Feature Documentary
HUMAN SHIELD
Escorts at A Woman’s Choice in Raleigh. Photo credit Anna Clare Spelman
Clinic Escorts outside the clinic in Raleigh, North Carolina. Photo credit Anna Clare Spelman
Clinic escorts at the Toledo Women’s Center in Toledo, Ohio. Photo credit Jessica Jones.
director & producer
In the short journey from the car to the front door, abortion clinic patients are bombarded by pro-life protesters, Crisis Pregnancy Center staffers, and aggressive evangelical church members, all who provoke, harass, and prey upon patients’ vulnerabilities. These patients rely on volunteers known as clinic escorts, who use umbrellas and their own bodies to shield patients from the verbal, emotional and occasionally physical abuse from protesters. Clinic escorts use non-engagement strategies and must remain stoic yet alert, absorbing the surrounding commotion like a sponge, while not interacting with the protesters around them. Their mission is simple - get the patient into the clinic safely without engaging with any of the hostile people surrounding the clinic each day. But as HUMAN SHIELD will show, achieving this goal is never that straightforward.
“Escorts exist because law enforcement isn’t willing to do what needs to be done to protect people accessing health care. That’s the only reason escorts exist. If municipalities and the communities were willing to actually protect people’s health care, what happens in front of our clinic would be unheard of.”
HUMAN SHIELD follows three escort groups at clinics located in the South, the Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It dives deep into the lives of each escort group over a period of several years, illustrating the seasonal obstacles - extreme heat, unbearable cold, torrential thunderstorms. The film will also show how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted their work, with new demands for escorts to support patients while protesters refuse to abide by social distancing rules and wear masks. The film investigates why these volunteers choose to dedicate their time and energy to help complete strangers. Although the actual time spent walking patients inside is quite short, these moments have a huge impact on every aspect of the escorts’ lives. At the center of the film, Human Shield looks beyond the politics and explores the humanity and altruism in escorting with the need for clinic bodyguards.
“But the protesters aren’t going away. These groups are coming back. They are finding ways where they can challenge Roe V. Wade, where they can challenge FACE laws, they are nitpicking every opportunity they can, and if we don’t counter them, then they’re going to keep doing it and they’re going to keep showing up and they’re going to get bigger, they’re going to get stronger and they’re going to become more effective.”