Abortion protesters show strength

THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM PRINTED VERSION

About 500 abortion opponents marched Tuesday outside the clinic of one of the few doctors in the nation to perform late-term abortions.Demonstrators have taken to the streets of Wichita since the weekend in a renewal of the anti-abortion protests that paralyzed the city in 1991.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten ruled Monday that the city's denial of a parade permit violated Operation Save America's First Amendment rights.

The judge said the demonstrators could march for an hour in the morning and again in the afternoon near the clinic of Dr. George Tiller, but the afternoon march was canceled when the temperature rose to 106 degrees.

Tiller's clinic was bombed in 1985 and he was shot and wounded in 1993. During the 1991 protests, anti-abortion demonstrators besieged his clinic.

The march proceeded without incident Tuesday morning. Police erected barricades to keep the marchers on the side of the street farthest from the clinic, and officers were posted in front of the place.

A person at the head of the march carried a banner reading "God loves the unborn."

On the sidewalk in front of the clinic, abortion rights advocates shouted to the protesters, "Shame on you!" and "Keep your rosaries off my ovaries!"

During the 1991 demonstrations, there were 2,700 arrests in 45 days of protests.

On the Internet

Planned Parenthood: www.plannedparenthood.org/

Operation Save America: www.operationsaveamerica.org/