Back To Wichita
Much has changed in the 10 years since abortion rights opponents besieged this heartland city with 45 days of protests.
Anti-abortion rights activists targeting Wichita for a weeklong renewal of the Summer of Mercy beginning Sunday will find tough new local and federal laws governing abortion rights protests. And they will see Wichita's abortion rights supporters — caught off guard by the 1991 uprising — better organized.
Abortion rights foes are vowing passionate protests and prayer, but they say they will try to avoid a repeat of the thousands of arrests a decade ago.
"I cannot answer for everybody that is coming here," but illegal protesting "is not what this is about," said Donna Lippoldt, director of Operation Save America-Wichita, which is spearheading this summer's campaign.
In 1991, Operation Save America was known as Operation Rescue and led by Randall Terry, the firebrand who advocated that abortion doctors be prosecuted and given the death penalty.
Abortion rights opponents have since distanced themselves from Terry and chaotic protests, and Terry — who was censured by his church last year after being accused of extramarital affairs — is not expected in Wichita this time.
Operation Save America is now led by the Rev. Flip Benham, who was also at the 1991 demonstrations and was arrested leading a march on a clinic operated by Dr. George Tiller. Tiller's clinic was bombed in 1985 and he was shot and wounded two years after the first Summer of Mercy. He is being targeted again this summer.
Protesters have noted with pride that Tiller's clinic, one of the few in the nation that still perform late-term abortions, is the only Wichita facility that still performs abortions — down from three in 1991.
Also, in 1999, the anti-abortion rights side opened a medical clinic next door to Tiller's where expectant mothers are shown three-dimensional sonograms designed to encourage them to bond with their fetuses.
Still, in the past decade, abortions performed in Kansas have increased 22 percent — from 10,141 in 1991 to 12,323 last year. At the same time, abortions nationwide have fallen to their lowest point in 20 years.
Abortion rights foes say Tiller's clinic is largely responsible for the state's increase in abortions. Nearly half the patients who obtained abortions in Kansas last year came from out of state.
In 1991, the Summer of Mercy ended with 2,700 arrests on charges ranging from loitering and trespassing to assaulting law officers. Protesters blocked entrances to clinics and forced their way inside one of them. At one anti-abortion rights rally, police estimated the crowd at 30,000 people.
But if early housing requests are any indication, this summer's renewal will be muh smaller. "We are looking in the hundreds, not the thousands," Lippoldt said.
After the first Summer of Mercy, city officials passed an ordinance imposing $2,000 bail on people who block access to local businesses. In 1991, most arrested protesters were released on their own recognizance.
In 1994, Congress passed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which bans the use of force, threats or blockades.
The protesters this time must also contend with abortion rights supporters. In 1991, abortion rights supporters thought that if they just let the abortion rights opponents protest peacefully for one week as promised, they would go away.
"I think the city is better prepared this time. The last time, we didn't have the knowledge," said Susan Collison, 55, a Wichita optometric technician who helped escort women into the clinics during the 1991 protests.
Abortion rights activists have put together training sessions for their demonstrators and have scheduled their own rallies.
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
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