Why Do Women Have to Go to Clinics for Abortions?

As gruesome and cruel as this kind of passive aggressive bs may be, 'I'm a stranger who knows nothing about you or why you're at a women's clinic, but I loooooove you, so please don't kill your baby,' I suppose it isn't actually as gruesome as the cold-blooded assassination of women's doctors , or as aggressive as the garden variety physical intimidation and harassing crowds many women's clinic visitors face.

Yet as a commentor at the last BoingBoing link wondered, why can't women just get abortions in hospitals or at the regular clinics they go to so the disturbed, whackjob protestors don't have such an easy and obvious target? I mean, Planned Parenthood works on the side of the angels and all, but the same tireless efforts that make them a beacon to women in need have made them a magnet for the world's Randall Terrys.

I don't know, but maybe that's part of the point. There's nothing like a good public shaming to help the patriarchy channel underclass rage towards those even lower down the pecking order.

The abortion clinic just functions as a replacement for putting people in the pillory or making them wear scarlet letters, which it couldn't if health care providers weren't encouraged to isolate women's care.