(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
by Rusty Pugh and Jim Brown
(AgapePress) – Pro-lifers in Wichita, Kansas, taking part in the ten-year anniversary of the “Summer of Mercy” won a partial victory in federal court yesterday.
A judge issued a temporary restraining order allowing demonstrators to march past a Wichita abortion clinic. American Family Association Center for Law & Policy attorney B.J. Brown was in the courtroom, and says the judge’s ruling is a victory.
“This is something that the city did not want to allow; [they] wanted to keep the pro-lifers off the street which houses the abortuary which [Dr. George] Tiller kills late-term babies in,” Brown notes. “What we heard from the federal judge is, the pro-lifers can march on that street. Indeed, they can march an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. So we‘re just praising God for that court victory.”
However, Brown says since the City of Wichita is operating somewhat under a state of emergency, they will be allowed to continue what is known as “onerous bail bonds,” meaning anyone arrested will be forced to put up cash for the entire amount of the bail before they can be released.
Associated Press reports that on Sunday nearly 30 pro-life demonstrators protested outside the church which Dr. Tiller normally attends. Tiller, who is one of the few physicians in the country who still performs late-term abortions, was not at the Reformation Lutheran Church while the protest took place. AP reports the pro-life demonstration upset church members, and some children cried when they saw the protesters’ signs, which showed aborted fetuses.
Meanwhile, one pro-life activist believes the key to winning the abortion battle is education, not confrontation. Pro-life activists, led by the group Operation Save America, are staging demonstrations in Wichita aimed at abortion clinics; but, Carol Donaldson, president of the Topeka chapter of Kansans for Life, says she does not believe direct confrontation and the resulting media frenzy is necessarily the most effective approach.
“Education is the key to winning hearts and changing minds about the value of life,” she says. “Sometimes I think when we get caught up in the protests and such, it creates a media sensation but it may not have the effect we are really wanting to achieve.”
Donaldson says her group, as well as National Right to Life, believes that offering help and education to a woman before she gets to the point of actually entering an abortion clinic is more in line with the philosophy of focusing on long-range goals to battle abortion.
