I haven't been a very competent blogger lately. Being home for summer, there's less exciting urgent stuff I want to write about. But I was deeply saddened today to learn about the murder of Dr. George Tiller, a late term abortion provider, in Wichita, Kansas. In '86, Tiller's clinic was bombed, and in '93, Tiller was shot in both arms by radical anti-choice advocates. Today he was killed on his way into church. In addition to providing abortions, Tiller was a defendant in a number of abortion rights lawsuits. It's a tragic loss of a pro-choice medical professional, and a heartbreaking reminder of how fucking stupid some people are.
President Obama is "shocked and outraged." I agree with that sentiment.
Wichita abortion provider George Tiller shot to death at Wichita church
Abortion Doctor Slain by Gunman in Kansas Church (nytimes)
(For my final project for a journalism class this semester, I wrote an article on the New York Abortion Access Fund, and learned a lot about the incredible hoops that many women still have to jump through to access affordable, safe, legal abortion services. There is still SO MUCH legislation in this country (most of it state by state) that limits access to abortion; often an unavoidable consequence of laws restricting abortion funding, forcing women to travel to other states, etc. is that women must wait until later and later to terminate their pregnancy. While I understand the controversy surrounding "late term" abortions, they're so frequently the only option for women who spend months trying to obtain and afford abortion services. I'm so sad the pro-choice community has lost an abortion provider who understood this.)
Sunday, May 31, 2009
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