84 Wichita Abortion Protesters Arrested; Blockade Ban Upheld

Police arrested 84 anti-abortion demonstrators Friday, and an appeals court upheld an order protecting two clinics where curbside protests and blockades have continued for 40 days.

After singing hymns, protesters crossed barricades at Women’s Health Care Services and crawled on their hands and knees into the street in front of the clinic. Some made it a few feet up the clinic’s driveway.

Officers restrained the protesters with plastic handcuffs and carried them onto a bus.

“I wouldn’t ask my officers to do anything I wouldn’t do,” said Police Chief Rick Stone, who helped out. “You can’t understand what it’s like to carry an adult up the steps of a bus until you’ve done it.”

Earlier Friday, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver denied a request to stay an order that bars protesters from blocking access to Women’s Health Care Services and Wichita Family Planning Inc.

U.S. District Judge Patrick F. Kelly’s order also bars protesters from verbally or physically harassing or intimidating doctors, employees or patients at the clinics.

The appeals court did not rule on a request to stay the $100,000 security bond that Kelly has required from the national anti-abortion group Operation Rescue and several of its leaders.

The appeals court judges asked for more briefs on that issue. Three leaders were jailed indefinitely for failing to post the bond.

During protests that started here on July 15, people have blocked driveways and clinic doorways. They have also lain in the street in front of approaching cars bearing clinic patients and staff members.