The numbers have evened up a little bit from the peak, where there were around 80 anti-abortion protesters, and 35 clinic defenders. Defense has gone up a few more people, and gotten more organized, and the religious bigots have declined somewhat.
The main difference is that the antis have been bringing in carloads of people to replace the ones who are leaving.
Most of the tension has been focused on repelling the antis who try to break the line of defense, to get face-to-face access to people visiting the clinic. At one point an anti, whom one activist characterized as "a minuteman" and a clinic defender almost got into a fight.
On the streets, the defense performed heroically against tough odds. Logistically, however, they were challenged by a larger, well organized, and probably well-funded coalition of right-wing groups attempting to mobilize the evangelical grassroots.
And, if not well funded by the theocratic elements of the right wing, then, personally well funded. By and large, many of these antis were middle class and upper-middle class right-wingers, with nice cars, smartphones, HD video recorders, and expensive-looking hairdos. They were diverse, however, with many Latinos attending and protesting, and some Asians. See below for details.
The Clinic Defense:
http://40days4choice.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL0NcpRsAvg http://tweetmeme.com/story/175486422/feminists-for-choice-%C2%BB-facebook-group-to-organize-40-days-for-choice http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=141928699336 http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_PAC.pdf The Antis:
http://www.40daysforlife.com Their organizing guide:
http://www.40daysforlife.com/docs/40daysforlife.pdf This movement's board comprises anti-abortion-rights veterans:
James Olson, board chair, teaches intelligence and national securiyt at the George Bush School of Government and Public Services at Texas A&M
Carmen Pate, board secretary, co-host of Point of View, and anti-gay, right wing radio show.
http://www.pointofview.net/site/PageServer Shawn Carney, board treasurer, ED Coalition for Life. Host of EWTN (Eternal World Television Network
http://ewtn.com ) show Being Human.
Amber Dolle, board member, anti-Planned-Parenthood activist, former media director of the American Life League, Catholic pro-life group.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/american-life-league James Barney Phillips, board member, retired industrial and energy executive with Exxon, El Paso, Tenenco, Champion Chemicals (Imperial Oil Co.), and Koch.