The All Volunteer Escort Service for the Summit Women's Center in Bridgeport, Connecticut was founded by Patricia Hendrickson in 1993. The Summit Women's Center is a branch of Summit Medical Centers. (Other branches are in Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada.) The Summit Women's Center, like the other Summit Medical Centers, is an abortion facility. In addition to performing abortions, the Summit Women's Center in Bridgeport also provides emergency contraceptive pills ("morning after pills" or "Plan B"), RU 486 (an abortion pill), birth control, pregnancy and STD testing, and mental health counseling. The All Volunteer Escort Service was formed to escort patients and staff from the parking lot of the Summit Women's Center to the building, shielding them from harassment by anti-abortion protestors. Abortions were performed at the Summit Women's Center two days a week and the protestors only came on those days to harass patients. The Summit Women's Center in Bridgeport was uniquely vulnerable to attack by protestors because of the relatively long distance patients and staff had to walk from the parking area to the clinic entrance.
In 1994, Hendrickson's husband, Donald Hendrickson, began videotaping the clinic location to document the behavior of the protestors. These tapes were used as evidence in The United States and the State of Connecticut v. Stanley G. Scott, Carmen E.F. Vazquez, Bobby J. Riley (1995), a federal suit filed against some anti-abortion protestors. The suit was filed on the grounds of violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and, after a series of appeals, the Court found against Scott, et al.
The tapes were also used as evidence by the defense in a civil suit filed by the American Family Association on behalf of the protestors against the Summit Women's Center in Bridgeport in 2001. The case was settled out of court in early 2002. It should be noted that some of the videotapes used in the federal case against the protestors, as well as certain court documents, remain filed in Hartford, Connecticut.
The All Volunteer Escort Service ceased operations in 2002 when the Summit Women's Center re-located to a facility with a tall chain link fence protecting the clinic entrance and the parking area.
From the guide to the All Volunteer Clinic Escort for the Summit Women's Center Records MS 546., 1995-2002, (Sophia Smith Collection)
