It's so bittersweet. You work tirelessly for years and years and years in pursuit of a single goal, and then when you finally achieve it, you face a really odd situation. You're super proud for having realized your goal, but you're also kind of adrift, purposeless.

That's pretty much what the anti-abortion protesters in Kansas must be experiencing right now…

For the first time in years, only a Wichita police car has been waiting outside the abortion clinic of Dr. George R. Tiller, who was shot to death a week ago. Gone are the trucks bearing enormous images of bloody fetuses, the signs offering the home addresses of clinic workers, the crowd of protesters yelling to women as they enter…

Over almost 20 years, a vocal, diverse constellation of anti-abortion forces has grown up in this conservative city with an intensity rarely seen elsewhere, converging around Dr. Tiller’s practice. With his death, its future suddenly seems uncertain, too.

"I don't know what the future holds," said Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue, one of the most well-known anti-abortion organizations. Seven years ago, Mr. Newman moved his organization's national headquarters, its leaders and his family from Southern California to Wichita to focus a national spotlight on Dr. Tiller, whom he described as "the flagship" of the country's abortion business.

"I think it's too early to say what comes next," he said.

Yeah, who can really say what comes next? Will they find another abortion doctor to harrass continuously? And will they ultimately murder that doctor or perhaps just torture him until he can't remember his name? Will they just begin randomly snipering women as they walk out of planned parenthood facilities?

Or maybe — just maybe — they'll pray so hard and so seriously that they'll be able to coax Jesus down from His Kingdom in Heaven, and he'll pull out his semi-automatic and lead the charge against the agents of evil, the godless and the everyone else who contributed money to Democratic campaigns.

It's just too early to say what comes next.