Duluth reproductive and sexual health clinic goes viral on Tik Tok
A protestor stands with his anti-abortion sign and waits for patients to come. Photo by Madison Hunter
We Health Clinic located in downtown Duluth is one of three clinics that provides abortions in the state of Minnesota. We Health Clinic provides a vast amount of services for reproductive and sexual health, including providing birth control methods, breast and cervical cancer screenings, emergency contraceptives and treatments for STI, Bacterial Vaginosis and yeast infections. In 2018 and 2019, they expanded their services to include gender-affirming hormone care and PrEP care to help prevent the spread of HIV.
We Health Clinic is the only clinic in Northern Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan able to provide any kind of abortion care. They can provide abortions up to 15.6 weeks into the pregnancy. Minnesota currently allows abortion up to 23.6 weeks.
Thompson (right) stands with her lead clinic escort, helping to defend against the protestors. Photo by Madison Hunter
Cassidy Thompson, a UMD Alumna, is currently a patient educator at We Health Clinic and also works with Pro-Choice Minnesota. Thompson runs the clinic's viral Tik Tok page, “Duluth MN Clinic Escorts.” The page went viral after they posted videos of anti-abortion protestors in front of We Health Clinic — they now have over 190K followers. The clinic has escorts to bring patients inside to protect them from the protestors.
“I saw other escort programs doing this and raising a lot of money for their clinic, so I created a page myself and posted three or four videos that went viral overnight,” Thompson said. “People don’t understand how scary it is to get an abortion in Duluth, so I wanted to spread awareness on that.”
These protestors come from Pro-Life Ministries of Duluth. According to their website, they are “sidewalk counselors who stand outside the abortion center [We Health Clinic] located on the top floor of the Building For Women, and offer help and hope for moms and dads who are scared and considering abortion.” On their website, they also include the times they are going to protest in front of the clinic. Additionally, they protest in front of the Duluth Planned Parenthood every third Thursday of every month. The Duluth Planned Parenthood does not provide abortion care.
Thompson said they have to have 10-15 clinic escorts every shift because the protestors are very verbally aggressive towards patients entering the clinic, even if they are not there for abortion care.
“The protestors are anti-abortion extremists; there is no reasoning with them. They don’t actually have a church. They just preach to each other on the sidewalk about anti-abortion,” Thompson said.
Each shift has a lead escort that is trained in de-escalation tactics, as they don’t use law enforcement. They are also trained in safety and logistics of the clinic and continue to have educational training.
Protestor Sarah Winandy as she walks back and forth in front of the clinic preaching Bible verses. Photo by Madison Hunter
The two main protestors are “Pastor” Tom Shaer and Assistant Director of Pro-Life Ministries Sarah Winandy. They are there almost everyday protesting and preaching anti-abortion. They heckle patients to “not murder their baby” and to “think about the soul living inside them” and many more comments. They are also known to get physical with patients and clinic escorts in efforts to stop patients from going into the clinic.
According to Thompson, the protestors are connected to Operation Save America — a fundamentalist, Christian, conservative organization that believes the rapture is coming because the United States allows abortion, homosexuality and Islam.
The protestors regularly park this van right in front of the clinic. Photo by Madison Hunter
“We created the Tik Tok page to shed light on the horrible things these protestors say, but we also try to keep it lighthearted to show abortion advocacy is fun and important and encourage people to donate, because independent clinics like ours always need help,” Thompson said.
The Tik Tok page has enough followers to be in Tik Tok’s Creator Fund, where creators on the app can earn money from their videos. They use these funds and donations they have been given from followers to add to their local abortion funds, which helps people financially who are getting abortions.
If you would like to donate, clinic escort or just need general information about reproductive care, head to the Duluth MN Clinic Escort’s informational page.