WICHITA, Kan. - The Kansas National Organization for Women will honor Dr. George Tiller on the one year anniversary of his brutal assassination. A candlelight vigil will be held to pay tribute to this honorable man's life, work and legacy.
We will gather at 8:00 p.m. on May 31st in Old Town Square, just as we did last year on the evening of his murder. See pictures of last year's vigil here!
Candles will be provided for an in-kind donation.
Speakers will share their memories of Dr. Tiller and messages of peaceful resistance against extremist anti- abortion messaging, legislation and the continued harassment of the doctors that provide necessary abortion care.
Abortion is a right for all women. Dr. Tiller gave the ultimate sacrifice in defense of that right. Join us as we honor him and show the Wichita community that we have not forgotten his life and his service to the women he trusted.
Sorry, ... (Editorial bleep inserted here). What he did was a sin and the Bible bears this out as well as 2000 years of Christian teaching. The Didache, the Teaching of the Apostles, specifically called it a sin. The Hippocratic Oath also prohibits abortion. It was ironic that the notorious baby killer Tiller was gunned down in a supposed Christian church. ... (Editorial bleep inserted here)... No person has the right to kill another person, and the tiny baby in utero is a person no matter what a misguided Supreme Court said in 1973.
Sorry, Ed. Whether you like it or not, we're a nation of laws and not religious beliefs. The majority in this country don't want a Christian Taliban running things.
Sorry Ed, but your comment shows a good deal of ignorance of facts about who sought out Dr. Tiller's services, why they did, and what the consequences were for them if they did not have the procedure.
You might get more people to listen to what you have to say with less personal prejudice and hypocritical hyperbole in your comment.
Why is it wrong to kill a fetus in utero - a mass of cells that cannot survive outside the womb -- just to abort that person on a battlefield when they are 19?
If you take the stand that abortion is murder, then how can you condone capital punishment or war -- especially modern war that kills hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, or oppose climate change legislation, or support the stock piling of nuclear arms?
People have the right to take the stand that killing human life is wrong -- as you state in your comment -- however, I am extremely tired of the moral relativism of the Right to Life movement and the people who support its irrational arguments and interference with private medical procedures when these same people support war and militarism, capital punishment, and oppose national health care, oppose legislation that protects women in the workplace for sexual harassment, or that addresses global warming.
And do I even have to bring up the scandal of the Roman Catholic Church (and other religious denominations) with the pedophiles that claim to be religious leaders... at this point the Catholic Church and the Right to Life organizations it supports has no moral standing to continue their irrational and fear-based war on a woman's right to make her own health decisions given the damage it has wrought on the lives of thousands of people.
And NO ONE has the right to kill another human to impose their narrow, bigoted religious views of the rest of society when it comes to health care decisions. Shame on you for even suggesting that such an act is morally right.
Facts: Abortion is legal. In the United States of America, our constitution respects a woman's right to privacy - and ultimately her dominion over the sovereignty of her own body. The government cannot dictate what a woman does with her own body. Dr. Tiller was a compassionate, skilled physician who provided legal medical procedures for women who chose to terminate pregnancies, all very legal. The man that killed Dr. Tiller broke the law.
Editorial Note: This website does not allow, by policy, for commenters to justify the killing of obstetricians, nor does it allow commenters to justify any act of illegal murder. Under ordinary circumstances, the editor of this site routinely deletes comments such as the one written by "Ed" above. However, since Will and Christopher have so handily responded to Ed's inappropriate comment, the editor will leave it up to Will and Christopher to decide whether we should allow this string of comments to remain, or if they would prefer that these be erased. Will and Christopher, your thoughts?
Pamela--It's up to you whether to delete the comments, but I'm not sorry to stand up to Ed and say Dr. Tiller was a hero. He put his life on the line every day so that women and their families could get the services they needed. Women came to him from all over the world when their own doctors knew continuing their pregnancies would endanger their lives or leave them unable to have more children. Most of those fetuses were so damaged they couldn't live outside the womb. If Ed had talked to even one of these women and seen her cry in gratitude at getting her life back, as I did, he might have an understanding of why Dr. Tiller did what he did.
Ed, when you get pregnant and have to deal with it, you will have a right to use your Bible to decide what to do. Other people don't live by your interpetation of the Bible.
In the meantime, you might educate yourself about the history of abortion in this country and why women have abortions.
I also think, Pam, that you should make your own choice about whether to leave Ed's comments up. Perhaps leaving them up lets more people see the utter stupidity displayed by someone who believes he has the right to enforce his own limited beliefs on others while making light of a truly great man, George Tiller.
Here's how I reflect on Ed's comments: When you refer to the Bible bearing out the concept that abortion is a sin,Ed, you need to tell us precisely: what chapter and verse? Quote it for us, please. Next, when you try to appear scholarly and quote the Didache (the Teaching of the Apostles), why don't you mention that this earliest of documents (there are many versions of it) comes from the third or fourth century or before and is thought by many scholars to have originated with the Babylonian Talmud (that's right,THE Talmud) and by others to have come from ancient Jewish writings before being considered the very Catholic Christian documents. If you intend to follow the recommendations therein, you must also stop eating meat (by holy requirement, yet). And there are many other things referred to that I'll bet you don't practice, Ed.
And how about the Hippocratic Oath (With you, Ed, I guess it might be more like the Hypocritical Oath)! That oath has many versions. The old or classical version which refers to abortion is seldom in use today. The new version is used in over 90% of the swearing in of new physicians and makes absolutely no reference to abortion. The older one, which makes reference to abortion also states that no doctor should "use the knife", therefore, do NO surgery. Do you advocate that ED? If not, then why choose the "no abortion section'?
My point is, there is no one great recommendation the world over in any religion that makes that reference---there is only the part which a person chooses to refer to--and then give it the credence of religious approval. The old thing of "Whatever I think is right and Holy and what you do is wrong, because MY GOD said so!" Many a sanctimonious soul has been known to do that, and I wonder if it will ever stop.
The Bible recognizes that God alone is the author of life. It is His to give and to take up again. It also recognizes that life begins at conception and the personhood of the child in the womb, some references to this are Isaiah 44:2, 24; Isaiah 49:1, 5; Ecclesiastes 11:5; Jeremiah 1:5; Jeremiah 20:15-18; Hosea 12: 2-4; Wisdom of Solomon 7: 1-3; Sirach 49: 7; and Nehemiah 8: 4-12. God’s Fourth Commandment addresses what we generally refer to as murder, but a clearer understanding of the Commandment prohibits the shedding of innocent blood. From ancient time, this was understood to include the taking of the life of the child in the womb, abortion. Moreover, Exodus 21: 22-25 states, “When men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no harm follows (meaning that there is no harm to the woman and the child survives the miscarriage), the one who hurt her shall be fined, according as the woman’s husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.”
Regarding the Didache, most scholars recognize that it was written between 70 and 100 A.D., not from the third or fourth century, and that it is a compilation of the beliefs and practices of the early Church. It is the earliest such compilation, and many of the early bishops included it in their canon of Sacred Scriptures. My research has come up with only one version of the Didache, and it is well documented.
The modern Hippocratic Oath which is used by the AMA today was written in 1964, but not accepted by the AMA until in the 1970’s after the Supreme Court voided all laws prohibiting abortion and after much controversy within the AMA. Prior to that time, the classical Hippocratic Oath, prohibiting abortive remedies, infanticide, assisted suicide, and euthanasia, remained in use.
The child in utero is more than a mass of cells incapable of surviving outside of the womb. Anyone saying that is either ignorant of, or chooses to ignore, the facts of the development of the child in the womb. At 10 weeks gestation, the baby is fully formed with all body systems present and functional. He, or she, even has the fingerprints he will bear during his whole life. Babies delivered at 20 weeks now routinely survive, and this threshold is continually being pushed back earlier in the pregnancy. Dr. Tiller specialized in late term abortions, after 20 weeks gestation, when the baby could survive. Some will argue here that the baby cannot survive on its own, but no child under 2 or 3 years can survive without assistance, and no one of any age can survive if denied food, hydration, and shelter.
Abortion may be the law of the land now, but prior to the sexual revolution of the late 1960’s abortion was illegal in all countries because all countries recognized the value of human life. Prior to the Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade, the child in the womb was recognized as a person with inherent rights. He, or she, still is in many instances. Our Declaration of Independence recognized that we are all endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among them are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Without the Right to Life, all other rights are meaningless.
If life begins at conception, doesn't that mean that life begins at the moment at which the sperm meets the egg? And if that's a case, can't we rewind just a little more and say that each tiny sperm is a baby? Each woman's egg is a baby?
Every time you Christians jack off and millions of sperm cells are released, you're having millions of abortions.
Every time a woman has her period, her egg, which was a baby, passes through the fallopian tube. Each cycle of menstruation is an abortion.
Does that millisecond really matter? It's only a baby when sperm meets the egg?
Next time you pro-life men reach into your pants to get off on the next abortion doctor's assassination, remember that every sperm you release is an abortion of your would-be children.
Editorial comment directed to "sbf.johnson":
The editors appreciate your civil and well-reasoned explanation of why you believe that abortion is a sin. We appreciate you having taken the time to put extensive thought and preparation into your comment. The editors will allow your comment to stand as we do appreciate your civility and reasonableness in your explanation.
Editorial comment directed to "Ed":
While the editors do appreciate your wish to engage in conversation here about the morality of abortion, we question the appropriateness of you having chosen to do so as an appendage to this particular article.
Many of the readers at KFP knew Dr. Tiller personally and are still grieving his passing. The facts remain that abortion is legal and that Dr. Tiller was a law-abiding citizen who was illegally and cruelly killed by a convicted murderer.
The editorial staff at Kansas Free Press believe that an announcement regarding the upcoming local event honoring the life of a law-abiding man, who was murdered, is not the appropriate venue on the Internet to engage in comments about your ideas of sin and, particularly, whether or not you believe the murdered victim was a sinner.
In general, we also view your approach as a "blame the victim" scenario similar to what many do when they blame rape victims for being raped or battered spouses for being harmed or assaulted.
At KFP, we do not wish to unwittingly provide a medium through which victims can be re-victimized. As such, "blame the victim" comments are not welcome here at KFP as we view them as both unfair and offensive to victims, victims' families and others.
We would direct you to seek out other places on the Internet where a "blame the victim" string of comments might be tolerated, or at least unmonitored, though surely not any less offensive. But, please not here. And in this case, not in response to a vigil honoring the life of a law-abiding citizen, beloved by many.
I have not played the "blame the victim game" at all and I take offense at your suggestion that I have. I also do not see that Ed did either, but I am not biased in that direction. I was merely responding to previous comments made that were not correct. Regarding Michelle's statement about the sperm and egg being separate lives, they are not since neither contains the full set of 46 chromosomes needed to make up the DNA that determines the characteristics of every human. Each contains only 23 chromosomes, which is only one half of the needed 46. I hope that clarifies that issue.