Well, today I made my first trip to an abortion clinic. Not for me, but as support for a friend. It was a small non-descript building along 75. Contrary to my expectations I didn't see any protesters ranting about God and killing babies. Thank you Jesus for that. I probably would have stayed in the car. It was *crowded* - at least 30 people in the waiting room. When we sat down, Meet the Parents was on the tv. I found out later that it would be all movies, all comedies. Certainly to take people's minds off what was going on in the rest of the building. My friend went back for a sonogram, then came to wait again. After about an hour, she went back again for some counseling (mandatory, I guess). Another half hour or so, she was called back again for lab work. Then we waited for about 2 hours until they took her back for the actual procedure. The procedure itself took 6 minutes. Recovery about 30. We spent 4 1/2 hours total waiting for a 6 minute procedure! That kind of pissed me off, but I think it was so that the person undergoing the procedure had time to think in case they changed their mind. That sounds noble of them, so that's the reason for the waiting that I'll accept. There were all kinds of people there - black, white, Pakistani, rich, not so rich.
One lady who looked like she had spent *WAY* too many late nights at bars smoking cigarettes & boozing it up commented about a girl who had left "she couldn't be more than 20 years old." She said it rather distastefully which got me thinking - it is a shame that someone so 'young' was there, but this woman was 35-40 so it was really more of a shame that *SHE* was there - she should know better. I wasn't going to judge anyone there, but she forced me into it.
Another guy (who was reeking of weed) talked so loud for so long that I wanted to beat him. He talked about the procedure, being hungry, Taco Bell & why the chi-wawa (since I can't spell it, I mangled it on purpose) isn't in the commercials anymore. Then he played gameboy for awhile. His girlfriend told him all the parts of the John Leguizamo movie "The Pest" that she liked (we were forced to watch it for an hour and a half. This is by *far* the worst movie I've ever seen). This other guy was eating candy and smacking his fucking lips FOREVER. His girlfriend told him to stop & he did it louder which irked the hell out of me.
Finally we were done. That's it - game over. It was a sobering experience - one I'm glad I'll never have to go through. There was a doctor there (we're not sure if it was a he or she) who kept looking out the window. We're not sure at what, but I was waiting for busloads of protesters to show up. I'm glad they never did.
posted by Chris O. @ 1/18/2003 03:51:00 PM
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