It’s been more than five years since I last stood on the sidewalk, but it still feels like a part of me. For six years, I volunteered as a clinic escort at an independent abortion clinic in northern New Jersey. A clinic escort is a volunteer who supports abortion seekers by assisting and walking with them past the anti-choice protesters who gather out front. It’s a role that theoretically shouldn’t be necessary — it should be easy to simply walk into a health care facility without risking harassment, aggression, or even violence.

The threat of that violence is even more pointed today. The Trump administration pardoned anti-abortion protesters who were convicted of blockading a clinic — a federal crime since 1994 — allowing them to once again target clinics. One of those protesters even had stolen fetal remains in her possession. The National Abortion Federation, which tracks anti-abortion violence, has noted a surge in violence against clinics in recent years — bomb threats are up 133% and obstructions up by an astounding 538%. Choosing to volunteer as a clinic escort has always been a risk, but perhaps never more so than right now.

And yet, as I saw up close, the outside of abortion clinics are often inundated with hostile and aggressive people, committed to making accessing an abortion as painful as possible. Men, standing directly in front of the front doors of the clinic, screaming into a bullhorn, “Abortion is murder!” “You’re going to Hell!” “You’re still a mother, just the mother of a dead baby!” Self-declared “sidewalk counselors” have followed patients for blocks, sometimes filming patients’ license plates, shoving literature filled with junk science and shaming rhetoric into their hands.

I didn’t know it when I signed up to be a clinic escort, but I joined a vital and often unseen lineage that spanned back decades to support abortion seekers and make care accessible. In my book “Bodies on the Line: At the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America,” I trace the history of clinic escorts to the late 1970s, when protests outside of abortion clinics began to become more virulent.

During the 1980s and 1990s, as clinics were targeted with mass protests and even violence, it was clinic escorts who helped keep the doors open. We’re, unfortunately, still needed on the front line to protect those who are seeking an abortion.

If you’re interested in becoming a clinic escort, here are the steps to take to make it happen:

Find Out The Legal Status Of Abortion In Your State

Today, clinic escorting in the traditional sense is no longer possible across vast swaths of the Southeast and Midwest. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, 12 states have total bans on abortion. These states, including Texas with the second-largest population in the country, no longer have any abortion clinics to defend.

To learn if abortion is legal in your state, visit the Guttmacher Institute. Traveling out of state to volunteer as a clinic escort is technically legal everywhere, though some states, like Texas, have shown that they are willing to push the boundaries of the law in criminalizing supporting abortion. For more information, contact the Repro Legal Helpline.

Find A Verified Abortion Clinic

Perhaps you live in a state where abortion is still legal. Keep in mind — just because abortion is legal doesn’t mean it’s accessible. There are states where abortion is legal but there aren’t any abortion clinics, like North Dakota, for example.

It’s not just a matter of legality, either. Fake clinics called “crisis pregnancy centers,” which are run by abortion opponents with the explicit intention of keeping folks from accessing abortion care (through manipulation and sometimes outright lies), are often located near actual abortion clinics and are deceptively named in order to trick abortion seekers. Rather than simply google, go to abortionfinder.org to find out if an abortion clinic is operating near you.

Learn How To Plug In

Once you’ve found the clinic that’s nearest you, find their website (if they have one). They may have a specific section dedicated to volunteer opportunities. If they do, fill out the requisite form and submit. If you don’t hear back immediately, don’t panic and don’t bombard the clinic with calls and emails. The clinic will get back to you when it is able to vet and onboard new volunteers. Be patient.

If you can’t find the clinic’s website or they don’t have any information about how to volunteer, you can still get involved. There is a vast network of support for abortion access in the United States, and while it’s wonderful that you’ve decided to get involved, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Plug into the network that already exists! Find your local abortion fund (which funds abortion care) or practical support organization (which provides logistical assistance to abortion seekers) and reach out to them about how to get involved. Some clinic escort programs are run through abortion funds and community organizations, and these folks may know how to help you get involved.

Get Trained And Be Honest About Your Feelings

Once you’ve been vetted and approved, you will go through a training process to prepare you to become a clinic escort. Different teams have different ways of training — most likely, your training will not be during a shift but instead a separate session where existing escorts will walk you through what to expect, the norms and expectations, and the reality of what happens during a shift. This job isn’t easy — it is hard to remain stoic and focused on the patient while someone screams at you and tries to block your path.

Perhaps you’ve been through the training and are feeling uneasy, or you did your first shift and feel overwhelmed and uncertain. Clinic escorting isn’t for everyone, and that’s OK. Maybe this isn’t the best way for you to support abortion access. Maybe you live in a state where clinic escorting isn’t possible because your state has an abortion ban, or your skillset can be used in another way to support abortion access. Reach back out to your local abortion fund or PSO (which operate even in states where abortion is banned, by the way!) and let them know that you want to volunteer. They can help guide you to a task that works for you and for them.

We don’t have to mindlessly wallow in fear and despair. The feeling of powerlessness, of futility, only serves the interests of those who seek to curtail our most basic rights, including bodily autonomy. Serving as a clinic escort was one of the hardest and most fulfilling things I’ve ever done in my life. Even though I don’t volunteer as a clinic escort anymore, I still hold the patients I served in my heart, and that’s what this is all about — serving each other, supporting each other. You have more power than you think you do.