An anti-abortion activist leads her child past the group's signs.
Counter-protesters face off with 'Pastor Mark.'
A bible and a bullhorn.
Spirit One parishioners, including young children, hold up signs. I visited the Spirit One website, and it says that every other Wednesday they bring their young children to protests and have them march around with ballons. "There is no such thing as being too young to participate."
Protest leader Louis Goseland argues with anti-abortion activists.
WICHITA, KS-- The atmosphere around 1515 Harry Street is usually pretty subdued. There are few restaurants and shops, slightly run-down, and a few other businesses. Spirit One Christian Center is also located on that street. It is a fairly typical building itself, boxy and functional. The only thing that makes Spirit One an exceptional building is the people who occupy it, for the parishioners at Spirit One are some of the most active abortion protesters in Wichita.
On October 3 through 8, Spirit One embarked on a campaign called 'Operation Save America. OSA is an out-growth of the well-known Operation Rescue which chose to specifically targets high-school and college students for protests and demonstrations.
During the week of OSA's regional event in Wichita, demonstrators came to Wichita high-schools West and Southeast and distributed fliers to students arriving at school. The demonstrators broke no laws, but many in the community were still upset about OSA's tactics and about the fact that they targeted students.
George Harper, a student at West who was present at the protest was upset.
"They were harassing students and not allowing them to leave until they took a paper. We were yelling that they don't have a right to judge," said Harper.
Harper also said that the protesters disrupted classes, "They were there for about an hour after school started. They had their speakers aimed at the school."
The brochures that were distributed included graphic pictures of aborted fetuses. One brochure said, "The bible and the 10 commandments have been outlawed, illegal, made contraband, in your public school. Your Christrian rights are being denied you."
Another brochure had to do with Mark Tiller, the controversial local doctor who specializes in abortions: "Following the shedding of their innocent blood, he then places the children he has slaughtered on his altar to burn them as an offering to his god. This makes him a priest of Satan." Below this message is a picture that looks like it came out of Napoleon Dynamite, of a lady handing a baby to a priest. In the background is a cackling horned demon, his hands dripping with blood.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Pierce R. Butler
Bravo to Louis Goseland and his classmates!
Dr. Tiller's first name is George. The Operation Rescue/SaveAmerica people have been targeting him for years, and the movement they represent has done so for decades (including an attempted assassination by the "Army of God"). Did they really get his name wrong, or did Sam Jack?
2 - Sam Jack
Sam Jack did... I've corrected it on my web-log and it'll be printed correctly in my school newspaper. I was mixing him up with the head of the Spirit One group, whose name is Mark Holick.
-Sam
3 - Brother Donald
The students were pure hypocrites. Denying the anti-abortionists their free speech rights and harassing a church. They were the ones obviously filled with hate and they proved it by their actions. Innocent babies deserve to live and not be murdered by George Tiller. If they will murder helpless babies, I'm sure they are capable of any other evil thing.
4 - tobra
operation save america is an extremely dangerous group, i hope and pray the high school students will read their Bibles, trust Christ and not let OSA's incorrect statements influence them. tobra, OR worker in 1994
5 - Jennifer Swackhamer
It is unbelievalbe that people actually get outraged at organizations like Operation Rescue, The Center for Bio Ethical Reform, sidewalk counselors...etc for displaying graphic horrifying images of what "choice" truly is in America...but the same people express NO outrage that THIS IS THE REALITY of what abortion does to a REAL LIVING BABY! The word ABORTION has lost ALL it's true meaning in society...the ONLY way to ignite America's consience is to OUTRAGE people with TRUTH! YES it is awful to see...YES it is a nightmare...YES it is disgusting...NOW do something about it! VOTE Pro Life and promote the PRO LIFE message! Get educated about abortion, the after affects on a womans health and emotional state, the humanity of the unborn child being torn to shreds at the hands of abortionists...IF WE DONT SPEAK FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE AMONG US, THE UNBORN CHILDREN, WHO WILL????
6 - Sam Jack
I don't think that anyone ever contested these people's right to protest. Of course they have the right to protest. They have the right to pass out their crudely drawn and frantically worded pamphlets, and they have the right to set up in front of schools with their posters. Does that mean that they should?
It's not like the students at that school are particularly heathenous. There are so many high schoolers with infants that the school has a day-care.
I think that the pro-lifers authentically have a reasonable case that they can make, but no one wants to be that crazy guy on the street corner who is foaming at the mouth. If the goal is to change minds, the pro-life protesters do a very poor job.
7 - tobra
phillip benham is the leader of OSA and should take responsibity for his group's actions. perhaps a picket at his house in concord, north carolina would be benefical, mr. benham has made pubic threats against prolifers so please be careful when picketing his house.
8 - Steve S
IF WE DONT SPEAK FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE AMONG US, THE UNBORN CHILDREN, WHO WILL????
The mother?
9 - Guppusmaximus
People always abuse something.... Parents that have no control over their kids who then have babies should foot the bill for that baby, Not the High School. The parents should home school them because now it just gives the other students bad ideas...Nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions!!
Pro-Life is a great idea but the burning question for me is,"What should a woman do if she is impregnated by a rapist?"
10 - tobra
give birth, don't kill a child for the crime of it's father.
11 - Steve S
oh yeah, and there's a child that won't have any issues.
12 - tobra
all children and all people have issues.
13 - Steve S
and there's nothing like growing up with the knowledge that your dad AND your mom didn't want you.
14 - tobra
there is nothing like a lot of things. you don't kill someone because they have issues.
15 - Steve S
a fetus doesn't have issues.
16 - tobra
a human fetus is a baby and babies have issues, survival is a big issue with unborn babies.
17 - Steve S
did they tell you that personally?
18 - tobra
i beg your pardon, i don't understand who they is?
19 - Steve S
the unborn babies. Did they tell you that they have issues?
20 - tobra
it is called crying and it occurs shortly after birth.
21 - Joey
Babies are so adorable! I could never understand why anyone would want to harm one, let alone end the life of one. End the life, end the life... that's harsh. That's extreme prejudice.
I agree that choice is an issue here, but I believe the key is when to exercise choice.
Then comes the 'ol rape scenario. Would capital punishment for rapists curtail some of the activity?
It the baby of a rapist guilty of the rape?
It's complicated. But the babies are still adorable.
22 - Anthony Grande
Joey, they aren't babies, they are balls of matter. There is no life involved. Us living things(plants, turkeys, apes, humans) need air to live. Fetuses don't need air, because they would sufficate in the womb if they did, therefore they aren't alive. So don't call yourself pro-Life, call yourself pro-Matter.
23 - tobra
my goldfish is alive and jaws doesn't need air to live. the baby of a rapist, like the baby of a president is guilty of nothing.
24 - Anthony Grande
Goldfish have gills, balls of matter don't have gills.
25 - diana hartman
abortion is not a choice, it's an action...one makes a choice when one decides which action to take...
there is only one other action one could choose to take when pregnant and that's carrying the child to term...at that point there is the choice between two actions: keeping the child or adopting the child out, unless nature intervenes...
the choices that follow the decision of carrying a child to term usually come with considerably less interference from all sides, a curious thing given the number of abused, abandoned, and neglected children in the world with no one yelling and hollaring on their behalf, but i digress...
there are other choices in life as well, such as choosing to engage in activities like those in the photographs above or hashing it out with the opposition online -- neither of which has ever proven to get anyone anywhere...
for all the woulda-coulda-shoulda in the world there's even more can-will-did...
woulda-coulda-shoulda deals with both the past that can't be changed and the future that isn't even an issue yet...
can-will-did is what's happening right now, and right now there are people who don't know enough about their own bodies and their own sexuality to make informed and educated decisions and choices...the last thing they need are people just as uneducated as they are yelling at them for any reason at the precise moment in their lives when everything is at its worst...where were these yellers when that person was making the decision that got them there in the first place?
ah, but it's easier to find pregnant people because you know where they gather...it's not as easy to find people wandering around trying to decide whether or not they want to have sex...it can be done, it's just not as easy...i suppose some people just aren't up for the extra work...
there does not exist a single reputable and accredited institution of education or qualified educator on this planet that uses guilt, shame, humiliation, embarrassement, passive-aggressive torment, emotional blackmail, name-calling, insults, yelling, fear, threats of any kind, or violence to educate students...these are the tools of people who refuse to accept that others' behavior is outside their control and that educating others is well within their control...instead of educating themselves and others, they resort to the aforementioned tactics in much the same way an abusive husband destroys his wife's life to insure her compliance -- even if the cost is everything he married her for in the first place...
every unwanted pregnancy started with unprotected sex...every unprotected sexual encounter started with a failed contraceptive device, ignorance of the human reproductive system, someone's idea that a pregnancy wouldn't occur, and/or apathy about the potential outcome...
these are the causes of unwanted pregnancies and this is the starting line in the effort to bring about real change...any pro-lifer trying to win converts at an abortion clinic is nothing more than a vocal and disgruntled fan at the finish line of a race...
no one ever won a race by starting at the finish line...yelling at the guy who came in second or third doesn't change his running time, and continuing to yell at him instead of training him for the next race will do nothing for his run time come the next race...additionally, sending untrained runners into a race with the expectation that they will somehow win is just stupid -- this is the dynamic behind abstinence-only "education"...
see the guy who fell down in the middle of the race with cramps and a dislocated knee? his coach said he didn't need training, he just needed to have faith and a mantra of "just say 'no' to preventable injuries!"...the poor, unbelieving sap...let's go protest him as he's being carried away on the stretcher!
pro-choice advocates waste equal amounts of time and energy arguing with pro-lifers, and for many of the same reasons...
if one is not willing to educate themselves with at least the very basics of physiology, anatomy, sexual development, biology, psychology, and sociology, and share that knowledge in a caring, understanding, non-judgemental way with their fellow human beings, then it doesn't matter which side of this issue one is on, one is just a putz on the corner with a sign...