Ailing Sheehan says she’ll keep up protest

Peace mom Cindy Sheehan spent the night in a hospital for a gynecological procedure and treatment of dehydration but said Saturday that wouldn't stop her protest against the Iraq war on land she bought near President Bush's Crawford ranch.

Sheehan was listed in stable condition at Providence Health Center in Waco, about 20 miles east of Crawford.

She said she could be released later in the day but probably would miss an afternoon barbecue at Camp Casey, the protesters' campsite named for her soldier son who was killed in Iraq in 2004.

"Everything will still go on," Sheehan, 49, told The Associated Press. "I hope I can get there soon."

The anti-war demonstration is to continue through Sept. 3, although Bush's 10-day ranch vacation is to end Sunday.

Sheehan returned to Texas on Friday after a few days in Seattle at the Veterans for Peace convention. She planned to resume the war protest she started Aug. 6, the first anniversary of the beginning of her 26-day peace vigil that drew thousands of anti-war demonstrators and spurred counter demonstrations by Bush supporters.

Instead, friends took her from the airport to the hospital. After being on a liquid diet as part of the nationwide "Troops Home Fast" hunger strike, Sheehan had been treated at a Seattle emergency room Thursday, and ate for the first time in about 37 days, said her spokeswoman Tiffany Burns.

Doctors in Waco stopped uterine bleeding, gave her a blood transfusion and planned a biopsy, she said. Sheehan was dehydrated again Friday, but said it was probably from the bleeding.

Sheehan paid for a 5-acre lot about 7 miles from Bush's ranch last month so protesters would have a place to gather while the president is at his ranch. Last year, she started out camped in ditches along the road leading to Bush's ranch, until county officials banned roadside parking and camping. A sympathetic landowner then let the group gather on his 1-acre lot near the ranch.