July 13, 2001 - Anti-abortion activists were furious with Attorney General John Ashcroft's decision to provide U.S. Marshals to protect abortion clinics during a reprise of the 1991 "summer of mercy" protests, which begin Saturday in Wichita, Kansas.

"It takes a village to kill a child," said the Rev. Flip Benham, director of Operation Save America, which is coordinating the protests. "What we're seeing is the federal marshals, the government, hospitals all covering up for the abortionists and botched abortions.

"The churches are remaining silent. ... The whole nation is guilty and this is further evidence."

Ashcroft on Thursday directed the U.S. Marshals Service to come up with a plan to help Wichita police provide security during a week of demonstrations. The original protests resulted in 2,700 arrests. Hundreds of people are expected in Wichita for the 10-year anniversary.

Ashcroft's announcement followed complaints from abortion rights groups that the attorney general, who opposes abortion, wasn't doing enough to protect clinics from violence. A 1994 federal law prohibits anyone from blocking entrances or damaging clinics.

"This administration needs to send a clear signal that violence will not be tolerated and terrorists will be brought to justice and that signal must be sent now," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. During a news conference Thursday, Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams said his officers would be ready to make arrests if any laws are violated during the protests, which are scheduled through July 21.

Marshals are also providing door-to-door protection at the abortion clinic of Dr. George Tiller, who has been a target of protests for the past decade and was shot five times by an anti-abortion activist in 1993. Williams said barriers and fences would be put up around Tiller's clinic in east Wichita, and people are being asked to stay behind the barriers.

Tiller is one of the few doctors in the country who performs late-term abortions.

Wichita denied Operation Save America's request for a permit to hold two- hour parades twice a day around Tiller's clinic.

"Clearly, if they're having a parade that keeps going around for two hours at a time, it's going to interfere with the clinic," city spokesman Mike Taylor said Thursday.

Interfering with a company's ability to do business is one of the criteria that can be used to deny a parade permit, Taylor said. And the parades would also have violated the federal law guaranteeing access to clinic.

Donna Lippoldt, Wichita director of Operation Save America, said Thursday evening that she wasn't sure what, if anything, the organization's lawyers may do in response to the city's denial of the permits.

The group did receive a permit to hold a parade in downtown Wichita on Monday. [ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,29459,00.html ]