The 1991 Protests

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The Summer of Mercy

Dozens of protesters block the driveway to Tiller's clinic.

During July and August of 1991, thousands of Pro-Life protesters rallied in Wichita.  Thousands protested and prayed.  Many protesters blocked clinic entrances in acts of civil disobedience.  The protests stretched for six weeks and temporarily shut down Tiller's clinic and the other two abortion clinics that were operating in Wichita at the time.  Pro-Lifers named this the "Summer of Mercy".

NOT HAPPY!  
George Tiller surveys the situation.  Notice the gas bottles on the ground.  Police had to use gas cutting torches to remove protestors who locked themselves to the gate. In the process, police had to sever one of the vertical gate slats.  The pieces rest on the ground at left.

The Background

In the 1980s, Pro-Life activists across the country had begun to use blockades and other forms of civil disobedience against abortion clinics.  The main organization conducting these blockades was "Operation Rescue" founded by Randall Terry in Pennsylvania.  

On April 19, 1991, Tiller sent a letter to doctors all over the country advertising his late-term abortion services.

This letter prompted Operation Rescue to come to Wichita during the summer for a week of protests.

Proabortion counter-protesters stand inside Tiller's driveway gate.  Police stand in front of the gate and protesters sit in the driveway.

ProLifers block the driveway at Tiller's clinic as Wichita Police and Federal Marshals prepare to make arrests.

But the protests unleashed a simmering discontent among Pro-Lifers.  Now there was something that Pro-Lifers could DO about abortion.  The crowds swelled and the protests continued for weeks.  The size and intensity of the protests surprised everyone.

Protesters block the driveway of an abortion clinic.  Proabortion activists surround the car and cover the car windows to protect the identity of the abortion patient inside.

An Overwhelming Response

Since Tiller performs late-term abortion, his clinic was the primary target of the protests. 

Protesters block Tiller's vehicle at his clinic.

Protesters sit in Bleckley Street in front of Tiller's clinic.

But the protesters also targeted the two other abortion clinics operating in Wichita at the time.  


Protesters crawl toward the entrances of the abortion clinic on Central Avenue.  The protesters crawl to illustrate the helpless babies being killed inside the clinic.

Tens of thousands of Pro-Lifers participated in some way, though a majority did not participate in the blockades.  Most protesters prayed and sang and carried signs.  

Protesters blockade the abortion clinic on Central Avenue.

Protesters at the Market Street abortion clinic.

The protests and blockades continued for six weeks with over 2,700 arrests.

Protesters across Bleckley Street from Tiller's clinic (above and below).

Police line the middle of Bleckley Street in front of Tiller's clinic.

So many were arrested that the police could not transport them all to jail in squad cars.  The police used plastic hand cuffs on the protesters and then transported them in city busses and rental trucks.

Police load protesters onto a bus (above) and a rental truck (below).

Many priests and pastors banded together to promote the protests.  About 80 pastors took part in a "Clergy Rescue" at the Central Avenue abortion clinic.   

This is believed to be the largest collective act of civil disobedience by clergy in American history.

As the protests continued, Wichita Police took drastic action.  At the Central Avenue abortion clinic, the police waded horses through a blockade at the front door.

Click here for a larger view of this picture.

The officers had difficulty prodding the horses through the crowd, since this behavior is exactly what these highly-skilled horses are trained not to do.

Several Pro-Lifer protesters were injured in the mayhem.  

When the horses were able to break the blockade, the angered Pro-Lifers took the protest into busy Central Avenue blocking traffic for several minutes.

This picture was taken from the opposite side of Central Avenue.  Notice the yellow stripe in the middle of the road.  The abortion clinic is visible on the left of this picture.

The protests ended with a large rally at Cessna Stadium on the campus of Wichita State University on August 25, 1991.  This rally was entitled "Hope for the Heartland".

About 35,000 people attended this rally including Kansas Governor Joan Finney, Wichita Mayor Bob Knight, and Evangelist Pat Robertson.

Judge Patrick Kelly

Those who blockaded the clinics were charged with simple trespassing or loitering which are misdemeanors. Often those arrested would bail themselves out of jail and blockade the clinic again the next day.

The police were surprised and overwhelmed by the size and intensity of the protests.  There were accusations that the cops and local officials were "soft" on the protesters.

Patrick Kelly in 1991

Patrick Ferrell Kelly, a federal judge appointed by Jimmy Carter, responded by issuing a judicial decree to end the blockades.  Kelly based his decree on a loose interpretation of the federal Ku Klux Act of 1871.

Kelly issued arrest warrants for several leaders of Operation Rescue and jailed them for defying his decree.  Like a tyrant, Kelly made up the rules as he went along then sent federal agents to act as his own personal police force.  He issued arrest warrants on a whim and then adjudicated the cases himself deciding the terms on which the jailed leaders would be released.  Kelly even set the bail himself.  He demanded $100,000 from each jailed protestor in the form of a "peace bond".  This would be held to pay any monetary judgment that might later be won against the protestors.

Patrick Kelly

If an Operation Rescue leader agreed not to participate in further clinic blockades, Kelly would release him without bond.  But Kelly mocked those who had plead for their release calling them "hypocrites".

Kelly's bizarre and tyrannical behavior didn't stop there.  He threatened to have Kansas Governor Joan Finney arrested if she helped to block access to an abortion clinic.  In the middle of the fracas, Kelly appeared on ABC News "Nightline" to defend his actions to the nation.

President George H. W. Bush responded by instructing federal agents not to enforce Kelly's decrees.  Bush said this was not a federal issue despite Kelly's loose interpretation of the Anti-Klan Act.  Bush said the blockade was a state and local matter that needed to be settled by state and local officials.

Two years after the Summer of Mercy, Kelly was overruled when the U.S. Supreme Court said the 1871 Anti-Klan Act could not be used against those who blockade abortion clinics.  This court case is commonly called the "Bray Decision".

Patrick Kelly's sister is Colleen Kelly Johnston who was a prominent member of the proabortion National Organization for Women during the Summer of Mercy.

The Other Side

Everyone was surprised by the scope of the Summer of Mercy including proabortion activists.  Tiller's spokeswoman Peggy Jarman took the heat for Tiller.  She was interviewed by television and print media and tried to keep the proabortion forces organized. But proabortion forces were largely overwhelmed.

Tiller's spokeswoman Peggy Jarman in a television interview.

Proabortion counter protesters link arms and form a wedge to push Pro-Life protesters back from Tiller's clinic driveway.

The National Organization for Women and Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority Foundation came to Wichita for a short visit and rally in late August after the protests had raged for weeks. 

Proabortion counter protesters try to escort a taxi into Tiller's clinic.

Federal Marshals escort two "patients" into the clinic.  The women cover their heads.  These women were proabortion activists pretending to be patients, since the clinic wanted to make it appear they were still performing abortions.  In her book "Fetus Fanatics", Tiller's spokeswoman Peggy Jarman even admitted this.

After the Summer of Mercy

Pro-Life activists tried similar protest and blockade campaigns in other cities.  In Buffalo, New York, Operation Rescue undertook the "Spring of Life" campaign in April 1992.  There were campaigns in Atlanta and Saint Paul and several other cities, but none of those protests were similar in scope to Wichita's Summer of Mercy. 

The Summer of Mercy galvanized proabortion forces who clashed with Pro-Life protesters in Buffalo and elsewhere.  Across the nation, police vowed not to be caught off guard.  In many places, police took ridiculous and harsh measures to prevent a recurrence of what happened in Wichita.

The City of Saint Paul, Minnesota built this fence around a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic before the "Cities of Refuge" protest in 1993. The fence ran along the curb and prevented Pro-Lifers from accessing the public sidewalk. This fence was built with taxpayers' money.

In 1994, the Federal Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) law was passed by Congress.  This law was largely a response to the Summer of Mercy. Kansas Senator Bob Dole was one of the main advocates of this legislation.  The FACE law made it a federal crime to blockade an abortion clinic. Up to this time, blockades had only been a state or local crime.  The FACE law punishes nonviolent blockades at the same level as violence.  Many proabortion activists claim the FACE law prevents violence. But with only one exception, all fatal clinic bombings and shootings occurred after FACE became law in May 1994.

In 1998, Tiller fired his spokeswoman Peggy Jarman.  She "reclaimed" her maiden name Peggy Bowman.  In 2005, she published a book entitled "Fetus Fanatics" about her experiences during the Summer of Mercy. She maintains a website and manages the "Peggy Bowman Second Chance Fund" which pays for abortions for poor women.

Judge Patrick Kelly retired from the federal court in 1996.  He died in 2007.

Many of the Summer of Mercy protesters were elected to political office after 1991.

Ripples from of the Summer of Mercy can still be felt even at the national level.  In 2005, George W. Bush nominated John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Roberts had worked with George H. W. Bush in 1991 to stop the unilateral use of federal agents by Judge Patrick Kelly.  This became an issue of contention in Roberts' confirmation hearing with some Senators voicing opposition to Roberts even though his actions in 1991 were vindicated by the Supreme Court.

More Pictures from the Summer of Mercy

Protesters crawl in front of cars while police begin arrests.

Police pull a protester from under a vehicle on Bleckley Street in front of Tiller's clinic.

Masses of protesters across the street from Tiller's clinic.

Randall Terry confronts a group of proabortion protesters.

Pro-Life farm families from around Kansas stage a rolling protest on busy Kellogg Avenue.  The slow-moving vehicles snarled traffic for hours.

A Topeka man who identified himself only as "Big Bro the Clown" at a Pro-Life rally in Wichita.

A group of protesters climb the fence and run through Tiller's parking lot to block the east entrance of his clinic.

A large mass of protesters block the entrance to the abortion clinic on Central Avenue.  Notice how agitated, violent, and threatening the protestors have become.

Protesters lay in the road to block traffic an abortion clinic while police make arrests.  In the background, the bald man with sunglasses is a proabortion activist.  He is covering the windows of the car to conceal the identify of the driver.  Notice the white plastic handcuffs under the arm of the officer at the right of this picture.

Across Bleckley Street from Tiller's clinic, protesters dive under the police barricades and rush to block the driveway.  Police are ready to make arrests.

Tiller standing in his parking lot during the protests.

Randall Terry leads a large Pro-Life rally at a park in Wichita.

Do you have pictures or video from the Summer of Mercy?  Did you picket?  If so, please click here to let me know.  I'd like to hear from  you, even if you were a proabortion protester.

Click here to read about the 1993 Shooting.

SOURCES:

The Wichita Eagle

Numerous personal interviews with Summer of Mercy participants

"Fetus Fanatics" by Peggy Bowman (formerly Peggy Jarman), 2005, ISBN 1-4196-1608

"Who Owns a Woman?" video by Goodwin Video & New Media - 2003

JAYNE BRAY, et al., PETITIONERS v. ALEXANDRIA WOMEN'S HEALTH CLINIC et al - No. 90-985 - Decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 13, 1993 

Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act 18 U.S.C. Section 248

The New York Times, August 9, 1991, As the Nation Debates Abortion, A Judge Is Cast as the Moderator

The New York Times, August 6, 1991, Judge Threatens Wichita Abortion Protesters

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