The following is en excerpt from my
yet to be published book, How a Radical,
Left-wing Journalist Survived the Bible Belt, by Steve Otto
By Steve Otto
It was about 1991 that the abortion wars started to heat
up in Wichita . The Anti-abortion crowd was made up
of cult-like religious people. The way they talked everything was in "us
vs. them" and it was the Christians vs. Satan. We were all considered
Satanists. Most of us were atheists. But they considered all of us to be
"dupes of Satan."
The anti (short for anti-abortionists) crowd, as we
called them, wanted to make abortion completely illegal and they wanted to put
Dr. George Tiller (an abortion doctor who performed late term abortions) on
trial and executed as a war criminal for performing abortions.
During the 1990s I took part in pro-abortion protests and
political actions, which included protecting abortion clinics against the
anti-abortion movement and its followers. The antis (a name we gave them for
short) tried every thing they could to either
shut down abortion clinics or deter women from coming in to seek
abortions.
Linda Stoner was an active member of the pro-abortion groups
that I also belonged to, which included the Freedom of Choice Action League
(FOCAL) and later after that group collapsed we both belong to ZAP.
Stoner told me that she got into clinic support during the
Summer of Mercy? At the time, Peggy
Jarman, head of Pro-Choice
Action League (PCAL), needed volunteers.
"I liked her," Stoner said . "She was an
inspiration for equal rights."
But Stoner's interest in the abortion issue started way
before that.
" I started getting involved in the abortion issue in (Wichita ) High School
(North)," She said. "I wrote a bill for our government class. It was
about abortion, to make it legal."
She told me it was a difficult assignment because her school
library had little printed information on the abortion issue. a few pieces in it, a newspaper article and a
pamphlet," Stoner said. "I then went to the Wichita Public
Library."
At that early age, she said she had already made up her mind
were she stood on the abortion issue.
"I knew a woman should be able to control her body and
not by a man or society," Stoner added.
Other members of her family also supported abortion rights,
including her father, L. D. Diamond.
"My dad was into equal rights," Stoner said.
She added that her dad used to let her help in his service
station garage. Stoner used to check oil and transmission fluids. Her dad told
her she was just as good a worker as any man could be.
When the Summer of Mercy started, women's organizations such
as PCAL mostly wanted to let the police handle the protests. As time went on it
became clear that local women's groups needed to put up their own defenses to
the abortion clinics.
Later she worked with the FOCAL.
FOCAL was founded to put up a more active defense against
the anti-abortion activists. The antis tried to block driveways, they tried to
get women to come to their "alternative" clinics" for prenatal
care. They tried to scare them or guilt them with such shouts as "you're
going to kill your baby." They tried to get the women to take their
propaganda literature.
They also harassed doctors and staff members. They followed
them, photographed them and tried to shame them in front of their neighbors,
friends and family.
In short they tried everything they could to chase women off
of the clinics. There were three clinics at the time FOCAL started and the
group mostly defended a clinic on Market
Street and Seventh Street in Wichita .
The owner of the Market clinic allowed FOCAL members to use
any kind of tactics they felt were justified. We also used cameras and photos
to make lists of who they were regulars at the clinic. We were allowed by the
owners to use cuss words and language that made the antis feel uncomfortable
there. It was not uncommon to have visits by nuns and other clergy.
"I met Pat and Liz (Eytchison) at Market (now shut
down)," Stoner said. "I learned a lot from them, 'about standing up
for what you believe in.' He taught us how to stand up to the cops."
The Eytchisons were head of FOCAL at that time.
"We had names for the regulars at the clinic,"
Stoner said. "For example we called their camera person 'Lens Man. '
Eventually we found his name and put it on a poster (with other names). They
didn't like that when we did it to them."
Other tactics included escorting the women from their cars
to the clinic.
"We surrounded the women to prevent the antis from
getting at them," Stoner said.
"We encountered nuns on the sidewalk," she added.
"They photographed our license plates. Later we put their names, addresses
and phone numbers on a poster board so people could see it. They didn't like it
when we did it to them."
After a few years there were some internal problems with
FOCAL, so the group shut down and a new group, ZAP was formed. The letters
didn't stand for anything. ZAP was a fast action group that could set up
activities on a moments notice. There was no leaders or elected officials.
Everything was done with consensus.
Stoner said she thinks the term "pro-life" is a
misnomer.
"I'm a little confused about the pro-life philosophy,"
She added. "A faction says it is OK to kill abortion providers—to kill
clinic workers or anyone who helps with abortion providers in any way. They have
a problem with ending a pregnancy—to them it is
murder.
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