PERSONAL SECURITY

As you develop your skills and begin your job search, reflect on how public you want to be as an abortion provider. This decision will be influenced by your local environment, family situation, race and/or religion. Your stance may evolve as your career, personal relationships, and political environment change. Regardless of how public you decide to be, it is important to consider personal security precautions. It may be safer to begin with tighter security and become more lax in the future, than the reverse. Taking some basic precautions may also help reduce the stress of living and working in an environment where you could be targeted.

Here are some tips to consider for maintaining personal and online security:

• Set social media accounts to private
• Avoid personal photographs connected to your name
• Avoid having your name on public records (ie apartment/home lease or mortgage, car registration)
• Opt-out of having your private information accessible to data-mining companies by following instructions in the “privacy statement” or in website FAQs.
  • Most sites require that you send in a written letter with some proof of your identity and statement that your safety is at risk. There is no cost for doing this.  More information and a sample letter are available for you here.
• Talk to providers in your area about their own personal security precautions and develop your safety plan before you get started rather than to remedy problems after they occur.
• National Abortion Federation can provide personal security assessments, staff preparedness trainings, law enformcement assistance, referrals for security, secuirty alerts, and incident reporting mechanisms.
• See Personal Security Tips for more specific advice
• See Chapter 10 Practice Integration for detailed information on clinic security