant before, and we almost lost her and the baby.  She has a …” and he says something that includes the terms “bilateral” and “uterus” which I don’t quite catch.

And he goes on, still patient, “The doctor says this one will kill her.  She and the baby almost both died last time.  We don’t have a choice.  So don’t start trying to shame me or make me feel guilty.”

“Oh, we don’t try to make anyone feel guilty,” says Mary.

“Yes you do,” He says.  “I heard youall over there.”

“Well,” she says, “Most of those women – they have a choice, they’re just doing it because ~”

He cuts her off, “I don’t know anything about them.  I just know why my wife and I are here.  We don’t have a choice.”

He starts to move away.  Mary follows, glued to his side.  “Well,” she says,  “Did you get a second opinion?”

What?

“A second opinion??! ” I hear him say, incredulous, and they move out of range.  I watch them cross the street, Mary buzzing beside him the whole way.

***************************************************

You know when the protesters don’t have clients or companions to harass, they like to practice on the escorts.  So, one day, a couple of escorts are standing by the door, one of them’s checking something on his smartphone.

A protester starts talking, ostensibly to himself.  “These babies they’re killing ~ they’re killing babies in there you know ~ these babies won’t even get to live to see anything.  They won’t even live to see ~~” and he casts around for just the right example ~~ “Cellphones!  They won’t even get to live to see cellphones!”

What?

And it cracks me up – I don’t know why, I just snort with laughter every time I think about it.  Cellphones!  Good grief.

***************************************

And a last, classic moment, from K, who says:

We had a couple of very entertaining clients who hooped it up while making their way into the clinic. One was deaf and upon watching Donna jaw at her, told her companion ~

“See, this is why I don’t hate not hearing!”

HA!