Sunday, May 31, 2009

In Which I Am Saddened And Shocked By Dr. Tiller's Murder

By now you will have heard about the murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, KS. Dr. Tiller was often singled out by choice opponents because he performed late term abortions.

This Salon article about Bill O'Reilly's frequent diatribes about Dr. Tiller is a must read. He is not to blame, but he sure did fan the flames. You can't engage in the kind of rhetoric O'Reilly does without consequences.

2 comments:

  1. I just saw the news about Dr. Tiller and am so profoundly saddened. I knew him professionally- he was a great friend of genetic counselors. And he was a kind and gentle man.

    I have worked in reproductive health for almost a decade and I don't know a single person who is "pro-abortion." But most people do not understand or want to hear the heart-wrenching stories of the women who end up in abortion clinics. A great majority of women who sought out Dr. Tiller's services had planned and wanted pregnancies. About four or five months in, when they came to the doctor for the exciting ultrasound to find out the gender of the baby, they instead discovered that there was something wrong with the baby. Sometimes, terribly unfixably wrong. I know this because I'm someone who had to tell women this news. There is nothing like the anguished cries of a mother when she hears that the baby growing and moving inside her will be severely deformed, profoundly disabled or simply will not survive life after birth. For some women, the idea of carrying a baby for another four or five months just to watch that baby die seems unbearable. To be visibly pregnant and face strangers' questions, feel that life moving inside, all the while dreading the inevitable end. Maybe it's easy to think we know how we would react in that situation but I'm not sure...

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  2. Listen to Merley, she most definitely knows what she's talking about. Thanks for giving that authoritative perpective. I needed it to fend off all the unsettling remarks made about Dr. Tiller. Thanks. P.S. Miss you.

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