On the Front Lines in Wichita
by the Rev. Deborah Mero

On Wednesday July 18 (2001), I returned from a short trip to Wichita, Kansas. I went there in response to a letter I had received three weeks earlier from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) asking for help, money, and or participation -- to be in Wichita to bring "Peaceful Presence" to the demonstrations planned by Operation Save America (OSA), formerly known as Operation Rescue (OR).

Ten years ago, Operation Rescue went to Wichita and staged a 46-day picket in front of the Women's Health Care Services clinic operated by Dr. George Tiller. During that time, 2,700 protesters were arrested. Dr. Tiller was chosen for this 'mission' because he is one of the few abortion providers in the country that performs late-term therapeutic abortions to save the lives and health of women. His clinic has been bombed and he was shot several years ago by Shelly Shannon, who remains in jail for this crime.

I served as state coordinator for RCRC when I lived in Washington state and Oregon in the mid-90's and had not been involved in this work since moving back to Massachusetts. I was either working hard in a church that did not hold social action as a priority, or serving churches as an interim minister -- a job that includes many skills and tasks, but supporting and modeling social action leadership is not necessarily one of them. I felt the need to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

I got in touch with state and national RCRC folk and made an airline reservation (mostly our of pocket). I met three of the national RCRC leadership folk at the airport in Wichita on Friday night, July 13 and we went on and met with others that evening.

The schedule for the week included:

• a 24 hour vigil at the clinic planned by the OSA which we countered with our own from 7 pm on Saturday to 7 pm on Sunday
• hasty appearances in front of two churches (College Hill UMC, and Dr. Tiller's own Resurrection Lutheran Church) being picketed by OSA on Sunday morning before and after church services
• an OSA parade and rally on Monday afternoon where we (the RCRC delegation) stood together on the streets with our signs held high as they passed
• keeping watch at the clinic Tuesday through Saturday. This involved arriving at 4 or 5 AM to secure positions behind the barricades by the clinic gate so that incoming patients would see pro-choice defenders rather than pictures of deformed fetuses as they drove through. This was done in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, with police refusing to permit RCRC volunteers to leave for water or trips to the bathroom for 6 hours at a time!

The UU Connection
I am pleased to say that the First UU Church of Wichita opened their doors to us and provided a space for meals and for gathering over the weekend. They trusted us, and offered us a key to their building. On Sunday morning, Julie Burkhard, the director of Community Affairs for Planned Parenthood and one of the primary organizers of the Wichita Choice Alliance, spoke at the worship service. Later in the week, among the pro-choice clinic defenders were a number of faces I had remembered meeting at the church service, including the president of the congregation and Rev. Greta Crosby, minister Emerita of the church. And a young UU, Amy Hetrick, now serves on the staff at RCRC headquarters in Washington D.C. Amy was awesome in the face of fatigue and the taunts of those opposed to offering a woman reproductive rights. I was encouraged that in people like Amy, there is hope for our next generation of leaders!

Observations and Gleanings
I need to acknowledge that there are good people of faith on each 'side' of the abortion debate. I know of no one who is truly 'pro-abortion'; most of us are simply doing what we can to keep abortions safe, legal, and rare through solid sex education and promotion of contraceptives as well as the teaching of healthy and respectful values.

That being said, the OSA people who came to Wichita to try to shut down Dr. Tiller's clinic were not, in my opinion, good people of faith. This action brought the most violent and vitriolic of the anti-choice fanatics, including Flip Benham, Keith Tucci, and Jonathan O'Toole (of the 'Army of God'). These are people who have no qualms about bombing and burning clinics or assassinating doctors. The tactics of the anti-choice people in front of the clinic included face-to-face harassment; the ugly and repulsive signs we all know too well, held by their children; the picketing of the hotel we (and some of the patients) were staying at, including shoving literature under the doors of guest rooms; and accosting the hotel manager in her office. They marched with their young children and babies in 104 degree heat while yelling at us about what we were doing to unborn babies. They surrounded our people -- including clergy -- and pushed and shoved. And in all of this, the Wichita police essentially let them do what they wanted while two young pro-choice activists were arrested for battery (for holding their own and not being intimidated or shoved by the other side).

I wore a clergy collar (attire I don only for this type of public witness event) while I was there and noticed that the anti-choice folk had a hard time looking me in the eyes. Most averted their faces and one or two of the more scary-types (those known by name by the clinic staff) tried to stare me down. I stared back and smiled with my blouse covered with pro-choice buttons. As their 'truth truck' (the one with the disgusting pictures that we re-named the 'garbage truck') circled the block, I pulled out a small bottle of bubbles -- a souvenir of a legal civil union I had performed the preceding weekend in Vermont -- and blew bubbles at the truck, a practice that was picked up by others and duplicated during the week. Their sense of humor is minimal and ours, peaceful but clear, focused at them, can be disarming.

What I have yet to figure out is the basis for the deep-seated fear that motivates people to be so angry and vitriolic. I met a man on the street after the 'pro-life' parade who had had a change of heart several years ago and left the opposition side. He suggested that their fear and anger was motivated by the possibility that we (the pro-choice folk) may be right. I don't know. It seems that those who protest the loudest are men struggling for control of their women.

The good news:

• The clinic stayed open and all the patients who were scheduled got in and out
safely.
• No one was hurt.
• Great people from around the country, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Omaha, Boston, St. Louis, Ohio, California, etc. came to defend choice.
• There is a movement among young people, male and female, to protect and defend a woman's right to choose.
• The anti-choice folk, who condone criminal acts of violence to stop these legal health acts, did not amass nearly the numbers of people they had hoped for.
• The media -- having no violence to report -- largely ignored the story.

The not-so-good news:

• I was disappointed not to see UU participation other than the locals. Where are
our activists?
• This issue is not going to go away. We ignore it at our peril.

The Heroes:

• Dr. George Tiller and his dedicated staff
• The Pro-choice people of Wichita who came out to defend the clinic and welcomed us warmly (no pun intended on the temperature in Wichita!)
• Candy Krueger, the manager of the La Quinta Inn in Wichita, whose name was blared over the opposition forces' megaphones -- yet she refused to be intimidated, and took great care of us and the patients who stayed in her hotel
• Rev. George Gardner of College Hill United Methodist Church, who was not only on the lines, but provided a place for sanctuary and respite for the pro-choice folk at his air-conditioned church.
• Rev. Katherine Ragsdale and all of the RCRC folk who provided peaceful presence despite the yelling and taunting of the other side and the indifference of the police.

For more detail, pictures, and other links, please visit:
http://www.wichitachoice.org
http://www.rcrc.org/

Rev. Deborah Mero is a native of the Chicago area. She received her M.Div. from Andover Newton Theological School in 1990 and has served congregations in Oregon, Washington, and Massachusetts. She is currently interim minister at All Souls Church UU West in Brattleboro, VT.