Anti-abortion protesters return to closed clinic

Operation Rescue president Troy Newman, left, prays during a memorial for abortion deaths Saturday at Operation Rescue's headquarters in Wichita.

? It took waiting eight hours, but abortion opponents succeeded in holding a memorial service Saturday at the closed clinic of slain abortion provider George Tiller.

As dusk fell on this Kansas city, a small group of 10 abortion foes showed up at the clinic to lay hundreds of flowers and hold a brief prayer service to memorialize the more than 60,000 abortions performed here. The media and a group of counter protesters that had thwarted the event for most of the day were long gone.

“It was very peaceful,” said Cheryl Sullenger, senior policy adviser for Operation Rescue. “It was exactly what we wanted.”

Abortion opponents had planned a noon event at Tiller’s clinic, one of the few in the nation where third-trimester abortions were available. But the main event was moved after more than 40 abortion rights supporters announced plans for their own demonstrations and stood outside the clinic for hours.

About 30 abortion opponents held the event instead at Operation Rescue’s national headquarters, the site of a closed Wichita abortion clinic the group bought in 2006.

Tiller was gunned down May 31 at his church. Murder and aggravated assault charges were filed against Scott Roeder, 51, of Kansas City, Mo.

“Our original intent was to prevent them from doing their proverbial dance on a murdered man’s grave,” said Marla Patrick, state coordinator for the National Organization for Women, which coordinated the counter protest.

Told about the Saturday evening memorial, Patrick said it was “ridiculous.”

Abortion opponents also laid flowers earlier Saturday in front of the Operation Rescue building, a local hospital and a third abortion clinic that closed in 1991. One of those at the flower-laying ceremony at Operation Rescue headquarters was the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition of Washington, D.C., who condemned Tiller’s shooting.