This is part 2 of 2 posts about defending Dr. Carhart’s Abortion and Contraception Clinic of Nebraska August 28th and 29th. In July, Operation Rescue announced their “Keep It Closed” campaign aimed at preventing Dr. Carhart from opening his planned clinic in Kansas. The campaign also hopes to close ACCON. This past weekend, pro-woman activists from 16 states converged in Omaha and Bellevue. Several members from Kansas NOW attended, intent to stop Operation Rescue from attacking another clinic as they had done Dr. Tiller’s.
Even though it was before dawn, nearly 100 people were already on the sidewalks, holding signs, waiting police orders about buffer zones intended to keep Operation Rescue happy with access to patients.
Both streets running alongside the clinic were closed for the day. Riot police hung out by the school. Yellow police tape tried to mark buffer zones, outlining “their” areas and “our” areas. Orange snow fencing clearly marked the property line of the clinic. One entrance was completely blocked. Everyone was told to stay out of the drive way and, when inside the fence, to keep their backs to the antis. Do not engage was the mantra of the day.
With Operation Rescue announcing “outreach” Friday and Saturday, Abortion & Contraception Clinic of Nebraska informed patients of the anti crowd expected and offered to move their appointments. Patients felt relieved knowing we would be there. No one changed their appointments. We were there to say we will defend clinics, we will defend our rights, and we will defend women. Most people understood this.
A prayer and rosary group began around 8am. A defrocked priest, Fr. Weslin, arrived early with an anti from Wichita who previously attended a Randall Terry event in Wichita, harassing a 10 year old girl. Larry Donlan drove an Operation Rescue Truth Truck into the middle of the closed street. In response, we made a smaller Actual Truth Truck. Later, another Truth Truck showed up saying “Abortion is an ObamaNation.com”.
As the young Wichitan talked to the Norwegian Daily, convicted domestic terrorist Jennifer McCoy showed up with several children, everyone wearing “Visualize Abortionists on Trial” shirts, shirts from the Nuremburg Files, a site that had abortion providers’ names, addresses, and photos, crossing out names as providers died. Jennifer set fire to two abortion clinics in Virginia eventually pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit arson and served two years. She was on the streets of Wichita, however, until she was caught in 1996. By time she showed up at clinics in Wichita, she had served her time and finished parole. Now, she spends time with Operation Rescue (including a recent interview by convicted domestic terrorist Sullenger for LifeNews.Com), Kansas Coalition for Life, and Kansans for Life.
As defenders stood the line, we received taunts from antis. Fr. Weslin, under the guise of kicking a picture of Jesus back into place, kicked one defender and her sign. A woman saying she use to be a nurse lectured the video camera several times. She’s from Iowa, according to the Iowa Independent, and she made regular visits to Wichita and Dr. Tiller’s clinic, according to photos on Operation Rescue’s site. She told one defender who didn’t respond to her that she had an STD. One anti asked me when I was due and if I was there to kill my baby.
They tried to hand us “The Carhart Chronicles,” sonograms of a “saved baby,” other papers. We would chant “Welcome! Welcome! This clinic stays open!” Newman told us he had heard that before at Dr. Tiller’s before he laughed. They tried to tell us the “truth” about abortion, constantly telling us about the babies being murdered inside. They wanted us to know the “truth” about the man we were defending.
Here’s the truth: most medicine isn’t pretty. And war is gruesome. Though no one stands outside hospitals trying to talk people out of open heart surgery because it’s disgusting. And only the most ardent anti-war protesters stand outside military bases calling soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and officers “murderers.” Second and third trimester procedures do become gruesome in their descriptions, but perhaps more gruesome is to know what women must suffer in order to have an abortion, one that by that time is illegal in all except the most extreme cases. Over one million abortions are performed a year, less than 1% of which are late abortions. And as much as that number might be shocking, that is one million women who have weighed the question of their lives and their futures, and they have decided where a child fits into it. They are one million women who became pregnant but made the decision not to remain pregnant. That’s in addition to the millions of women and men who choose some form of contraception to prevent pregnancy. The truth is a decision was made, a legal decision, one that is ethical and moral for the women and families involved, and one that is harangued by a small portion of the population. That is the truth.
Once again, most of the antis had left by lunch. Over a hundred defenders remained, some at the clinic, patients still inside, many more along a busy street made more busy by the air show. Defenders continued to come and go. More than 200 in all between the two days. We would all go back home, all of us saying we would be there again if need be.
Dr. Tiller’s picture graced a couple of signs. It reminded us why we were there. A provider had been murdered, and we were reawaken to the need to defend clinics. Abortion remains legal and constitutional, but access is continually restricted. Waiting periods and costs aside, traveling long distances to find a provider and then to be greeted as a murderer, not a woman, makes the task all the more difficult. But now? Now we are reminded it is not just annoying and arduous but dangerous as well. We live in a civilized, democratic nation of laws. Medical professionals should not live in fear of well-being and even life. And women exercising their rights should not be made to feel guilty either for their abortions or for asking someone to put their life on the line.
We were there to defend Dr. Carhart; and some of us were there to honor Dr. Tiller.
Loading ...