WICHITA, KAN. — Shortly after the family of slain physician George Tiller announced Tuesday that his abortion clinic would be shuttered forever, the police cruiser that had been a fixture in the clinic's driveway was gone.
The gate was open, the parking lot empty and someone had hung a large red-and-white banner inside the clinic's perimeter fence: "Wichita Stands with Dr. Tiller. 35 Years of Saving Women's Lives."
Here, on a freeway frontage road, ground zero of the abortion wars for nearly three decades, there was, it seemed, nothing left to fight over.
Now the national conversation over legalized abortion has shifted away from Women's Health Care Services, the beige one-story building where Tiller practiced -- as one of only a handful of physicians in the country who performed late-term abortions.
Many Wichitans -- even those who have dedicated their lives to the issue -- say they have wearied of the abortion wars that had been fought continuously on their doorstep until Tiller was gunned down in his church lobby May 31.
"It's called 'abortion fatigue,' " said Troy Newman, president of the Wichita-based antiabortion group Operation Rescue. After Tiller was killed, Newman said, "I couldn't sleep for the first two days, then for the next three I didn't want to get out of bed."
The head of a political action committee founded by Tiller has seen the emotional fatigue as well. "There is that level of people wanting to tune it all out and not having to deal with it," said Julie Burkhart, director of the group, ProKanDo. Burkhart, who said she was devastated by Tiller's death, added, "I can't blame them."
Still, the fight continues.
Abortion foes, energized by a Gallup poll last month that found a slim majority of Americans identified themselves as "pro-life" for the first time since 1995, and worried that the Obama administration will make abortion access part of healthcare reform, are on the defensive.
They should not be blamed for Tiller's slaying, they say, despite years of heated rhetoric that branded Tiller a "baby-killer." They will not be silenced, they say.
Nor will they allow increased federal law enforcement attention to the issue of violence against abortion providers result in what Newman called "a witch hunt" against abortion opponents.
