DODGE CITY, Kan. - I was moved to write this article after reading the fascinating one concerning third trimester abortions and the flood of comments that followed. It made me think that there are many facts still not revealed about what happens in these cases. My knowledge comes from the time I visited Dr. Tiller's clinic as a new State Representative in the Kansas House. We had been invited, if we were interested in coming to Wichita, to learn what really happens there. I sent in my RSVP and arrived at the gate to present my ID. Dr. Tiller had been shot in the arm previously, so there was, already, a tall fence--a barricade, really, around the clinic. I drove my car to the gate and the guard at the gate allowed me to drive into the compound. There were protesters across the street, holding signs.
I parked my car and was welcomed into the clinic by an attendant, who explained the procedure we would follow. I was allowed to pick a client's case, without a name. It was a mother who had allowed her case to be included so that I might be able to "follow the case along." Then I was introduced to Dr. Tiller. He proceeded to explain the initial process of a client just arriving. He encouraged me to ask any questions along the way. I had lots of them, and he answered every one fully and completely. "My client" had been a young married woman who had learned near the end of her fifth month of pregnancy that there was something terribly wrong with her baby. She lived in the Southern US and had been very uncomfortable with the summer heat and reasoned that was why she had been feeling worse lately. This was her first pregnancy. The doctor immediately sent her to another doctor for consultation and they then sent her to a specialist.
That specialist ran tests and consulted yet another authority. By that time she was well into her sixth month. At last they came to the ghastly decision that her baby's brain was forming partially outside of its head. They were unsure if some other organs might also be forming outside the body.They did not believe the baby could live. The mother and her husband were devastated. This was a much-wanted baby! They talked with her parents. All were very opposed to abortion, but decided they probably had no choice. By the time they had made the decision, she was in her seventh month. They went to their doctor with their decision. He informed them that their state law did not allow third term abortions. He could not perform one.
They called a doctor across the state line, where third term abortions were allowable if it were necessary to save the life of the mother. The doctor had not indicated that this was the case. Neither had he indicated that it was not. They didn't know. Finally someone heard about George Tiller up in Kansas. The mother's parents called him. Her father came to visit Dr. Tiller and the clinic. He wanted to make sure that Dr. Tiller was not some "butcher" who was just out to make money off his daughter and son-in-law's terrible tragedy. Dr. Tiller encouraged the family to come along with her to the clinic and be present with her, just as they might have at a regular birth. They did that. By now, she was in the beginning of her eighth month and very uncomfortable, in real pain.
When they arrived, Mother, her husband, her mother, her father, and her older brother, Dr. Tiller brought them all into the clinic where he showed them the clinic and explained the process to them. He showed them the small meditation room or chapel.
He gave them time there to meditate or pray about their decision. Once they had decided, he phoned a nearby hotel with which he had special arrangements and got them rooms for the night. Then he gave the mother a shot which would start the process of gently ending the baby's life. The family left the clinic and went to the hotel where the mother could rest. The next day they brought her back and she was given another shot to continue the process. Again they went back to the hotel, returning the following day.
On that day, they started the process of birthing, but the baby was, of course, born dead. It had suffered no pain. That was the reason for the shots. After the baby was born, the doctor took the child and laid it in the mother's arms. Dr. Tiller presented her with a tiny receiving blanket to wrap the baby in. Using a Polaroid camera, he took a picture of the baby, and one of the mother holding the baby and gave them to her. He had asked them ahead of time of their religious preference, and if they had requested it, he would have had a minister present for a brief service there. As it was, the father said a prayer, and it was over.
Dr. Tiller told me that he had a copy of that baby's picture and that he would show it to me, if I wanted to see it. He warned me that it was not a pleasant thing to see. I asked to look at it. Then he said, "Can you guess what the mother said when she saw the baby?" I couldn't. He told me the mother said quite breathlessly, "Isn't she beautiful?! And look at her tiny little hands. They are perfect." Dr. Tiller's eyes were moist as he said to me, "They all do that. No mother ever sees the awfulness. They all see the beauty! That's the reason I can do this work."
I admit, I have tears as I write this. Dr. George Tiller was no monster, no "Tiller the Killer." He was a good and decent man who knew how hard it was for some women to go through the agony that happened for whatever unexplained reason, and then to have people judge her, as if she had committed a sin! People say perhaps we should let God decide when and if the baby should die. Can you not make that same argument about YOU going to the doctor when you are ill? Can you not say that if God wants you to get well, you will? You do not need to go to the doctor. It's God's will. No one knows what damages can happen to the woman's body. In some cases she can be damaged so that she cannot have further children. Who should be allowed to make that choice?
Some think the legislature should make laws outlawing abortion. As I served in the legislature in the years following my visit to Dr. Tiller's clinic, I sat in hearings and listened to people testifying on both sides of the issue on abortion. But never did I hear anything that made me believe that a group of legislators sitting in the capitol could ever draft a bill that would cover all the circumstances that a woman might encounter during pregnancy.
I heard many people testify against all abortions, and particularly against third trimester abortions. They testified that what a doctor did in those cases was to reach in with a scalpel and poke the baby's head and then suction out the brain. Maybe that is done somewhere, but it wasn't the method in Tiller's clinic. And I doubt if it usually is. To me, it has become so emotionally charged, that I wonder if we will ever figure it out.
George Tiller's favorite quote was "Trust Women." I think he was right. If you want to end abortions, do the many things we need to do to end the reasons. Provide good solid sex education if your concern is the teens possibly becoming sexually active too early or without any sense of responsibility. But let's quit acting like every pregnant women is just an over-sexed teenager who doesn't know enough to make her own decisions.
This isn't what the anti-abortion folks think, and I understand that. What I don't understand is how anybody in the world can think it is right to walk into a church and shoot a man in the forehead at point-blank range. Roeder thought he shot a baby-killer. He shot a good, Christian man, who was a husband, father, grandfather, friend, and a man of great courage. There are other abortion doctors who have to live in fear. If they are as good-hearted and decent as Dr. Tiller, they will probably continue to work and do their best. I recently received a communication from Julie Burkhart, who worked in Tiller's clinic. She has started an organization dedicated to protecting the lives of other abortion providers in the US. She calls the organization, "Trust Women." How appropriate. I hope we all do!
Ethel,
This is a great post. I attended a Catholic school in Wichita, and remember being able to get out of class if we drew anti abortion posters and protested during the summer of mercy. I was in third grade and hardly understood anything besides the fact that 'people were killing babies' and that I could get out of class. Now, as an adult, I claim to be neither pro choice nor anti abortion. I know it's a highly personal issue that I've never had to seriously consider, and I wish more people would simply 'trust women' to make the right decision for themselves. There was a vigil for Tiller here in Lawrence and many women spoke about how Tiller helped them. I wish more people could have heard those stories.
Thanks for writing this Ethel. It's educational, sincere, and a wonderful and clear-minded way of understanding who Dr. Tiller was and the service he provided. Thank you for taking the time to share this.
Fantastic post. Much more eloquent than mine. These are the things that people need to know. We must, as a nation, talk about this. Or else more abortion doctors will die.
Thanks for writing this, Ethel. Several years ago I talked to a woman who had come to Dr. Tiller's clinic for a late-term abortion. She cried as she told me that they she and her husband wanted this baby, their first, but if she had given birth, the baby would have died and her ability to have more children would have been compromised. They had more children and she was grateful to Dr. Tiller for making that possible.
I know only a few doctors do what Dr. Tiller did. Physicians all over the world sent their patients to him because he was skilled as well as being kind and caring. He empowered women to do what was right for them.
Thanks again for this testimony to his goodness.
This is important. Thank you, Ethel.
Thank you for this moving story, I am in tears. We lived in Wichita for some time, where I drove my daughter to school in the morning. The quickest route took us past Dr. Tiller's clinic, past the grossly graphic signs, past the protesters planting crucifixes. I would think, how brave the women were that past through the protesters into the clinic. Your article illustrates just how brave one was. I know there are many more and they will remember Dr. Tiller as a compassionate person and professional.