Dr. George Tiller, the well-known Kansas doctor, was shot to death today at his church in Wichita. Tiller has been a fixture in Kansas my whole life. I was in grade school during the Operation Rescue's "Summer of Mercy," 1991, when Randall Terry led daily protests and blockades outside of Tiller's Women's Health clinic in Wichita. Wichita was an hour from where I grew up and our main source of nightly news, which meant that my mother spent several evenings that summer trying to explain to preteen girls what this whole mess was about. So Tiller's story and his work have shaped my own opinions, my own decisions, about where to stand in the abortion debate. Tiller could have operated with more safety in many other locations, but he chose, instead, to stay in Wichita, to offer health services -- yes, including late-term abortions -- to the women of south central Kansas and Oklahoma, women who already see their options for care reduced by distance and time. George Tiller kept going to work after he was shot in 1993; he kept going to work after his clinic was bombed; he kept going to work after numerous threats, after vandalism earlier this month, after protests. He kept going to work, and I have to believe that's because he felt it was his duty to help women get the best care possible, and to help us -- no, to allow us to make some of the most difficult decisions we face.
As a Kansan, my sadness is both for Tiller's family and for my state, which finds itself not just deprived of a necessary physician but also thrust back into the culture-war spotlight. We deserve to be there, perhaps -- Kansas is a crossroads for religious conservatives and old-school progressives -- but what a terrible way to reignite the conversation. Tiller kept going to work -- and I hope his death ends up as meaningful as his life. I hope this starts an honest, national discussion of the dangers that Tiller faced, and that the women who trudged through the protesting crowds just to receive care faced.
But what terrible means to achieve this end.
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Redstocking Grandma
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Kathy Riordan
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Comments
It makes perfect sense to me that anybody who considers us humans the moment we have growing bodies would consider abortions to mean that an actual life is ending. I happen to be pro-choice even though I do consider abortion to be the ending of a human's life.
And I agree with you very much that hopefully this tragic event will open the door for some real conversations regarding this issue.
It seems to me that those who are pro-choice need to eventually get the point where we don't shy away from acknowledging that we each probably have a body the moment it starts growing. Not a very radical notion (and it seems more reasonable than most speculations that assume we don’t have our body until it’s grown for a certain period of time). And it seems that the pro-life people need to get to the point of acknowledging that the right to life is not inherently unconditional (there are many instances in which most right-to-lifers easily acknowledge this point).
Each side can maintain their conclusions, but if they made the effort to see that the other side is making an extremely valid basic point we'd have taken a huge step forward in this conversation, I think. It would be the kind of step that would make room for much more respect.
As long as pro-choicers avoid acknowledging that a growing body is a whole that is alive and belongs to the grower, their arguments will remain reactive and shallow (I’m not referring to the right to privacy as shallow). As long as the anti-abortion folks refuse to acknowledge that the right to life is very often qualified for all sorts of reasons, their position will smack of the hypocritical.
I know nothing of how Mr. Tiller articulated the nature of his work and of the issue of abortion in general. I want to inform myself now. But, more than anything, I feel the need to simply share my sadness regarding the way his life was ended. I hope both sides can eventually breathe deeply and allow their position to grow a bit wider and more complicated.
We've got to get the real stories of when late term abortions take place, and why, to combat any who would find even an ounce of sympathy for Dr. Tiller's murder. . .
To suggest he was in it for the money. . . geez.
I hear they have a suspect in custody now. I agree with grif, it is indeed very sad. Choice means choice. Damn.
An aside, I am going to Kansas this week to give a presentation to policy makers and advocates. I've already been told what words to avoid when I speak: Obama, legal immigrants, expanding benefits, etc...
He did it for the friggin' money after being shot, vandalized, and threatened.
You seem well-meaning and you can write . . . but think.before.you.type particularly when the post to which you are responding is a MEMORIUM.
Saturn would be too civilized and diplomatic to tell you this. She rises above righteous indignation. Most of the time I can too . . . the man is dead and this post is not about your daughter or grandchild no matter how lovely they may be.
I wish people could have an articulate, compassionate conversation about this profoundly polarizing issue, but that doesn't seem to be an option.
I've had two miscarriages, and was never able to have the child I wanted. By all rights, I should be running around telling women not to have abortions, because they don't know what a precious gift they've been given.
But, that would be wrong. Because they're not me. Their lives, their circumstances, everything about them is unique to them. I can't make that call for them.
If there's one thing, and one thing only, that I learned by being pregnant for two brief periods of time - no one should carry a child to term if they're not ready to do so.
The symbolism of killing Dr. Tiller in a church makes my blood run cold. It seems to be saying that there is no safe place, and it also seems that the murderer wanted to put Dr. Tiller in the place where he would "meet his maker", so to speak. And I don't believe that the symbolism will be lost on any other medical practitioner who provides abortion services.
In general, they are to save a woman's life and/or if the fetus is not viable, to preserve her fertility. Requiring a woman to continue to carry a dead or non-viable fetus is inhumane. I sincerely doubt that a vet would not have to require the same of an animal.
If, as I've read, Dr. Tiller, also performed abortions on some very young girls, in the age 10-12 range, I must applaud him again for doing so. How could anyone think it possible for a child so young to safely deliver an infant and not to suffer some form of PTSD afterwards?
Frankly, I must consider the notion that doctors like Dr. Tiller perform abortions for the money as completely ludicrous. Why would anyone choose as a method of making money an action that brings an entire political movement down upon one's head, complete with death threats, and previous attempts on one's life? Positively ludicrous. Clearly, he appreciated the importance of his work. Work that so few others were wiling to do.
I cannot be as polite as you are, Saturn. Perhaps it is my age.
In the mid-90's I had the honor of demonstrating in his support at his office in Wichita. It's really just horrible that his services will no longer be available in the midwest.
Thanks for writing this Saturn, from one Kansan to another.
From O'Reilly to the Taliban, indeed any faith or political ideology (read: civil religion) that instigates hate and violence because the other doesn't believe as the "faithful" is complicit in the heinous acts committed in its name.
The NY Times said "Some described Dr. Tiller as one of about only three doctors in the country who had, under certain circumstances, provided abortions to women in their third trimester of pregnancy, and said his death would mean that women, particularly in the central United States, would have few if any options in such cases."
Three in the country. This is exactly what the anti-choice, the anti-women forces in this country have been doing since Roe v Wade. There is a saying among lawyers: If you don't have the facts, argue the law. If you don't have the law, argue the facts. If you have neither, pound on the table. Except, these hateful people pound with guns and bombs, by terrorizing people. They have neither the law nor the facts on their side, so they have turned to terror. But, politicians, and the Supreme Court under the women-haters (now at the peak of their power) in the US have not gone after them, have not acted to protect people, have encouraged them by denigrating women with their ugly and unconstitutional attacks demanding that women get permission get permission from their husbands, that girls get permission from parents who often will turn that girl into a baby factory for the greater glory of a sick and anti-life ideology. This Supreme encourages legislatures to make it as hard as possible to get a fully legal and very safe medical procedure while under attack.
Three providers in the country. I am outraged and disgusted.
I'm reading comments as they come in, but I think I've said what I want on this event for the moment, and I'll just leave the commenting to others who need a chance to discuss, decompress, and wonder, like I did.
http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/choice-action-center/in_your_state/who-decides/state-profiles/kansas.html?templateName=lawdetails&issueID=3&ssumID=2590
The practice is limited and conditional. I think it is extremely important to get out the word that viable infants of healthy mothers are not being aborted willy-nilly across the land.
If you've ever known a woman who needed this procedure-- you know the stories are heartbreaking. And thankfully rare. But if you or someone you love is in this terrible position. . . you'd want someone like Dr. Tiller to help.
Ah, life in the Bible Belt... So it was doctor's own behavior that did him in, huh? Not the actions of some deranged Bible thumper?
Nothing like objective journalism.
A woman who has been pregnant for six or seven months doesn't terminate her pregnancy on a whim. Of all the women who choose abortion, these women are the least likely to feel as if they had a choice. Late term abortion is rare, not just because doctors are intimidated, but because it is a solution of last resort - often a heartbreaking one for the expectant father, grandparents and siblings as well as the woman who undergoes the procedure.
Soon, if the lunatic fringe have their way, there will be no last resort - except for women who can afford, and are well enough, to travel outside the United States for medical care. If the anti-choice lobby has its way, ultimately we'll have pregnant women surrendering their passports to their obgyns.
Bill O'Reilly kept spouting that the late-term procedures cost $5,000. Maybe they would cost less if the wingnuts he incites didn't keep blowing up, vandalizing, and booby-trapping clinics, driving doctors out of the profession, and making them uninsurable. Not to mention you can hardly get a routine appendectomy for $5,000, and nobody will shoot you for that.
But sure, he must have been it in the money. A good and proper Christian conclusion to draw over the warm body of a murder victim who has taken three bullets from two shooters, at his own workplace and at his own church.
Fear is their weapon of choice, as with many terrorists, there is no debating the topic. The pro-life people will not rest until they have their way. They will not listen to discussions or consider other opinions.
Freedom to choose is not an option for them. But killing doctors is. It's beyond rational thought, yet we see this closed mind mania, whenever we are not in lock-step with those of blind faith.
Scott Roeder, Dr. Tiller's assassin, was a member of the Freemen arrested in 1996 with bomb-making materials in his car, and bomb-making instructions in his home. If he were a Muslim fundamentalist, every group he belonged to, every charity he donated to, every person who knew him, who employed him, who socialized with him, with whom he spoke on the phone or exchanged emails, the sponsors of every Web site he visited regularly, would all be targets of our national security apparatus.
Do you think any of that's likely to happen in this case?
"I said maybe he did, maybe he didn't. There are those Doctors that do it for the money...I don't know whether he was one or not."
I have one response to this: Oh, please!
"I guess the life in 'pro life' only applies to unborn babies and fetuses' lives. Adult life doesn't count."
The concern stops, actually before birth. So many of the so-called pro-life folks are against social services, that provide prenatal care. And even if they manage to bring their concern to the actual baby, before it leaves the womb, they stop advocating for the child at birth.
"These folks are terrorists as far as I'm concerned."
These folks are terrorists, as someone else noted, as far as our laws are concerned. Unfortunately, at least until now, the PTB have been as unwilling to enforce those laws as those calling for prosecuting torturers.
"Once again the pro-life people use death to make their point."
I suggest that those of us who are actually pro-life, not use the -lnguage of our enemy. So-called pro-life, "pro-life" anti-choice, anti-abortion. Never pro-life.
In the roughly 20 years that I have been living in Europe, I have never heard of the murder of a European doctor who performs abortions. I don't think there are even protests organized near medical facilities where abortions are performed. Certainly there are groups here that are opposed to abortion, but they don't seem to consider violence to be acceptable.
As a Kansan originally I gotta think: the killer must be from Texas. No corn-fed true blue son of a Jayhawk would do this.
I would also hope that the murder not be trivialized by making it the a rallying point to villify political opponents or TV pundits.
Finally, I hope the debate you advocate includes a discussion of whether it might be possible to encourage women to exercise their sacred "right to choose" a little earlier on than when a baby is emerging from the womb. There are many earlier opportunities, you know.
"the another " Lose the "the." Sorry.
I still remember Obama's noting that a woman's decision about whether to have an abortion is something to be discussed and decided by a woman, her husband (or partner) and her pastor. Sounds like one woman and two men... in most cases.
As I noted in FLW's blog post about this same issue, I read somewhere in the last few days that Dr. Tiller wore a button that said "Trust Women." Anti-choicers aside, our culture has a very long way to go before we can say that has happened.
speechless
Disgusting, but not surprising.
@GordonO: " I hope the debate you advocate includes a discussion of whether it might be possible to encourage women to exercise their sacred "right to choose" a little earlier on than when a baby is emerging from the womb."
Think much?
rated
As for the terrorism nonsense, I say the following:
OK, I'm convinced. Send this latest "terrorist" to Gitmo where he can enjoy a climate a hell of a lot better than Kansas and be treated to internet access and other amenities. After a while, Obama may close Gitmo and send him back to the U.S. with a stipend to be sure his antisocial conduct does not recur.
What I don't understand is where this hatred of men is coming from. In case you hadn't noticed, the Rowe v. Wade court did not consist only of women.
And Rowe was a good decision, but it clearly held that the states have a right to require women to act prudently in exercising the right to choose.
And yet some say that it's a woman's choice from conception to birth. To let a life develop within you knowing that you can take your time on a decision to abort right up to the point of birth strikes me as incredibly callous and insensitive. I also think it's born of hatred for men, including, most particularly the one who impregnated, who of course has no rights whatsoever in the a man-hating world.
"I would hope that being a woman my judgments will more often than not be better than a man's." Sound familiar?
That fact should scare the shit out of everyone...this country can truly be convinced, intimidated, converted to any belief as long as some terrorists are willing to take the long view and continue to keep the pressure on,...a few demonstrations, a few murders but with no end in sight unless there is total capitulation to the belief.
PRO-LIFE is a hypocritical and extremely dangerous concept.
After we've banned abortions I wonder what we will ban next.
1) the Christian fascist movement that received the accolades and support of the Bush White House and that calls for the subservience of women (which is why they want to abolish abortion and make women second-class citizens who don't even have rights over their own bodies and health) as part and parcel of a reactionary agenda; and
2) Democrats such as Obama who counsel that we should seek "common ground" with said fascists/murderers who want nothing less than to kill those who disagree with them.
There is no common ground with fascists and those who counsel us that there is are creating the conditions for despicable acts as the murder of Dr. Tiller who heroically carried out despite the threats against his life. As another poster correctly notes, Dr. Tiller used to wear a button that said "Trust Women."
I don't suppose that could be because thousands of doctors think it's a bad idea and an unnecessary capitulation to the negligence of mothers-to-be. No, let's imagine that it's aother big national right-wing conspiracy. It's much more enjoyable.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/01/25/my_late_term_abortion/
Since the original decision in 1973, advances in medical science have dramatically reduced the number of late term abortions performed almost all for therapeutic purposes. The original decision recognized that abortion for "quickened" fetuses could be legitimately restricted to safeguard the health of the mother and the definition of quickened (ability to survive outside the womb) has advance greatly (think survival rates of pre-mature babies--my grandaughter was 24 ounces at birth and is a active, healthy 17 month old toddler).
I hate the notion that any or some good could come from Dr. Tiller's murder. But, today people of all kinds of opinions are universally aghast and horrified. Let it be an opportunity to mourn, reflect, communicate and commiserate.
Thanks for this wonderful post, Saturn.
This same effort is being made in the United States, which means our constitutional right to religious freedom is in jeopardy. A woman's right to equality, privacy and religious freedom will be eliminated unless they act now and lobby for implementation of the Freedom of Choice Act.
A religious faction is working diligently to place fertilized eggs above the rights of women, who are already legally and constitutionally recognized as a human being, while a fertilized egg is not. They expect to change or ignore the Constitution of the United States to implement their religious doctrine to control women.
He is a little boy with a sharp stick who thinks he owns a bazooka, eager to distract the grownups. He is a True Believer and hence a colossal waste of time.
This is about Tiller, and his family, and the need to stop rightwing domestic terrorism.
I dunno - today I have no reasoning ability. I was Just sitting here, on my fingers, not allowing myself to write something like: GordonO's, you're an idiot!, or, GordonO is, to put it simply, Stupid, or the like, which, as you would I am sure agree, be the epitome of counterproductive. Whew, thank god you stopped me!
Thank you for your personal viewpoint and always thoughtful and balanced commentary.
Several commenters have raised the issue of why there are so few providers of late-term abortion. I don't want to derail this post, but I do remember reading some time ago that fewer and fewer medical schools are even offering abortion education. I'm not sure where I read this, but a similar article can be found here...
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/04/08/why-wont-med-schools-teach-about-abortion-care
Also, a good read on why a woman might have a late-term abortion was on Twitter today from Anderson Cooper's blog
RT @andersoncooper A personal perspective on late-term abortion http://tinyurl.com/nt4u6g
Babies deserved to be loved and hugged and cherished from the very beginning. If we can't promise them that, they are better off leaving this world. I'm sorry.
What an illiterate (gotta, gratuitous colon) trivialization of murder. Murder is too serious a matter to be the butt of a stupid exercise in state pride. Talk about a Gratuitous Colon. Even the initials are appropriate.
These charges of "terrorism" and a wave of anti-abortion advocation of violence are totally unfounded. In all of these comments, not one claim has been made that any responsible spokesperson for the anti-abortion movement has expressed anything but outrage at Dr. Tiller's murder. How typical. Formulate a premise; look for the facts later.
There is surely data on what he did for a living and why. When you say “he may have” do you mean “you researched it in detail and were unable to discern” or “other people who perform this service do so for various reasons and you think them all interchangeable and couldn't be bothered finding out something personal about this man” or just “you couldn't be bothered to research this at all and just said the first thing that occurred to you”?
Many people getting late term abortions are getting them because they have noticed that there are complex medical problems that will not result in a successful life for either the would-be child or for the parents. To suggest that bearing the child is obviously the right thing may be your personal belief, but if you make that assessment on the basis of no knowledge of the personal situation, you're just indulging personal prejudice, nothing more, and shame on you for doing so. To compare your daughter's situation, which I assume involves a healthy pregnancy by a mother who is economically capable of bearing the burden with other people's situations you do not know is utterly inappropriate and leaves me shocked and saddened that you would conflate two such disparate situations as if they are all the same.
These are deeply personal matters that must be evaluated individually.
I recommend that you work to put a face on this man who has died before you criticize him. He is a specific person who had specific beliefs and interests.
Even if he were working for a lucrative income, what value would there be in that knowing people daily wanted to kill him? Would you take a job for a little extra money knowing there was a bulls-eye painted on your forehead? Is it even possible that you could acknowledge of a person who is not here to respond for himself that perhaps the evidence points to motives other than those you have so uncharitably attributed him?
I suggest you click here for a personal story someone posted to Daily Kos, entitled “The George Tiller I Knew.” Then come back and tell us why this person deserved to die.
A nice tribute to a man devoted to saving the lives of women.
How disturbing that it needed to be written.
Much more disturbing is the arrogance of the posters who believe that they, with no knowledge of any circumstances, feel they can make a 'better' decision for the women who needed Dr. Tiller's service.
Self appointed clairvoyant, medical and moral geniuses like sage and gordon attribute supernatural powers unto themselves that leave me in awe of the power of self delusion.
You should be sorry. You're going to decide when another innocent human being is "better off" dead than alive. I haven't heard a sentiment that refreshing since Mein Kampf. Shame on you.
As Greg Correll said, engaging with such people is a distraction from the real subject, not only here, but everywhere they intrude. Ignore them. They will go away when they don't get a rise out of people.
Some comments on comments:
"One can only hope that some anti-abortion activists may be horrified enough by the act that has been carried out in the name of their movement to reconsider their position, or at least their activism."
And hope is all it will be. This is the culmination of their work. Even without murder, they are perpetrating violence against women when they picket at clinics with their pictures of aborted fetuses and interfe with the life of a person who is dealing with what is a stressful situation already. These people are true believers, and there is nothing true about their beliefs.
"I think it's important to recognize that the individual who killed Dr. Tiller is also a courageous and principled person who risked life in prison to save the lives of unborn children."
More "courageous" would have been to not have fled the scene. More courageous still would have been to not act like a god and take another person's life. (And, anti-abortion folks, don't give me the nonsense that a fetus is a human being too, more important than the woman that carries it.)
Most courageous would have been to read the Constitution, realize that this is not a theocracy, and come to terms with truly respecting life.
Not to mention this whole "unborn baby (or child)" trope is like "undead": fictional.
He was murdered at church. He was an usher, his wife was in the choir.
At my MOST idealistic, I hope this sways a lot of people into the undecided vote place regarding the right to choose, or maybe even sways them towards the nonviolent side.
But, but, but I consider this an act of terrorism. And I remain more frightened by the hate and evil in this country than I do by international threats.
You and your buddies directly contributed to the assassination of this heroic doctor, You killed him UnSage, but of course, like Operation Rescue, you will ever so politely demur and offer condolences, while you continue to spew the Religio-Facist lies and hatred that caused this man's murder. You and your buddies are beneath contempt.
Just fuckking admit it aready. You're actually glad that he's dead and won't be sad if other brave doctors who perform abortions are killed by your friends, until no more are left. They are collateral damage in your insane, relentless war to protect fetal tissue at the expense of living, breathing women. These women also wind up as collateral damage.
The blood of Dr. Tiller, and all the other murdered doctors who performed abortions, is on your hands. However, your safety blanket of religious rationaliation and hypocrisy, will protect your conscience. So just go fucking pray to the Daddy in the Sky about how you hope Dr. Tiller had time to "get right with the Lord" before he was murdered. That's how you and your cohorts handle these assassinations.
My disgust for you knows no bounds.
Not only DO you condone the shooting—based your coy choice of words—you are likely revelling in it. "He cheated death." Going to work doing something both legal and medically safe is "cheating death"? Only to amoral fanatics like you.
"Choices have consequences, some good and some bad."
Based on that statement, I suppose that's how you feel when police are killed on duty; probably you feel that way about women getting raped because, after all, they chose to walk around with a vagina. They should have stopped wanting to be martyrs and worn burqas.
Someone pointed out to you the actual medical situations that exist for late-term abortions, so I don't need to point that out to you.
What I will note is that people like you in the vast majority don't give a shit about ensuring prenatal care for prospective mothers, neonatal care for actual babies (not fetuses), have no respect for women, stop caring about for "babies" at birth, and can't wait for the next war or the next state execution.
Finally Djohn spews this out of his keyboard: "If only there was a way that both sides could be satisfied without violence."
Nothing says "pro-life" like murder.
Let him live in his faux christian life.
His intellect would challenge and morality would challenge only that of a mosquito high on crack.
Dr. Tiller as been one of my heroes since that summer, and though I'm late to the commenting, I hope that's okay.