My friend and I were walking alone in downtown Milwaukee. (That alone sounds foreboding, doesn't it?) We were nearing a cross-road, and I saw a group of people ahead and commented to my friend that half of them were wearing orange shirts.
One of the people in a non-orange shirt approached us, and I glanced at a man with a videocamera on the side. I don't remember exactly how any of this went, because it happened really quickly, but she said something like "If you are going to Planned Parenthood, may we offer you some other options?" I saw a pamphlet in her hand and said "Oh, I'm pro-life." She smiled. "Good, good, may God be with you" and handed me the anti-abortion pamphlet. Then she warned us "Some of the Planned Parenthood people are probably going to try to tell you that we're harassing you." Right on cue, someone in an orange shirt approached us and I noted the words "Planned Parenthood" printed on the shirt, and the rest of the orange shirts. He predictably said, "This group is always harassing people. Let me walk you to the clinic..." and the original woman grabbed our shoulders and started saying "They're..." but then another orange-shirter pushed one of the pro-life people, and a mini-riot ensued with screaming, as I remember it. The woman offered to help us cross the street to safely walk through the feuding groups, and she started to but I glanced back and the orange-shirted people were congregating in a menacing line behind us. I got really, really freaked out because I thought they would try to abduct us, or something, so I said to my friend, "RUN!" And run we did. After I felt I ran far enough, I finally turned around and saw my friend traipsing behind me and laughing at my knee-jerk reaction. (I was surprised she actually ran because she avoids running at all costs.) She was kind of freaked out, too. She said one of the pro-life people was encouraging us to run, though (which was good, because I didn't want them to think I was running away from them). Anyway, after she caught up with me, a truck driver parked on the side of the street who had witnessed the event was cracking up. "That group freaked you out, huh?"
And that man videotaped the whole thing. (He wasn't wearing an orange-shirt, so I guess he was pro-life.)
It was actually kind of amusing (in a dark sort of way). I guess you had to be there.
Although I had the chance to say something to those Planned Parenthood people, and I wish I had said something before running off. (Maybe "Get educated, bitches?" nah, wouldn't stoop that low.) But I didn't want the pro-life group to think I was directing my comment to them, so I decided to say nothing, and, well, run.
I guess, and I know this is probably going to sound really silly, but this incident made abortion very real. I suppose I secretly hoped that no one really could be pro-choice, and that maybe I was fabricating this whole abortion controversy in my mind. I mean, yeah, I had read the news, and I had heard they were out there, but... this was... it was... ? (This is an example of when I would normally trail off in a real life conversation.)