– My father died in 2007. I really wish he had experienced this. Mark Gietzen’s voice breaks. He has to wipe tears with the back of his hand. Mark has grown up with parents who fought against abortion. The 97-year-old mother is still ready for the day. – I have nine brothers and five sisters. We are all happy now. Our prayers are heard. A bloody fetus and a phone number Mark Gietzen is outside the abortion clinic Trust Women. It’s the only one left here in Wichita right now. It is a city the size of Trondheim located in Kansas approximately in the middle of the United States. He shows me the van that is almost always parked here. The car is wallpapered with a large picture of what is supposed to be a bloody fetus without a head. “Abortion is an act of violence” it says above the picture. Below is a telephone number. – Women who come here to have an abortion can call me. I try to get them to change their minds, we also help them with money and the support they need, says Gietzen. He says he has spent more than half a million dollars on mothers who chose to carry their children. And that 250 volunteers are helping him now. – They need money for rent, electricity and childcare. Things like that. This is the only abortion clinic left in Wichita. Photo: Tove Bjørgaas / news 40 hours a week against abortion Mark Gietzen can seem like a city original where he stands with a tie with the American flag on and a red cap. But he’s nobody here in Wichita. He spends 40 hours a week leading the Kansas Coalition for Life. An organization that has led the fight against abortion here since the 1980s. His tireless efforts have probably contributed to the June 24 Supreme Court ruling that deprived American women of the right to have an abortion. Two women stop the car outside the abortion clinic in Wichita. They also hope it closes soon. Photo: Tove Bjørgaas / news “What’s wrong with Kansas” Here in Wichita, the abortion struggle has been intense for a long time. In the 1990s, the city had several abortion clinics that women came traveling from far and wide to visit. The abortion case was an important reason why several evangelical denominations established themselves here. They grew strong and created immigration. And they made the fight against abortion and homosexuality the core issues in a cultural war that changed the Republican Party for the better. Their long-term goal was clear: to fill the Supreme Court with judges who could overthrow Roe vs. Wade, the verdict that guaranteed women the right to have an abortion in the United States. To do that, they had to choose politicians who would nominate conservative judges. The demonstrations outside the Supreme Court building in Washington have been for a week and a half now. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP This story is described by author Thomas Frank in the famous book, What’s the matter with Kansas, from 2004. It became a classic among liberals in the United States and elsewhere who wanted to understand the United States while George W, Bush was president. – It says about me in that book, says Mark Gietzen. In the end, it was Donald Trump who appointed the three Supreme Court justices he and his associates had asked God to one day have a seat on America’s most powerful judicial panel. Abortion protesters demonstrate in Wichita in 2007. Photo: Larry W. Smith / AP Summer of Grace – In the summer of 1991, Christian anti-abortion activists came from all over the United States to demonstrate in front of the city’s abortion clinics. It was called the summer of grace, explains Jo Lynn Bright. The social worker sits on a bench down by the river in Wichita and writes notes in a small book. Jo Lynn Bright is deeply religious and thinks it is nice to live in the abortion fight Wichita then. Photo: Tove Bjørgaas / news – I feel that Jesus decided that I should meet you today, she says and explains that the summer of grace was a reason why she decided to move here. Jo Lynn does not have children herself, but has spent her life helping mothers in an organization called Hopenet. There are very many churches in Wichita. This will be sold and turned into a conference center Photo: Tove Bjørgaas / news Believes sex only belongs to marriage – We offer coaching and counseling for women who become unplanned pregnant. It is important to do more than protest against abortion. One must also help, she says. – I’m on the side of life. God loves children and life, and I want to make God happy in this matter. Jo Lynn believes that abortion statistics are also about “living”. – Sex is something that belongs in marriage, she says. Shot in the head during the service In 2009, the fight against abortion reached its preliminary climax in Wichita. George Tiller was a controversial abortion doctor, and many took action against his clinic in the years before he was killed in 2009. Photo: LARRY SMITH / AP The abortion doctor George Tiller had long been controversial because he performed late abortions at his clinic here. In this church, abortion doctor George Tiller was shot in 2009. There is no memorial here that the public can visit. Photo: Tove Bjørgaas On Sunday 31 May that year, he hosted the Lutheran church to which he belonged, and showed churchgoers to their seats. An activist came in and shot him in the head at close range inside the church room. – We had to calm down our activity a bit then, reminds Mark Gietzen. – Shock waves among young people – I remember it well even though I was only 11 years old at the time, says Matt Kelley (24). The journalist in the local newspaper Wichita Eagle writes a comprehensive article about the abortion history in his hometown. Matt Kelley (24) would like to be a neutral journalist in the Wichita of the abortion campaign where he grew up. Photo: Tove Bjørgaas / news – I well remember that George Tiller was killed. That day, President Obama talked about Wichita on TV, he explains. It was exciting in 2009, but it is at least as exciting now. Matt finds it difficult to try to be neutral. – It’s a bit of a time to be young in, this. I have siblings and a boyfriend. Seeing the shock waves this abortion verdict creates is violent. There have been large demonstrations here as well, he says. Angry Old Men In fact, abortion is still legal here in Kansas. Women are now coming here from the neighboring state of Missouri where it was forbidden to terminate a pregnancy at the moment the Supreme Court ruled that women in the United States have no longer protected the right to abortion. – Most young people I talk to are angry about what has happened, says Mark. In the city of Independence, close to Kansas City and just across the border from Missouri, Juliette Eclu has just made another sausage with bread at the hot dog bar Updog. Juliette Eclu finds it difficult to be a young woman in the Kansas City area now. Photo: tove Bjørgaas / news Although her hometown is called “independence”, she feels anything but independent. – Am I allowed to swear? she asks when I ask for her opinion in the abortion debate. Juliette and many other young people here are angry after the Supreme Court ruling on June 24. The same day, abortion was banned in Kansas’ neighboring state of Missouri, where she lives. Photo: Tove Bjørgaas – I’m furious. I’m so angry. It’s not fair that a bunch of old men who do not understand how it feels should sit there and decide what we can do with our bodies. Especially when we can be a matter of life and death for us women. – They call us baby killers. I’m so pissed. A Controversial Abortion Referendum It is still possible for women in Missouri and other neighboring states to drive across the border into Kansas to have an abortion, but that may be over soon. Because even before the Supreme Court created earthquakes in the United States with its ruling, the politicians in Kansas had decided that they wanted to change the constitution. “Love them both,” is the message of the anti-abortion side ahead of the referendum that will ban abortion from the Kansas Constitution. Photo: Tove Bjørgaas / news On 2 August, a referendum will be held to change the constitution here, so that it clearly states that women should not have the right to terminate the pregnancy. The state becomes the first in the United States to address abortion rights in a referendum. In many places in Kansas one can see purple campaign posters in the gardens of the people. “Love them both,” the posters say. It means: Love both the pregnant mother and her unborn child. Discrimination against everyone with a uterus, says Margie, who will vote no in the referendum. Photo: Tove Bjørgaas / news Margie Al-Duell does not like the message. She will vote no to the constitutional amendment. – It is deeply discriminatory against all of us who have a uterus. Abortion is a health service. Women must be given the chance to protect their bodies. Changing the constitution is far too drastic.
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The US abortion capital is waiting for a referendum – Urix
