You've got to be kidding me. That's disgusting. So there will be protestors on the main street and behind the clinic (I don't know my directions out there, but it sounds like they'll be bookending the clinic) in the Dominick's parking lot? How are they not going to get hit?

It's a prime example of how anti-woman these people are. It makes me ill. Is Dominick's seriously going to let them stand on their property loitering? I dearly hope not.

I choose the "10 Plastic Fetus-Chuckers Or Less " checkout station.

This is sort of creepy! This morning I had to do a double take because I could have sworn the empty Safeway bag laying on my floor said "Supporting Life", but it just said "Ingredients for Life" (the slogan in Canada, and maybe in the state?? I'm not sure).

They still have "for life" in their slogan? Subliminal messages maybe?

I'm not from the states, obviously, but I support the clinic in Aurora and I hope these "protestors" stop creating an unsafe environment for women.

I just called Safeway corporate. They asked for my 'club card' number before they would talk to me, and my city & state. But, I let her know that I'm a Planned Parenthood volunteer (which I am proud to be) and that I'm calling to complain that the anti-choicers who have set up shop on Safeway property are intimidating women by taking down plate #s and taking photos. She said she would pass it along... more people need to call! They need to be flooded with calls. Women do not deserve this crap. Thanks Feministing for all you do!

Question -- do these anti-choicers photographing folks and taking down license plate numbers run afoul of any anti-stalking laws or some such?

DAS, not sure.

Here is a web site dedicated to this practice: abortioncams (dot) com (don't want to link it.)

Dominick's Ethics Hotline # Is:

1-866-239-1376

Call Corporate, or if you feel more inclined to talk to personnel at that store like I will in like 2 minutes, Call the store directly at: 630-236-0683.

Private property or not, photographing patients should not be a protected right! WTF!

Also found this:

Brian Dowling
VP of Public Affairs
Tel: 925-467-3000

The site offers their customer service offices are in Phoenix. Googling, I found (602) 353-9085 but am not sure if that's an actual corporate office or not.

ugh...damnit i shop at safeway! it's the cheapest on the island (other than the commisary, which, fuck is a mad house and not worth it!) i am going to have to call them...grr

these people are unbelivable...i don't understand how this photographing thing is even LEGAL?!?

(925) 226-5223 Is a number I get for corporate offices in pleasanton.

Yes, please use the (925) 467-3000 number in Pleasanton. The first number given above is customer service, and a very pleasant and patient man heard me out and said that customer service has no juice in the matter and suggested that I "call corporate."

call my ignorant, but what is the purpose of taking photos of womens license plates? the women arent doing anyhing illegal, so...

To intimidate them and potentially to stalk/harass them in the future.

It just occurred to me that the people photographing license plates and patients walking into the Aurora PP clinic (as well as other 'abortion cams') may be violating federal HIPAA regulations. For those of you unfamiliar with the regulation, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability ACT) is a federal regulation meant to ensure confidentiality of personal health information. HIPAA is mainly aimed at physicians, health care facilities, and insurers. I'm not sure if it will cover private individuals willfully violating patient privacy (taking photographs of patients in the parking lot as opposed to accidentally overhearing a conversation in a hallway). I will need to reread the regulations to find more information. If anyone is knowledgeable about HIPAA regulations, feel free to add any information.

call my ignorant, but what is the purpose of taking photos of womens license plates? the women arent doing anyhing illegal, so...

To expand on what BabyPop points out: they do that so that they can organize protests against these women personally sometimes. They'll post that information on websites and distribute it to their members. They've been known to go to people's homes and picket in front of their houses or distribute pamphlets to people who live nearby... they want to intimidate, embarass, and threaten these women.

It just occurred to me that the people photographing license plates and patients walking into the Aurora PP clinic (as well as other 'abortion cams') may be violating federal HIPAA regulations. For those of you unfamiliar with the regulation, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability ACT) is a federal regulation meant to ensure confidentiality of personal health information. HIPAA is mainly aimed at physicians, health care facilities, and insurers. I'm not sure if it will cover private individuals willfully violating patient privacy (taking photographs of patients in the parking lot as opposed to accidentally overhearing a conversation in a hallway).

I don't see how it could, in these cases. What they're doing is shitty, to be sure, but they're generally very careful to stay within the limits of the law. They're not violating HIPPA because they're not accessing any of the patient's private records. A person entering or leaving a building or walking on the sidewalk, etc, is not private medical information, nor is a license plate. While they assume that pregnant women who go into a PP clinic are getting or seeking abortions, they're not accessing records to find out.

I'm not an expert, but that's my understanding.

Got a bit of the run around with the corporate number- they said that you had to contact the store and the loss prevention/security department directly. I would assume you'd get more of a reaction out of the company that way, and send e-mails and letters to corporate telling them they need to publish their policies regarding people abusing their public property and address the situation. They really seemed to be at a loss of what to say to me.

When I spoke to the manager of the store, he seemed at a complete loss as well. Didn't know (supposedly) that the anti-choicers were out there, and started to tell me that there have been communications explicitly forbidding use of private property, or some such thing. He also said, well - the parking lot is not just ours, there is also a Blockbuster, etc. etc. - as in, maybe one of them gave the permission...Since I've never been there, I couldn't argue with him, but I let him know that corporate is telling folks to call the store to which he sounded pissed about.

A store manager can still call the cops and have them removed or, at the very least, contact the property management company and complain to have them call about it.

GOOD AND BAD RESULTS:
1) I just called the local store and was told the store manager was in a meeting, so spoke to a sub-manager, and he was TOTALLY apathetic and unconcerned.
He said it wasn't their parking lot - though I pointed out, as the anchor store, they certainly have the most influence over who can and cannot be demonstrating in their parking lot. I let him know my entire family lives in the Chicagoland area and shops at Dominick's but would certainly pull their support if they knew this was going on.
He said call corporate, and I said corporate said to call here directly and gave out their number. He was totally unconcerned and said he'd "pass on the message" and hung up.

2) BETTER RESULT: I called the Corporate office in Pleasanton, 925-467-3000, and said I had a comment about the store in Aurora IL, and was transferred to a very pleasant woman who took my complaint, seemed alarmed, asked for my number and is getting back to me regarding what happens next.

FYI She asked for the ZIP code of the store in question - which is 60504 - and she sounded surprised about this; didn't sound like she'd taken many or any calls on this yet.

I told her I'm not a customer but my whole family in the Chicagoland area is and they're all pro-choice and would certainly pull their support if they knew this was going on. She said the same thing, maybe they don't own the parking lot, but I again pointed out as the anchor store they may in fact own the parking lot and if not they certainly have the most influence over non-shopping activities going on there and the store manager could contact the property owner (if it's not them, which it might be), tell the protestors to leave, use that space for customers, request police intervention... I also said I was surprised they'd allow something this controversial going on in their parking lot, and that they were intimidating women seeking legal health services and that Dominick's shouldn't be allowing them to use its property for that.

She said maybe they had a permit; I said I'd organized many protests before and you can't get a permit for private property, like churches and businesses, without the owner's permission - only public property like sidewalks, government buildings, public parks, etc.
She said she's make a call about this immediately.

Will post again if/when she gets back to me...

UPDATE from writerach:
Less than 10 min after I called corporate, I got a return call with very interesting information:

The corporate woman who took my call said her boss said call the store, which she did, and got the same rude manager (Greg, I think?) and she said, "She WAS NOT happy with him" after she spoke to him.
She talked to someone named Carol, in Public Affairs at corporate, who said "Christine" had just called and gotten Greg and was "not nice," to which she replied, "Well, if she was talking to Greg, I can see why."

***She confirmed that they DO, in fact, own the parking lot (under the parent company's name, but Dominick's does own it) *** and said that "Loss Prevention is aware of it" and asked if there were guards in the lot when I was there. I said no, not when I was there.
Someone named Ms. Pat Turputti (sp?), Loss Prevention head, is going to call me back.
The corporate woman made sure to add, twice, very sympathetically and emphatically, that both she and her boss Carol had "personal feelings about all this which of course they weren't allowed to share" and thanked me very much for letting them know about this.
So keep calling! And if you get Greg, be prepared to deal with an a**hole.

THAT IS AWESOME, WRITERACH, thanks so much for the followup!!!

Here's a rather interesting angle: Go to the Dominick's website, and what do you see? Big pink banner with a picture of Melissa Etheridge saying "Join us in the fight to EDUCATE and FIND A CURE for breast cancer." (emphasis theirs) So allowing people to intimidate women (and men) who go to or work at a clinic that gives mammograms etc seems rather counterintuitive, to put it mildly. So people may want to mention that when they call - any other ways this angle can be used?
http://www.dominicks.com/

A suggestion---rather than going with the "we're pro-choice and we disagree with this" tactic (which any of the antis can turn around and respond with "we're pro-life and we are upset you've evicted us"), people might get better results by explaining how what they're doing is harassment, intimidation, and potentially incitement to violence. Inform them that they're taking people's pictures and license-plate numbers and posting them online; that they've done things like picket people's homes in other places, the threat of stalking and violence.

Merely complaining about protesters has some element of partisanship, and can be easily ignored by store management sympathetic to the protesters' aims or just plain apathetic to the situation. People using private property as a base from which to harass and endanger people and do things like post personal information online, however, is more likely to be frowned upon enough to inspire a removal order from the property's owners.

I might be a little bit late, but I gave them a call. I had to give them my safeway club card before I could continue, and after that I told her what was going on. Then she asked me if all of this was going on in MY Safeway's parking lot. HA! In Boulder? Anti-choicers wouldn't stand a chance here! The upscale liberal brigade would be on their asses faster than you can say Jiminy Cricket. But I'm getting sidetracked now. So she told me that she would "pass the message on" but I detected some apathy in her voice, so I really don't know.

Kyra,
That's actually what I told the manager when I called...that it was a serious safety concern to hear of people photographing patients and jotting down their license numbers, and that if something happened to one of those women as a result of activity being conducted on their private property I wouldn't be surprised if they were legally liable.

I called the store directly and got a customer service drone. I asked her, "When are you going to get those pro-life nut-jobs out of your parking lot?" She misunderstood me, so I clarified. She said they were supposed to be on the sidewalk, not in the parking lot, and asked me if I wanted to talk to a manager or to call corporate. I said I just wanted them out of the parking lot. She sighed and was completely unhelpful. But, as I said, she says they are not supposed to be in the parking lot.

BTW, anyone calling from out of town who is unfarmiliar with the area, it wouldn't hurt to both pretend to be local and to throw in a threat that you are going to do all your shopping at Jewel from now on.

I emailed the Ethics department @ Business.Ethics@safeway.com

Here's my letter and the response I got:

Dear Ms. DiNatale-Boston:

Thank you for your recent correspondence.

We appreciate the time you have taken to share your valuable feedback. Your comments will be forwarded to our Public Affairs Department for further review.

If you would like to discuss this further, please reply to this email or call our toll free number at 1-877-723-3929 and reference contact I.D. 11950967. One of our associates will be happy to assist you.

We appreciate your business and look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you for shopping at Safeway.

Sincerely,

Teresa McDaniel
Customer Service Center

As a Safeway customer in Canada I am very disappointed that you would allow anti-choice protestors to use your supermarket as a site to harass and intimidate women going to the Planned Parenthood clinic. I hope Safeway resolves this matter by removing these people from their property.

Thank you,

Diana Boston
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada

I emailed the Ethics department @ Business.Ethics@safeway.com

Here's my letter and the response I got:

Dear Ms. DiNatale-Boston:

Thank you for your recent correspondence.

We appreciate the time you have taken to share your valuable feedback. Your comments will be forwarded to our Public Affairs Department for further review.

If you would like to discuss this further, please reply to this email or call our toll free number at 1-877-723-3929 and reference contact I.D. 11950967. One of our associates will be happy to assist you.

We appreciate your business and look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you for shopping at Safeway.

Sincerely,

Teresa McDaniel
Customer Service Center

As a Safeway customer in Canada I am very disappointed that you would allow anti-choice protestors to use your supermarket as a site to harass and intimidate women going to the Planned Parenthood clinic. I hope Safeway resolves this matter by removing these people from their property.

Thank you,

Diana Boston
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada

Hmm. . . are any of the stores in question union-organized? I seem to remember a labor law class or two that indicated that if you opened up your parking lot for public use by some organizations, you had to let the union organizers access the parking lot for their own purposes. Just another little piece of mischief . . .

It just occurred to me that the people photographing license plates and patients walking into the Aurora PP clinic (as well as other 'abortion cams') may be violating federal HIPAA regulations.

No, it does not violate HIPAA. The only people who are bound by it are "health care providers" who are providing health care to the people. If my sister tells her friends about my surgery, she isn't violating HIPAA, because she's not a doctor.

(Really, people, learn health law if you're going to be complaining about it... my favourite was last week, when Mina failed to understand that the FDA can regulate medical drugs and devices - therefore being able to restrict a male Pill - but does not regulate surgery, so vascetomies have different standards.)

"my favourite was last week, when Mina failed to understand that the FDA can regulate medical drugs and devices - therefore being able to restrict a male Pill - but does not regulate surgery, so vascetomies have different standards."

I never claimed that the FDA regulates surgery. I simply pointed out that since vasectomy surgery did get approved in the U.S. by the regulators for surgery, it's not impossible that a medicine with a similar (similar, not identical) purpose to a vasectomy would get approved by the regulators for medicine in the same nation.

LMAO!!!!!

Mina, dear, what do you mean, "vasectomy surgery did get approved in the U.S. by the regulators for surgery?" Which regulators? When did it get approved?

Mina, honey, nice and slow: the FDA approves drugs and devices; the AMA governs medical practice, but does not "license" surgeries or the like. The FDA, as it stands, currently requires that side effects be less than medical benefit. If you don't like that, don't bitch at me.

As to why? Well, how about a quick list of the top reasons why your little theory is ridiculous?
1. States, not the federal government, regulate the practice of medicine. Drugs are sold in interstate commerce; surgeries are considered to be the province of the states.
2. The idea of approving a surgery is really dumb. Approving a drug makes sense: unless it's approved, you can't sell it. So does the FDA (or whatever super-regulatory agency you want?) approve a certain method of doing heart surgery, but not another? Who watches? Must you use a certain size scalpel? What if you need to innovate based on the patient's particular problem? Do you stop the surgery halfway, call up the regulatory agency, and get approval to do something that hasn't been "approved?"
3. Patents on surgical methos are really dicey, because of the social idea of making surgical methods available to people. Physicians are already licensed.
4. Answer me this: what year were vascetomies "apporoved" in the US? I'm not asking when they started; I'm asking when some agency said that it was okay to do this. Yeah, that's right - we don't regulate surgery that way.
5. Now, if drugs and devices were subjected to the same lack of regulation, it would be chaos. Imagine all of the drugs that wouldn't work, would have heinous side effects, or the like.

Again, people, learn the law before you start bitching about it.

mezzogiorno- as a matter of fact, Dominicks' workers are in a union.

An update: Dominick's erected a fence to keep protesters out, and the protesters are hoppin' mad!

link

Woo hoo! I'm off to Safeway to buy some groceries!