The death of the Wichita doctor who was murdered on Sunday could have been written-off as the act of a lunatic if it were not for the presumably sane original founder of Operation Rescue who called him a "mass murderer." A subrosa hint of approval: The baby killer got what was coming to him.
The current leaders of anti-abortion groups were quick and mechanical in their statements that they did not condone such action. They are anxious to get this piece of bad publicity out of the headlines so they can re-focus their efforts on the opposition to Obama's SCOTUS nominee, Sonja Sotomayor. They correctly see this as a setback because it focuses the spotlight on their collective loony obsession.
The late-term abortion issue has been hijacked by anti-abortion terrorists who have created an effective campaign of fear and intimidation against the practice, with grisly stories and even pictures on their websites. I say it has been effective because they have scared almost every doctor/nurse/receptionist/hospital administrator out of the field. Tiller was one of three doctors who were still performing legal late term abortions.
But despite the sanctimonious rantings of the likes of Bill O'Reilly et al, it appears that Dr Tiller was not the evil "angel of death", as he has been popularly characterized. He complied with the Kansas law against third-trimester abortions and was acquitted on all charges brought against him.
His patients were not women who found pregnancy inconvenient, but women who found themselves in a horrible dilemma, women whose pregnancies were welcomed but, because of medical complications, would endanger their own life or where abnormalities would doom the baby to a life of pain and suffering. His patients were referred by conscientious doctors who believed that termination was the only viable alternative in such cases. These were acts of compassion. The whackos called it "murder."
Certainly no thinking person wants to encourage late term abortions; but sometimes they are necessary, justified and legal. Tiller was courageously providing a necessary service to these poor women who deserved sympathy, not mindless hectoring from ignorant borderline wack jobs.
Postscript 6/5/09 here is one of the best articles I've seen on this topic
From WSJ June 4
3 comments:
At $6,000 cash per pop-pop and assuming Tiller did 333 late term abortions per year (1/3 of 1,000), that is $2.0 million per year. So I guess Tiller's motives were not all goodness and light. (Or did he donate his profits to orphanages?)
I agree: If someone does something and makes money, we should always question their motives.
He doesn't just make money. He makes CASH. There is a difference. What if some stressed and distressed late-termer gave Tiller a bum check? Yikes!!
Post a Comment