Protest anniversary shows splintered anti-abortion movement

(AP) — Thousands of anti-abortion activists gathered in Wichita in 1991 for the Summer of Mercy, sparking tumultuous mass protests that led to nearly 2,700 arrests outside local clinics and crowning the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue as the symbol of the movement.

While abortion clinic violence remains an ever-present concern, as evidenced by last year's fatal shootings at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, new strategies in the anti-abortion movement have emerged, most notably the growing numbers of restrictions placed by state legislatures on abortion clinics that culminated this week with an Oklahoma bill that would have effectively banned abortions; it was vetoed.

A thwarted move in Congress to strip federal family planning funds from Planned Parenthood has spawned similar efforts in conservative states.

Among the featured speakers this year is Matt Trewhella, the founder of the Wisconsin-based Missionaries to the Preborn, which espouses a doctrine for local officials and states to ignore court rulings they consider immoral.

Amid escalating violence at abortion clinics in the 1980s and 1990s, Congress passed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in 1994, aimed at protecting access to abortion services by imposing criminal penalties and civil sanctions.

The 10-year anniversary event organized by Operation Rescue brought a few hundred activists for mostly peaceful protests, only five were arrested.