The Maggot Punks are unapologetic. They are twenty-ish.  They are outspoken atheists. In fact, they'll sell you one of their tee-shirts that says All American Atheist 

And they are using their spare time to expose and undermine and cajole the religious right that thinks it can turn Kansas into the only state where people did not evolve and that sees Wichita as its fertile ground zero.

"We are a city under siege," a retired school teacher told me, describing how Operation Rescue West tried to disrupt a peace protest with its huge expensive trucks carrying anti-abortion images and blaring amplification systems.   Operation Rescue West is a nasty religious right anti-abortion organization that engages in intimidation and harassment tactics.  

Headed by Troy Newman, ORW is a break-off group and now a distinct entity from Randall Terry's Operation Rescue. It relocated fulltime in Wichita, where it has the apparent support of the mayor.  On its website, OWR brags about hounding Wichita citizens who work at an abortion clinic by protesting outside their homes.  Clinic workers report being followed in their cars, harassed endlessly by telephone, and finding inexplicable car and property damage.  In August, ORW drove their trucks to the funeral of a pro-choice woman and member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice who died of cancer.

They showed up outside our performance of Words of Choice at a Unitarian Universalist church, too, and videotaping everyone who entered.  These tactics masked the minimal people-support.

The Maggot Punks are fighting back. Irreverent to the max, they refer to the opposition as "fanatical fundy freaks." The Maggot Punks got their name and start when Operation Save America called for people to swarm Wichita abortion clinics in 2001, says D-cubed.  He and others served as escorts at clinics and they raced to help people trapped by the anti-abortion crowd.    

About 3/4 of the way some guy said "you're all a bunch of little maggot punks." We all stopped and looked at each other. We had never heard the term "maggot punks" before (and we've been called a whole lot worse than that). We liked it, so we kept it.

We have also been called "Christ haters", "baby butchers", "demonically possessed homosexuals", "assholes", "the goon squad" (which almost became our name), "pro-abort deathscorts", and "minions of the devil that use logic to trick people into renouncing god".

Whatever label the FFF's want to give us, we will gleefully accept. We wear their insults as badges of honor.

The principals work 'real jobs' full-time, but that hasn't stopped them from researching and producing a publication exposing Operation Rescue West.  They link it to a more benign-sounding organization, Youth Missionaries, Inc. They delivered information about seeming money manipulation to the IRS.  They've gotten ORW a bad rating with the Better Business Bureau and have helped the local media to focus on the fringe nature of ORW activities.  A media comparison of ORW activities to those of the anti-gay Kansas native, Fred Phelps, apparently infuriated ORW, said D-cubed.  Phelps gained fame with "God Hates Fags" by picketing the funeral of the murdered Matthew Shepard.  ORW fumed, D-cubed wrote me, "because they think their protests of funerals are somehow different than Phelps' protests of funerals."

The MP take -- and post on the web -- photographs of the opposition. "The reason we do this is because if another terrorist attack would happen then the police would have the information on who was present and contact information about them," said D-cubed.  

Wichita has long been a target for the anti-abortion crowd.  It is also a lifesaver for women across the country.

One of the nation's most remarkable and capable doctors, Dr. George Tiller runs the Women's Health Care Services there.  He is able to care for women throughout the nation who have serious health issues and pregnancy complications.  And he believes that decisions about pregnancy are for women to make and that doctors serve their patients.   "Women and Families are intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and ethically competent to struggle with complex health issues -- including abortion -- and come to decisions that are appropriate for themselves," Dr. Tiller says.

In 1991, Wichita was overwhelmed by anti-abortion protestors.  In 1993, Dr. Tiller was shot in the arm by Shelly Shannon, a follower of The Army of God.  Despite this, the burning of his clinic and constant harassment, Dr. Tiller courageously continues to help women.  In 2001, he declared Women's Health Care Services to be an "outpost for freedom," and raised the American flag to a Declaration of Reproductive Independence.

He said:

This flag reminds us that we must refocus and rededicate ourselves to the proposition that all freedom and all equality for women begins with reproductive freedom. Make no mistake, this battle is about self-determination by women of the direction and course of their lives.

Inventive techniques are the forte of Maggot Punks. They use humor. They maximize the web. They go undercover.  In one situation, they taped and exposed the deceptive comments at a religious-right anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy" center.

They don't just focus on abortion, either.  They reported an illegal dumpsite, passed out pro-science pamphets at a creationist event, and counter-protested against Phelps.  They distributed posters calling for the Army of God to be treated as a terrorist organization, sharing them with an extended network in Colorado and Missouri.  They run on their own funds and small donations (which can be made on their website).

Progressive people in Wichita speak so gratefully of MP, as of fresh air and hope in a polluted environment.

"While Operation Rescue talks rhetoric, they actually back up their words with action and that's why they and so many conservative are making so many gains," said D-cubed.  "I feel we are one of the few organizations actually going on the offensive against these right-wing theocratic organizations."

Bravo! Maggot Punks should be a franchise.  They are certainly an inspiration for what activists everywhere can do right on their home turf.