Miami Clinic Access Project!

The Miami Clinic Access Project is composed of an array of wonderful, dedicated individuals whose focus is to make sure that the women in Miami continue to have a choice in their own reproduction. They arrive every Saturday morning at 6 a.m. at A Choice for Woman, a clinic in Kendall, and stand outside with signs and support in order to make the pro-choice stance known. Pro-life/anti-choice activists have been arriving at the clinic for a number of years now to harass and scare off women who are already making a difficult, personal choice. MCAP, therefore, provides a counter-presence, essentially the real voice of the pro-choice movement, and show those who work at and those who require the services of A Choice for Women that they are on their side and that they won't let anyone be intimidated.

I didn't find out about MCAP til perhaps sometime last year. I'll admit, I was a bit intimidated to go. As most of my friends, I thought that I might lash out at one of the pro-lifers. However, I decided to put all this aside and made my way to the clinic last Saturday to essentially show that I am also committed to the Pro-Choice movement. I went with my friend Allie and we met up with another friend, Christian, upon arriving. The pro-life side wasn't as big as I was anticipating (I'd estimate about 15-20 in total) and at least by the time I arrived, no one had any signs with unpleasant looking abortions thankfully. I met the MCAP group whose names sadly all escape me (I'm terrible with names but hopefully I learn all their names soon enough) and was given a sign to hold. My instructions were basically to try and block the view of the pro-lifers whenever a car drove in or out of the clinic. Asides from one old woman with a rosary telling me she thought i'd "make more money as a prostitute"*, there were no real negative incidents while I was there. The group actually has a camera running at all times just in case an incident should occur (I was told by one girl that one time, a man from the anti-choice side ran up to one of our defenders and purposely cut himself on one of our signs and called the cops to try and say we attacked him. Luckily, the cops didn't believe him.)

SnakeGirl actually created this short documentary about the defenders some years ago:





If you're interested in joining the defenders, just show up at A Choice For Women (6660 SW 117th Avenue, Miami, FL) any and every Saturday morning between 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. MCAP provides water, signs, and even coffee, not to mention awesome company :) Make sure to park at the BJ's lot across the street by Sunset Drive. If you want to learn more about the group, contact Julie at juliamiami2@gmail.com. I'm hoping to attend at least once a month from now on and I hope you'll join us!


*I was later told by one of the girls that the anti-choice side has a conspiracy theory that we don't actually want to be there but that we are paid by the clinic. Boy, are they wrong.