They Shoot Doctors, Don't They? ACTION UPDATE 4 PM EDT
Please don't ask me to write a history of violence against doctors and clinics who provide reproductive medical care to women.
If you are at all aware, if you have read a newspaper in the past 25 years, you know. You just know.
The Wichita Eagle has a full page of reaction to Dr. George Tiller's murder on its front page. Last night, mourners turned out to hold a vigil for Dr. Tiller. As usual, those who like to dance on others' graves also turned out, with their hateful signs. These signs were similar to the hateful twitter messages that ChangeAgent has so masterfully documented over at her blog.
When President Obama said that he wanted to meet in the middle on the abortion issue a few weeks ago, I wrote then that I felt as if he had just thrown women under the bus. There is no middle with anti-abortion extremists. They are not interested in meeting in the middle. They are only interested in one thing: eradicating all abortion, all access to abortion. In many cases, they want to eliminate access to certain forms of birth control, (some--all forms of birth control), and, if they can't get what they want by legal means, they practice terrorism.
Thus, yesterday was inevitable.
The anti-abortion violence of the 1980's and 1990's, when clinics and OB-GYNs were slaughtered--some in their own homes, as Dr. Slepian was, were horrible times. They have left us now, with the experience of going to Planned Parenthood and having to pass through metal detectors and bullet proof glass. If you are going into a clinic where abortions are performed, you have to pass by people who feel it is their job to judge you, no matter why you might be going to the clinic.
These people have no compassion. You may be having to go in for a D&C because your fetus has died inside you--you're still a babykiller in their eyes. You may be the victim of rape. Babykiller. You may simply be too young, or too poor, or not able to care for a child--you're a babykiller.
Funny, but I don't see those same people outside urologists' offices screaming at men that getting a vasectomy constitutes being a sperm-killer or a potential baby killer.
I wish I could write something eloquent, something full of compassion for those who oppose abortion so violently and ask, "can't we all get along?"
But I don't have that in me today.
I am mourning Dr. Tiller. I am mourning the women who decided today that they are too frightened to take care of their medical needs. I am mourning the areas of the country that will lose access to adequate medical care for women. I am mourning the messages that are being sent out--once again--to women that their bodies don't matter. The only thing that counts about a woman's body is that she can produce babies. And if she wants to not produce babies, well, if we can't stop you legally, we'll close the clinics, kill the doctors, tighten the noose so that you will have to travel thousands of miles to find help.
I grieve. Please don't ask me to be rational or make sense.
I grieve. And I'm angry.
I grieve, but I will not hurt someone in return.
I grieve, but you will not silence me.
I will grieve, and then I will do whatever I can to fight for reproductive rights.
I repeat the pledge I made a few weeks ago: I will purchase Plan B contraception for any woman who needs it.
To the hate-mongers on television who equate abortion with murder: you condoned this, you encourage those who are unhinged to carry out your dirty work. You should be held accountable. I will not hurt you with violence. But I will write to your advertisers, and I will encourage those who advertise with you, to withdraw their advertising or ask them why they support terrorist sympathizers.
For this is what this is. Terrorism. Plain and Simple. Not done by "foreigners." But by "Americans."
There is no excuse for it. None.
And we will fight you. Peacefully. But relentlessly. We will not go back to the days of coat hangers and illegal abortions. We will not sneak around to maintain sovereignty OVER OUR OWN BODIES.
We are here. We are not going away. And you will not frighten us.
UPDATE:
Shivaun sent me this incredibly important update. For those of you (us) who are enraged, and who think that sitting a candle-light vigil is not enough, there is something you can do.
The National Network of Abortion Funds has established a fund in honor Dr. George Tiller. Proceeds raised will be used to aid women travel to clinics to have their medical needs taken care of.
From the site:
The Network has also received many requests from women who received care from Dr. Tiller and from activists in the reproductive rights and justice community to set up a Fund in Dr. Tiller’s name to help women seeking abortion care. We have established the George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund that will help women in the second trimester with assistance paying for abortion care, as well as paying for travel and lodging enroute to providers. To donate to the Fund in Dr. Tiller’s name, please send contributions to:
George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund
C/o National Network of Abortion Funds
42 Seaverns Ave.
Boston, MA 02130
If you would prefer to donate ONLINE, here is the form:
Online Donation Form. I can think of nothing better, at this point, than raising a lot of money for women in their second trimester who are in need of abortion care. It's one way of sending a message to those who are responsible for Dr. Tiller's death that our work continues. We will not be stopped.
More action you can take, this time suggested by ChangeAgent:
Petition to hold O'Reilly accountable for the 28 times he assailed Dr. Tiller as Tiller the Killer:
Hold O'Reilly Accountable
Donate to Medical students for choice:
MSC
More on Medical Students for Choice
P.S. I bought the coolest t-shirt from Medical Students for Choice last summer: it's a rhinestone uterus on a black background. It NEVER fails to get comments.
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Steve Katz
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Comments
Instead of murdering doctors and terrorizing healthcare workers and potential patients, why don't these anti-abortion choosers put their money where their mouths are and each adopt half a dozen children from foster care? I'm sure that some of their spokespeople are moneyed enough to be able to provide truly prodigious benefits to a child in need.
I stand in solidarity with you, FLW, and with all women who have been oppressed far too long simply because of the gender of the body they were born into.
Someone has to stop this madness.
One of the tags to my latest blog post speaks directly to this:
http://open.salon.com/blog/markinjapan/2009/06/01/the_eve_of_destruction_now_and_then
AND (rated, of course)
I feel out of words today.
My current experience is the 90 second memory the anti-abortion people have when women were arrested for murder if they sought a back alley coat hangar abortion and wound up in the hospital. I remember sometime during the first couple of years practicing as a nurse going into a room to adminster medication to a young Latina, HANDCUFFED to the friggin' bed with a big old deputy in the room.
He refused to loosen her cuffs so she could hold her own cup to drink or take care of her personal needs. I was aghast! And not the bravest person in the world but this was what was called by MS a 'click" (the magazine not the disease) moment. I've been short statured all my life and thus became past master at adapting to situations taller folks could manage just by standing up.but G-d gave me this amazing alto voice that, with a deep inhalation, can come out basso profundo and I let it out suggesting the deputy had a prurient interest.
So, of course, I became one of those 'out of control women'. I didn't care because I achieved my goal for this young woman...he left while we helped her attend to her needs.
I join you FLW and other for grieving the death of Dr. Tiller and send caring thoughts to his family, staff and patients.
How can anyone be as filled with hate and intolerance and as lacking in compassion, as these anti-abortion terrorists must be?
1) Antiabortionists make headway as more and more health professionals decide to not go into this area of reproductive health.
2) Far a way and long ago the debate about abortions was not so nice and there were legal ramifications that far exceeded what most young folk today realize.
3) Culturally the success of the anti-abortion movement also leads to changes that simply pound women down. When I did public health work, women always asked me to get their birth control pills and then they'd hide them from their husbands. If discovered they were not infrequently beatn badly enough to require a hospital visit...why beaten? Why we know that if you don't want another baby you must be a 'ho'.
Rest in Peace, Dr. Tiller.
It's been sixteen years since Dr. Gunn died in the parking lot I spent two years of my life in. Now another doctor is gunned down, in a church. Nothing has changed. These people are still vile.
I don't know how to stop it, but I do know what this feels like for Dr. Tiller's co-workers and all of the women's clinic workers around this country today. It's exactly what the deranged murderers want - fear.
I remember having to cross a picket line and dodge television cameras. I remember that my friend was terrified of being identified. I remember being afraid, afraid for her and for myself.
I was brought up in a house with church going parents that quietly advocated choice for women. Before that experience, I had no idea that these anti-abortion zealots were out there. In the years since, I've watched them grow, become more visible and more violent.
I'm sorry now that I haven't been more involved with and supportive of Planned Parenthood. It's a tough stand they've taken, and many of us have been cowed into quiet support. I plan on remedying that.
denese
i am sending you hugs, you staunch advocate for all women.
(thumbified and diggity dugg - PLEASE digg this - send a message to those who would silence defenders of reproductive rights!)
I've written, and deleted, this comment so many times already because I could not adequately express my outrage at this senseless act of violence (the murder of Doctor Tiller for anyone who may be confused). And I wholeheartedly agree with you, Lorraine.
Thumbed, and if need be I'll be back to bump for the feed as often as possible.
I wrote an editorial to my local newspaper saying I was a Pro-choice Catholic in the 80s and people actually called my house and threatened my daughter's life. They threatened to meet her at the bus stop and take her, saying I wouldn't miss her because of my beliefs. These people are nuts.
My heart goes out to Dr. Tiller's friends and family. And until Sotomayor comes out and says what side of the fence she is on, I will not support her.
How can these people claim they value life?
I already a comment at Saturn Smith's blog last night, and won't bother repeating it here, since I've already said the same on one or more of your posts.
I would add condolences to the entire community of people committed to Choice for women. I read somewhere in the last day or so that Dr. Tiller wore a button that said "Trust Women." I think that says it all. Our society... not just the anti-choicers... but many other segments, too, really do not trust women.
The news coverage will soon shift. Soon it will be all about the terrorist who killed Dr. Tiller. There will be profiles of his life, his motivations, his cause. I still wish he had resisted arrest and saved us the propaganda to come. I don't want to hear about how I should turn the other cheek or how wanting the terrorist dead is lowering myself to their level. No, it isn't. Some people deserve to die and Roeder is one of them. Kansas has no death penalty and mores the pity.
Rated
This is so true, as is the rest of your powerful essay.
And to add to what you have said: they not only want to eradicate all abortions, they want to enforce a hateful, narrow-minded, reactionary agenda over not just women, not just oppressed minorities, not just any countries that they see as threats to the US Empire, not just freedom of thought and dissent, and not just science, but anything and everything that doesn't suit their fascist program. Torture and terror, murder of abortion providers, empire, this is all part of a whole cloth. If I may, I suggest that people read Debra Sweet's tribute to Tiller here.
A-friggin'-men.
By next week/next month/next year, we'll be all het up by the latest Susan Boyle/Jon & Kate (am I the only one that's never seen this show, and doesn't care?)/Adam Lambert-is-he-gay extravaganza.
We're going to hell in a pisspot, we are. I want my children grow up to see another day, but I don't hold out a lot of hope.
It's SO easy and quick to hit those buttons. A new window opens, you fill in your preferred username and password and ::poof:: you've flung this blog to millions more readers.
Let's see this get the hits it deserves!
Amen. It's about supporting and maintaining male dominance.
I'm pro-life, no quotation marks, nor "so-called." For me, the terrorist anti-abortion movement in this country is a potent, horrifying force that I will not take part in. For me, being pro-life is being pro-peace, pro-equality, pro-environment, pro-education, and pro-preventive birth control. For me, being pro-life is condemning the clinic violence, vandalism, and murders and supporting a woman no matter what choice she has made. For me, being pro-life is changing the problems of this society that cause women to feel abortion is the only choice they have.
I know, for many of you here, my condolences to Dr. Tiller's loved ones seems shallow. However, never, ever have I called any abortion provider a murderer nor any women seeking abortion a baby-killer. I recognize that gray area and work for change rather than stand in judgement. There are many pro-life people like me. Unfortunately, we are being set ablaze by those who call themselves pro-life, but really are terrorists and hypocrites.
I just made my first donation to the George Tiller memorial fund. It's the least I could do for this brave man and the women who still need access to abortion services.
We can respectfully disagree on this issue. I admire your consistency on other issues, and your civility while dealing with those people with whom you disagree. It must be horrible to be tarred with the brush of the violence perpetuated by people who call themselves "prolife." Thanks for stopping by.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/01/25/my_late_term_abortion/
the term for this movement is not pro-life, it's anti-choice, anti-women, anti-humanist
Maybe they should harass public school officials.
If children receive a better education, they would be more likely to use effective birth control, and more likely be in a better position to care for their child. Both results would lower the rate of these medical services.
Then they would have more time to protest the Red Lobster, because Jesus Hates Shrimp
And thank you, Jodi, for trying to spread the word on this article.
My prayers for the doctor, his family and the members of his congregation.
Monte