73-year-old, blind protester arrested in scuffle outside abortion clinic

An abortion protester was arrested on suspicion of battery of a security guard following a dispute over a sign outside the South Wind Women’s Center on Wednesday.

David Schmidt, 73, who is blind and who waves an anti-abortion sign outside the clinic three days a week, was arrested after a clinic guard came onto the public property where he was protesting with another man and took a sign that Schmidt had leaned against a lawn chair, said Mark Gietzen, president of the Kansas Coalition for Life and the organizer of daily protests at the South Wind clinic.

“I spent all day yesterday getting David out of jail,” Gietzen said. He said Schmidt faces an Aug. 3 court hearing.

Gietzen said Schmidt had briefed him on what happened, but that Schmidt would not personally make a public comment on the case on the advice of his lawyer.

Julie Burkhart, founder and chief executive of the clinic, confirmed that the guard had gone out to take the sign, which she said was being displayed unlawfully.

“It was improperly posted,” she said. “They continue to violate city ordinance and they’re supposed to hold their signs.”

According to the police incident report, the guard, John Rayburn, accused Schmidt of “pushing him down during an argument in front of (the clinic) property.”

Gietzen scoffed at that. He acknowledged that Schmidt had tried to hold on to the sign and jostled with Rayburn over it, but he said Schmidt isn’t capable of knocking over the security guard.

“That would be like a mouse tackling a dog,” Gietzen said.

Burkhart said she didn’t see the incident herself, but the clinic had security camera coverage and has turned the video over to police.

“I know that our security guard was assaulted by a protester and the police felt that it was appropriate to arrest the person who assaulted him,” Burkhart said.

Gietzen said Schmidt’s protest partner, local Republican activist Joe Elmore, called police seeking to get the sign back from the clinic guard. The protesters still haven’t gotten the sign, Gietzen said.

Wednesday’s protest was part of Kansas Coalition for Life’s daily effort to dissuade women from having abortions at the clinic. That effort is separate from the week of anti-abortion activities beginning Saturday under the auspices of the Texas-based group Operation Save America.

Operation Save America members are in town to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the “Summer of Mercy,” a 46-day anti-abortion demonstration that resulted in about 2,700 arrests. Operation Save America is a successor organization to the original Operation Rescue, which led the 1991 protests.

While the daily protesters are part of a separate organization, city preparations for the Operation Save America event may have helped lead to Wednesday’s confrontation outside South Wind.

In anticipation of the Operation Save America event, the city closed off parking across the street from the clinic where Kansas Coalition for Life usually parks its “Truth Truck,” a traveling anti-abortion billboard.

Geitzen said the morning protesters passed their sign, a 3-foot-by-5-foot picture of a baby with the word “Life” on it, to Schmidt and Elmore at the shift change.

Schmidt brings his own sign that was drawn by his granddaughter and ordinarily, the afternoon crew would have put the other sign in the truck, Gietzen said.

But Gietzen said the truck was parked about 1,000 feet away, that Elmore was busy and that Schmidt couldn’t see well enough to take the sign to it.

It was not immediately clear whether the elimination of parking will be permanent or just for the duration of the expected large-scale protest around the clinic next week.

This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 6:57 PM with the headline "73-year-old, blind protester arrested in scuffle outside abortion clinic."