Dr Tiller was one of the few doctors in the USA providing late term abortions (SotBO: which are sometimes sadly necessary and usually involve a traumatic crisis in a wanted pregnancy. ETA: Tiller specialised in termination surgery which preserved women’s fertility as well as their lives in these heartbreaking circumstances. Because of successful intimidation through murderous violence of abortion providers in the USA, his was one of only two clinics in the country providing these specialist services.) He has long been a target of anti-choice activism, including being shot before.
He was murdered as he attended his church for the Sunday morning service. A suspect is now in custody. UPDATE: The suspect has been identified as one Scott Roeder and charged with murder. Investigations by bloggers have uncovered someone of the same name who has a history of tax protesting, bomb-making (charged and convicted) and online anti-abortion activism.
From BitchPhD:
Thus ends years of persecution of a righteous man, including a murder attempt, a bombing, vandalism, bullshit legal cases, and harassment by the KS attorney general. Just last month his clinic was vandalized again.
R.I.P., Dr. Tiller. And thank you for dedicating, and sacrificing, your life for the women you helped.
Condolences to his family and many friends.
This is not just a vigilante loner acting out. This is the result of a culture of demonising abortion and painting those who provide it as depraved monsters. This is what that reaps.
More from Cara at Feministe, Feministing,the NY Times, Matt Yglesias, SarahMC, Andrew Sullivan, Bastard.Logic, Pandagon, Pro-Science, Pharyngula (and again).
Jill at Feministe suggests honouring his memory by donating to one or more of a list of pro-choice charities.
Categories: arts & entertainment, culture wars, ethics & philosophy, law & order, social justice, violence
In comments elsewhere it was pointed out that the first murder attempt on Dr Tiller came 8 months into the first Clinton presidency.
This successful attack came 4 months after Obama’s inauguration.
Elect a pro-choice president and the Limbaughs and O’Reillys on right-wing talkback and opinion shows escalate the hate rhetoric until someone in their demographic feels compelled to act. They will of course utterly deny that there is any connection.
A testimonial from a former client, found in comments at Balloon Juice:
Best comment I’ve read so far today apart from the above, from Pandagon:
Feministe has a thread on where Americans can donate, and in comments there are some suggestions of groups in other countries. Australian pro-choice groups include:
Marie Stopes International Australia
Children By Choice’s Women’s Access Fund
Your State Family Planning org
Reproductive Choice Australia
Having read around the links and comments, I’m still amazed that there are people out there who genuinely seem to believe that abortion really IS available on demand (drive-thru service, perhaps?) and are dispensed as casually as chewing gum.
DeusExMacintosh’s last blog post..Selective Termination
@ DeusExMacintosh:
The post I linked to in yesterday’s Femmostroppo about how anti-legal-abortion women cope with their own unwanted pregnancies showed examples of some of this thinking: expecting a separate back door entry so that no-one would confuse them with Those Unworthy Sluts Who Were Just Using Abortion As Birth Control, wanting to have a separate waiting room from TUSWWJUAABC, becoming outraged if other women in the waiting room chatted normally or shared a laugh because it “proved” that they weren’t taking it seriously, being really surprised that they were expected to undergo questioning and counselling to show the clinic that they really wanted a termination as their own choice (surely it should be obvious that they had thought things through properly) etc etc etc.
And yet there is no one out there going on about how Christianity is a religion of violence.
No one in the MSM, Mindy. It’s an important distinction. Try Violet Socks at Reclusive Leftist.
I hate that too, Mindy, that we often hear of islamic extremists but never christian extremists.
Yes, thanks Tigtog, I read that and was ROTFLMAO for ages. It took all my self-control not to post the link over on my skepticlawyer thread when saint described those seeking Tiller’s services as “the emotionally distraught, the cowardly and the self-centred”.
DeusExMacintosh’s last blog post..Selective Termination