A New Political Day Dawning in Kansas

It’s desperation time when the best the anti-choice, conservative legislators can do is whine before the media about Kansas’s judges refusing to bend to their righteous will. The legislators met at a lodge at Lake Afton to discuss their conservative agenda for the upcoming session including no doubt how to concoct more bills to restrict as much as possible a woman’s freedom to choose.

State Senator Peggy Palmer from Augusta who attended the meeting was quoted in a recent Wichita Eagle article that most “Kansans oppose partial birth, late-term abortions.” What she and her friends do not seem to understand is that most Kansans are far more offended by the anti-choice’s strong armed and “buttinski” tactics, than being offended by a woman’s right to seek medical attention for a difficult pregnancy. Kansans are realists and understand not every pregnancy can be carried to term.

A new day has dawned in Kansas and the conservatives seem unwillingly to acknowledge this important shift towards progressive politics among Kansans. Conservative legislators and anti-choice leaders appear astonished that the Kansas judicial system refuses to be manipulated by agenda driven ideologues. Someone should clue them in that Phill Kline is the poster boy for slimy politicians using their public office to push their anti-choice politics. The conservatives are dangerously out of touch with a growing number of voters in Kansas who are disgusted with this sort of nonsense.

By golly what’s a religious fanatic to do when bullying public officials, filing nuisance lawsuits, and claiming that a few thousand signatures on a petition is a mandate to take the state back to the Dark Ages with a grand inquisitor, and it’s just not getting any traction?

And speaking of nuisance lawsuits, Mark Gietzen is certainly not going to win a place in heaven for his disingenuous statement that he is bringing a lawsuit against Dr. Tiller to “protect other protesters.” This man’s nose must be growing longer than Pinocchio’s! Here’s a free legal tip Mr.Gietzen: jumping in front of someone’s car does not give you the right to seek damages from the driver.

As for the other protesters who routinely block the entrance to the Clinic, the situation has long been an accident waiting to happen. (If I were driving a car I would hit the accelerator instead of braking for the protesters who use that moment to pounce on the car or shove their pamphlets in the window.) Wichita has refused to acknowledge this potentially dangerous situation because city leaders have been an anti-choice conclave for decades. Protesters have been allowed to hold their wild partying, baby-stepping shenanigans in front of the Clinic with impunity and block the entrance (once the police leave) for years! So much for the city upholding the law known as the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act.

For readers who do not realize just what takes place in front of Dr.Tiller’s Clinic, allow me to explain. The best comparison to be made is with the Phelps family. Yes, the infamous Phelps family who protest at funerals of fallen soldiers. Just as the Phelps should be prevented from interfering and violating another family’s right to grieve privately for their child, anti-choice protesters should also be prevented from interfering and violating a woman’s privacy to enter a clinic. The city should move the protesters further away from the Clinic to avoid the harassment and screaming loonies that confront these women who have every right to seek medical services. They have the power under FACE to create a bubble zone around the Clinic to allow women the freedom to safely enter but of course, the city has failed to apply this protection to Dr. Tiller’s Clinic.

Protesting at funerals may be curbed due to a bill passed last session in the Kansas Legislature if it survives a fight in the courts. Of course, no lawsuit or bills in the Kansas Legislature will be forthcoming to ensure women the same dignity to attend to their own medical needs without facing ugly protesters.
In Wichita, the anti-choice protesters will once again occupy the narrow strip in front of Dr. Tiller’s clinic and do everything in their power to annoy, harass, bully and be visible with their crosses, graphic fetus signs, loud music and other tactics to make a mockery of a woman’s constitutional right to privacy. The difference is more and more Kansans are no longer sympathetic to these perverted protests and want the long war against women who seek abortion services to end.

Vickie Sandell Stangl