Dr. George Tiller was killed on Sunday.
He was shot as he served as usher at his church, passing out bulletins. His wife was singing in the choir.
Dr. Tiller was an obstetrician and gynecologist. He was a licensed doctor and a veteran. He performed abortions, including late-term abortions which account for a very small percentage of abortions in the United States. He was one of the only (as in one of four or so) doctors in the United States who performed late-term abortions. Women travelled great distances to his clinic - their thank you notes lined his clinic walls.
If you think late-term abortions are horrifying I beg you to read this Boston Globe story about a woman who actually had one.
The late-term abortions that Dr. Tiller performed were legal, thoughtful and safe. Dr. Tiller would help a woman diagnosed with cancer decide whether to end a pregnancy in order to get cleared for chemotherapy. Dr. Tiller would counsel a girl who was raped and didn't realize she was pregnant. Dr. Tiller would provide abortions for women who longed to be mothers only to find that their pregnancy went awry - a fetus with severe neurological defects or with fluid in its brain. Dr. Tiller did what very few new doctors today do - he provided safe abortion services.
According to Planned Parenthood. four facilities in Illinois provide abortion services. Four. One in Champaign, one in Aurora and two in Chicago. That's not a lot of clinics, and that's definitely not an overabundance of abortion resources. Planned Parenthood flies a doctor to South Dakota from Minneapolis to provide women there with abortion services. In light of Dr. Tiller's murder, that doctor is now protected by U.S. Marshalls.
I find myself tearing up as I read about Dr. Tiller's work and his steadfast commitment to women's rights. I think about what abortion rights mean for women in America, and I think about what it means that a doctor who helped women through their hardest moments day after day was shot at his church.
Rest in Peace, Dr. Tiller.
1 comment:
I hope some day, as women, we wont be fearful of making choice about our bodies.
This pregnancy has only reinforced my stance on abortion. While this is very exciting and amazing, It would be terrifying to go at this alone, let alone with complications or horrific circumstances.
My heart is sad that some people think women just don't know to handle their own bodies, and therefore we should make abortions illegal. I shudder at what abortions may become if they're made illegal. :(
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