Abortion-Rights Opponents Continue Protests At Tiller's Clinic

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 23 Jun 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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A group of 10 abortion-rights opponents on Saturday held a memorial service outside murdered Kansas abortion provider George Tiller's Wichita clinic, after counter-protests from abortion-rights supporters "thwarted the event for most of the day," the AP/Yahoo! News reports. Abortion-rights opponents on Saturday also laid 3,000 flowers in front of the national headquarters for Operation Rescue, a local hospital and an abortion clinic that closed during protests in 1991. Tiller's clinic, one of the few that performed abortions later in pregnancy, was permanently closed in the weeks following his murder.

Although the protest outside Tiller's clinic originally had been scheduled for earlier in the day, an eight-hour protest held by more than 40 abortion-rights supporters forced the opponents to relocate the event to Operation Rescue's headquarters. Marla Patrick -- state coordinator for the National Organization for Women, which organized the counter-protest -- said the antiabortion-rights protest was "ridiculous" and "about thumbing their nose at people in a community that have suffered a loss." She added that the "original intent" of the counter-protest was to stop the opponents "from doing their proverbial dance on a murdered man's grave. The fact they changed plans tells me we were successful" (Hegeman, AP/Yahoo! News, 6/21).

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Profiles Abortion Provider Hern

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Sunday profiled Warren Hern, one of the few remaining physicians who perform abortions later in pregnancy. Hern's Colorado clinic, the Boulder Abortion Clinic, specializes in abortion procedures after 20 weeks, which he says make up about 95% of his practice, according to a March letter to area medical colleagues. Hern said that he has seen an increase in patients since Tiller's murder and that he expects the increase to continue.

According to the Post-Dispatch, Hern speaks openly about abortion rights and violence against abortion providers. In a June 10 letter to President Obama, Hern said that it is "past time for this continuing antiabortion terrorism and violence to end." He also urged Obama to publicly denounce violence aimed at abortion providers, adding, "We need your help -- now." The Post-Dispatch reports that Hern believes the rights of women have been lost in the rhetoric surrounding the abortion debate. Hern said the debate "is not about abortion," but "about power" (Gruver/Yount, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6/21).

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