[CitizensTruth] Thank you, Jay, re: murdered doctor

[Connie Smith]

First, a quick response to Kris and her heartfelt request for feedback on late-term abortion.  

My only knowledge on that front has been reports that such an event is rare, that it is usually to save the life of the woman who often already has a family -- a husband and children who would be grieved and bereft the rest of their lives because of a pregnancy gone very wrong -- and that the pregnancy itself is non-life-sustainable by nature.  And therefore extraordinarily advanced science would be constantly required to give the child some semblance of "life."  Those extreme circumstances are all I've known about late-term abortion.

If someone would want a late-term abortion just because she "didn't get around to it earlier," I can't see adequate justification for it.  However, I have no right to interfere, and I'm glad that I PROBABLY won't face such a situation in my family.

- - -

As for the issue of abortion itself, which is usually performed early in a pregnancy, I have very strong opinions for abortion rights.  If anyone cares to know why, here are my reasons:

As a female who became a teenager in the 1960's, I never thought about abortion as an issue.  I just knew of a certain percentage of girls and women who went for the procedure to an old lady in a small town somewhere around here.  Fortunately I never heard of any deaths from such a "back-alley abortion" locally.  But later I learned of a whole body of literature about families who lost their mom/daughter/sister/wife/girlfriend etc. -- via death due to the illegal and secretive nature of the operation.  

There was, however, the somewhat whispered mention a few times in my 20's about my mom's best friend on the neighboring farm, in their girlhood.  The friend hanged herself in the barn due to her out-of-wedlock pregnancy.  Further, it was rumored her condition was due to a family member's sexual abuse -- and NOT due to the girl's "promiscuity."  

At least the issue of incest is not denied in our society anymore, and victims can get help if they feel able to seek it.  Un-wed pregnancy by itself is practically a non-issue -- although I'd personally say it's arguably better if a child could be raised by a loving couple (or "a village") instead of one struggling parent.  

But despite far less stigma now for the female who's reluctantly pregnant, if abortion were outlawed again, I'm convinced there are just no lengths a woman won't go to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, including suicidal methods.  If abortion became illegal, there would once again be the great grief and losses in families due to the deaths of moms, daughters, sisters, wives, girlfriends and more.  Many women, for many good reasons, simply will not go through pregnancy and childbirth against their will -- laws or no laws. 

Due to a number of work-related moves around the country in the 1970's and not having any steady newspaper subscription, I never saw an anti-abortion letter-to-the-editor until around 1980 -- and I was naively astonished!  It was almost incomprehensible to me that some people would go retro and desire to reinstate laws that interfere with a woman's need to protect her body and her life.  

And my opinion had been further reinforced by my own experience with pregnancy.  Despite being married and very much wanting a child and having what some would say was "an easy pregnancy" -- although now I dispute that any pregnancy is "easy" -- but despite all good conditions, when the day came, I nevertheless found myself in a 30+ hour labor ordeal, my gyn/ob resorting to a C-section so my baby and myself would not die, and then my 106.7 near-death fever that followed.  I was very weak and ill for a year.  But at least my baby daughter was robustly healthy.

I recall that as I was being prepped for the C-section, I weakly asked the nurse, "What did they do in the old days when something like this happened?"  She said, "The used to die, Dear.  They still do.  But you and child are going to be fine now." 

I don't have the statistics at hand anymore, like I used to.  But I left off collecting them when it was overwhelmingly demonstrable that women still do indeed die in this day and age due to pregnancy and childbirth.  And just like what became the end of the draft for men -- you don't join up and go off to war now except voluntarily -- a woman's accidental pregnancy and facing all the potential ordeals is something I believe she volunteers for -- or not.  

Until the point of what's known as "natural survivalhood after the end of the second trimester," pregnancy (actually it has always seemed to me) -- pregnancy is a woman's interior condition. Certainly, there is the unarguable life of the woman -- and therefore there are the unarguable rights of the woman -- to PROTECT her body and her life from any interior condition that could threaten, or is threatening, her well-being.

It IS a shame when -- as has so often been the case and is a growing phenomenon in these economic times -- when a woman and/or her mate know that an additional child (often the case) is absolutely unaffordable.  According to reports, abortion is being increasingly chosen because the existing children will be further impoverished, and parents feel that is irresponsible. 

And many further feel that adopting out is unthinkable -- to have a child out there somewhere and to never take responsibility for it and never be able to help with all that the child may go through, ever again, is just unthinkable.    

Like almost all surgical operations, abortion is regarded as scary and painful.  But the thinking is:  better to prevent a pregnancy from developing into a child if the woman seriously can't deal with the risks and ordeals of pregnancy and parenthood, or additional parenthood.

And I don't buy into those silly accounts of "would you abort this pregnancy?" which then name off some serious birth defects.  Once you're trapped into maybe saying yes, have an abortion -- then you find out those defects were the same as Beethoven's, for example. To those people I say: so you're saying a woman should risk or sacrifice her life just so that you can listen to some music??  

I say, I don't think so!  If you "respect life," then you would agree that a woman's life is more sacred than great music.  And if you don't agree, then I contend it just shows the vast moral confusion, and perhaps outright hypocrisy, that is frequently exemplified by "pro-life."

In conclusion, regarding the spiritual dimension of this issue, it is amazing to me that anti-abortion forces quote Jeremiah 1:5 from the Bible.  In the first place, no one in America is legally obligated to adhere to the Bible.  According to Article VI in the Constitution, even a U.S. President can be any religion in the world or no religion at all.  Constitutional law specifies that "no religious test shall ever be required" for federal office.  So certainly no citizen either can be subjected to any biblical dictate.  

American laws are based on the premises of many religions -- and beyond religion -- upon simple ethics and common sense.  Fundamentally that is the universal Golden Rule which pertains to respecting others as you yourself wish to be respected.  Respect would certainly not be interfering in a woman's decision about her health and well-being, her entire future!

And for those who are literal biblical, I actually see Jeremiah 1:5 as a good basis FOR abortion rights.  There, God says:  "Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee."  This is a clear implication that souls exist before pregnancy occurs.  It means that the essential person or soul exists before a body is ever created, and therefore life doesn't "begin at conception."  

These biblical words are in alignment with a number of ancient and current religious beliefs and "new age" teachings about the eternal nature of each one of us:  we always have existed and we always will, with life on Earth likely being one of many options.  (Which perhaps explains Jesus' remarks about "My father's house has many mansions.")

It's safe to say that billions of people believe life on Earth is a brief experience, or a series of experiences (as in reincarnation) -- and that if we are not born to one family for whatever reason (birth control, abortion, miscarriage, lack of fertility, etc), then we may very well be born to another family.  Or -- perhaps be born in one of the other "many mansions."

Even some scientists are attracted to this idea that we have always existed and always will exist, and that's because each one of us in essence is Energy -- and "Energy never dies, it only transforms."  From a we-are-essentially-energy perspective, existence before birth and after life are thus seen by many as something that is logical.

This of course in no way implies that a person's life on Earth, once attained via birth, is not sacred.  This does not mean, "Well, if everyone is eternal, then so what if I kill somebody -- they'll still exist!"  No.  Another's body, once it is unarguably a separate life out of the womb, is as sacred and inviolable as your own body.  

But here's the fuzziness on late-term abortion.  Although most would not, some premature births could survive without extreme medical intervention.  But who knows which ones?  And why do late-term abortions exist, anyway, except for the hard reasons mentioned at the beginning of this opinion-piece.  I personally see late-terms as extremely rare -- and then, only because they are extremely necessary.

And Dr. George Tiller of Kansas was there for women and families in those hard circumstances.  His murder exemplies what I see, to repeat, as the vast moral confusion and occasional outright hypocrisy of anti-abortion forces.  I think if they truly care about babies, ALL of their money and all of their efforts would turn away from giving women hardship -- and go instead towards solid support for the countless born children who are hungry, neglected, and abused.

Connie




  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jay Becker 
  To: Citizens Truth 
  Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 11:06 AM
  Subject: [CitizensTruth] On the Murder of Dr. George Tiller


        http://www.revcom.us/a/167/Tiller-en.html




        As We Go to Press: 

        On the Assassination of Caring, Courageous, Abortion Provider, Dr. George Tiller
        As we go to press, the news has broken that Dr. George Tiller, one of the few doctors in the country to openly and publicly perform late-term abortions, was assassinated while attending Sunday services in Wichita, Kansas. His wife, Jeanne Tiller, was in the choir at the time of the murder.




        Dr. Tiller was a courageous, caring doctor who risked his life every day to make it possible for women to have late-term abortions. He had every understanding of what risks he was taking in doing so. He survived a previous assassination attempt in 1993 when he was shot in both arms by Shelly Shannon, a so-called “pro-life” activist. Dr. Tiller returned to work the next day. Over three plus decades of providing abortions, his church was picketed and he was harassed at home. His clinic was bombed. He was hounded by a grand jury investigation, and faced criminal prosecution. In March of this year a Wichita jury took just 45 minutes to acquit Dr. Tiller of charges that he performed 19 illegal late-term abortions in 2003.




        In the face of all this, Dr. Tiller never bent in his commitment to the right of any woman, in any circumstance, to choose whether or not to have an abortion. In 1993, Dr. Tiller said in a statement: “It is not unplanned pregnancy, it is unwanted motherhood that shipwrecks people’s lives. Make no mistake, this battle is about self-determination by women of the direction and course of their lives and their family’s lives. Abortion is about women’s hopes and dreams. Abortion is a matter of survival for women.”




        Debra Sweet, Director of World Can’t Wait, told Revolution that Dr. Tiller was “someone who women could go to in very stressful circumstances, and not find him judgmental.” And she said, “This is a huge blow. Nobody’s doing what he was doing. I’ve known people from all over the country who have gone to him, and doctors from all over the country refer to him because there is no one else. This was the place women could go, as a last resort, even into the third trimester. This is the single most important doctor doing abortions in the country. His view was that he was saving women’s lives by doing this, and he continued doing it even knowing that his own life was at risk.”




        At a pro-choice rally in 2001 in Wichita, Emily Lyons—a nurse who was seriously injured in an anti-abortion bombing of a Birmingham abortion clinic in 1998—spoke about the inspiration she got from Dr. Tiller: “Not only have I been in a war, but gone to hell and come back,” she told the rally. “There are heroes in every war,” she continued, “and Dr. Tiller is one of mine. Many would not have the courage to do what he has accomplished.”




        Mary Lou Greenberg, of the Revolutionary Communist Party, met Dr. Tiller when she helped organize the Wichita protests to defend his clinic and abortion rights in 1995 and again in 2001. She described him as “a very gentle person, who was determined to assist women, and very warm in his manner.” She told Revolution about the impact of seeing the walls of his clinic, lined with framed letters of appreciation, from women of all ages and circumstances. She remembers one, which read, “Thank you for giving me back my life.”




        Dr. Tiller’s defiance, his caring spirit, his commitment to a woman’s right to an abortion, and his sacrifice must serve as a challenge to all those who would not see women reduced to enslavement as forced child-breeders. Revolution will have more to say about the murder of Dr. Tiller and the battle for abortion rights in future issues. But today, we mourn with outrage the loss of this heroic, compassionate abortion doctor.



        People should attend vigils, protests, and other events that are being planned to remember George Tiller and speak out against his murder.




        [For those in or near Chicago, that's 4 pm at the State of Illinois Building, Clark & Randolph, today.]




        Stop thinking like an American, 
        Start thinking about humanity!
       




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