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5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 The Struggle for Choice in the Midwest Dec 27, 2005
By Marilynn L. Ault
"advocate"
Peggy Bowman's telling of the frightening events in Wichita, Ks are riveting. At the time of the scary summer described in this book I was reading newspaper stories and hearing accounts of the struggles down the road from where I lived in Topeka. I had been involved with a group who worked to get pro choice legislation passed and had hoped that passage would make the difficult choice to get abortions much easier, safer,and private. How naive I was! A carload of us went to the rally in Wichita that Peggy describes and were heartened by the huge turnout of like-minded folks. Peggy's account of the courage of the patients, the staff and volunteers is marvelous. "Fetus Fanatics" is so timely in our current political milieu. Great read!
6 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Too Many "Babysteps" For Operation Rescue (Men) - One Giant "Bleep" For Womankind..... Jan 22, 2006
By An Aging Amazon
"Annette"
Throughout the careening hysteria that informed much of the so-called "anti-abortion" movement from 1985-1995, many of my peers were shocked and disbelieving when acts of arson, harassment, bombings, blockades and, ultimately, murder were its hallmarks of infamy. I, too, was horrified - but I was not surprised. I grew up in small-town Kansas - 150 miles from Wichita - and I witnessed first-hand the febrile and frenzied behavior that erupted in abundance after January 22, 1973.
Yet no city has ever been waylaid by the self-righteous as badly as was Wichita, Kansas during the scorching summer of 1991. Operation Rescue, a militant and manipulative cabal of fundamentalist Christians founded by former used-car salesman Randall Terry, galvanized teeming throngs of the religiously assured. Blockading the city's three abortion clinics, picketing and harassing the homes of clinic employees, plunging sharp objects into police horses, backing policemen against the wall, babystepping their way into police vans, screaming vile epithets at non-receptive and terrified patients, using their own children as pawns in their pretend war against the heathens and unsaved, and creating havoc and resentment in their wake - OR was an eminently distasteful gang of holy warriors.
Author Peggy Bowman endured these atrocities first-hand: She was Dr. George Tiller's Vice President of Public Relations and clinic spokeswoman during that riotous summer. With unstinting candor and an anguish undimmed by the passing of nearly 15 years, she relates in detail the incessant (and often illegal) tactics employed by OR in its bid to return civilization to the dark ages.
Most ominously, however, the author conveys the complicity of then-president Bush, former mayor Bob Knight, erstwhile KS governor Joan Finney, too many Wichita clergy who initially supported and fed OR's megalomania, and a hapless and impotent police department. Anyone who naively believes former president Bush's "read my lips - no tax hikes" admonition to have been his most egregious blunder should probably re-consider.
Anyone who ignorantly doubts the misogyny, towering neuroses and outright psychosis undermining most of Operation Rescue's mindset should probably climb right off that pudendal block - and get a dose of hard-core reality.
Bowman was there, as well, when Army of God denizen Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon shot Dr. Tiller in August 1993. The courageous and gutsy physician survived, thankfully. Bowman provides several insights and warm memories of Dr. Tiller's character and personality, and this is a grateful distraction from the lunacies of the all-knowing.
Further respite is gloriously provided by Wichita Eagle cartoonist Richard Crowson. He, too, was an unwitting witness to the idiocy and horror of that long-ago summer, and his trenchant wit and savvy commentaries will bring a smile to the discerning reader.
To anyone who needs a reminder of the damage enacted by much of the "right-to-life" movement throughout the years, this is the book for you. For anyone - be they post-abortive or not - who harbors an overwhelming love for his or her own pain, read this book and realize that this sort of behavior probably shouldn't be encouraged.
To Randall Terry, long-disgraced and cast out of favor by his former "brothers in Christ" - read this remarkable book and realize you were wholly unsuccessful in sending women back to coat hangers and back-alley butchers. Humility is a virtue, as Jesus often conveyed. So is the recognition of one's abject failures. Bowman does an excellent job of outlining them.
5 of 8 found the following review helpful:
The Summer of Unmercy Dec 23, 2005
By Diane D. Wahto
"Lover of Detective Stories"
For those of us who were active in the Wichita, Kansas, pro-choice movement during the Operation Rescue Siege of Wichita in the summer of 1991, reading Fetus Fanatics: Memoir: When Government Collaborates With Anti-Choice Zealots brings back the chaos and upheaval of that time with full emotional force. Peggy Bowman calls her book a memoir, which is apt, as the events and facts of that summer are filtered through her eyes. While others who were active in the battle against the anti-choice onslaught that took over the city may have differing perspectives, Bowman's account covers the important highlights of that summer. She also includes timelines, maps, and transcripts of court decisions to help readers keep track of the geography and chronology of events.
Bowman succeeds in conveying the frustration of those working in the three clinics in Wichita at the time of the siege, as well as the determination of the staff to keep those clinics open. What is most telling is that the patients would not buckle under to the antis' bullying. Patients worked with clinic staff and support volunteers to gain access to the clinics, particularly Dr. George Tiller's clinic, in order to keep appointments and get the services they wanted. This, despite the meddling of the Wichita mayor, Bob Knight, and city council members, notably Frank Ojile, who welcomed the antis to town and to their potential disruption of clinic business. Bowman recounts the efforts not only of local politicians, but also of those on the national level, to aid and abet the antis in their disruptive tactics in the city. Bowman points out more than once that she had to keep reminding herself of what woman went through to get abortions before they were legalized by Roe v. Wade in 1973.
Several details mark the events of those weeks of siege. The Wichita police tried to keep order, but after one day of clearing away protestors from the gates of Women's Health Care Service so that patients could come in, officers were given orders by city officials to go easy on protestors. When police tried to control the crowd from horseback, they discovered that the "peaceful" antis were tormenting the horses by sticking knives into them. U. S. marshals were on hand, but under orders from the George W. Bush White House, were unable to do much but stand by. Even Judge Patrick Kelly, generally considered a pro-choice hero at the time, was inconsistent in applying his court orders against the protestors.
Many of the anti-choice protestors came from out of state. As the protests continued, many pro-choice activists, also from out of state, came to town to get in on the act. As often happens, these caused conflicts over strategy among pro-choice activists, as Bowman points out.
While the legal issues relating to this siege are complicated, Bowman's explanation of these legalities is clear and focused. It is helpful that she has updated the political fallout from the summer of 1991 to current times. Addendum 3, "A Paradigm Shift," outlines a course of action based on people's poll responses that supposedly would bring the pro-choice position back to the centrist position it once was. While Bowman puts forward some common sense proposals, she seems to overlook the fact that the people in power now are not interested in applying common sense to the reproductive rights debate; they are interested only in forcing their views on everybody else. For example, when Sen. Sam Brownback says he is running for president in 2008 in order to restore a sense of "decency" to the country, we all know he's talking about making abortion illegal. The off-the-wall protestors of 1991 are now the people making policies in the state of Kansas and in the country. Until these people lose power, common sense approaches are nothing more than rhetoric.
On the whole, though, this memoir makes for interesting and informative reading, both for those of us who were there and for those who need a reminder of how a rabid minority supported by anti-choice politicians can bring a city to its knees.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Good Insight into the ProAbortion Side Jun 13, 2007
By Stuart Bensch
FETUS FANATICS is a surprisingly good book.
As a Pro-Life activist, I wanted to know the proabortion perspective of the massive "Summer of Mercy" protests in July and August 1991... the "Siege of Wichita" as the proabortion side calls it. And who better to tell the story than the woman who "took the heat" for abortionist George Tiller. While Tiller hid in his vehicle or in his clinic, Peggy Jarman (now Peggy Bowman) talked to the media, stood at the gates, and tried to keep proabortion protesters organized.
This book is Jarman's memoirs... her experiences, triumphs, and failures in 1991... and thus the book is a bit disjointed. Not surprisingly, Jarman is candid about her frustration with us (the Pro-Life activists.) But she is also unusually candid about her frustration with the Wichita Police, Tiller's lawyers, and even proabortion organizations such as NOW.
The last third of her book veers into a weird realm of "new language for pro-choice America"... but it's hard to repackage the killing of babies to make it "new". I must admit I didn't read the last third of the book.
In 1998, after years of loyal service to Tiller, he fired Jarman. Tiller threw her away like yesterday's garbage. Such is the grateful heart of "Doctor" Tiller. Jarman seems to have taken this gracefully and only mentions this in one paragraph of her book.
If you're looking for tired old proabortion slogans and the same old proabortion rant, you can look somewhere else. There are plenty of books that will feed you that... I've bought a few and promptly threw them away. But not this book.
Overall, this book is well worth reading and provides some candid insight.
Stuart Bensch
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 sad Feb 09, 2006
By Amanda Davis
"fan of the written word"
how sad you all are, of all the things in the world to celebrate
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