‘It’s just really, really scary’: Local abortion clinic CEO fears for the safety of patients, staff

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — We won’t know until June if the Supreme Court decides to overturn Roe v. Wade.

But right now, the leak of the draft opinion last week has abortion clinics concerned about their safety.

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Action News Jax Courtney Cole spoke to Kelly Flynn, the President and CEO of A Woman’s Choice Jacksonville. She’s the President and CEO of the clinic that provides abortion care.

She’s calling on The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to secure and protect the area of her clinic, in hopes their presence will discourage harassment from protesters and help keep her staff and patients safe.

Flynn said they could see anywhere from five protesters to 100 protesters outside the clinic.

“It’s just scary... it’s just really, really scary. Because we just never what we’re going to walk into and what’s going to happen if someone gets really angry,” Flynn told Action News Jax.

Flynn said the Jacksonville clinic has been there for 20 years.

“Our concern right now is lack of security. And safety for our patients, staff and doctors.”

Flynn said the harassment staff and patients face from protesters happens daily.

“Every morning when our staff gets there, the protesters are there and they start yelling at the staff. The doctors that come in, they all know them by their names. And they scream at the doctors, horrific things,” Flynn explained.

Flynn gave Cole video where you can see the protesters in yellow vests, some holding signs, outside of the clinic. Another video shows protesters being dropped off by a yellow school bus.

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A third video shows a woman holding an umbrella, attempting to provide safety and privacy for someone entering the clinic. In the video, you can also see another person in a white shirt... following them closely.

“One of the antis sliced her umbrella with a razor. And then on another occasion—it may have been the same day—another escort was punched by a protester. And absolutely nothing happened,” Flynn said.

Flynn said the protesters are from a local anti-abortion group called Family for Life.

Flynn told Cole she had hired off-duty officers to work for them, but she said it feels like it got so bad that JSO no longer wanted to be involved.

“Somebody’s gotta be there. Even if we had a security team or company, either way JSO is going to have to be involved. I think that they’re working on another schedule right now. I’m not 100% sure what that looks like,” Flynn said.

The CEO told Cole that as of last Saturday, she was told that the clinic was not going to have any more coverage and that the officers were not allowed to work for them off-duty anymore.

“That was really disappointing,” Flynn said.

Cole reached out to JSO to learn how they plan to handle security. She also requested the “calls of service” to the address of the clinic. She is still waiting to hear back.

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