Our View on Death in Wichita: Activists Mount Militant Assault on Abortion Rights
An op-ed in USA Today confronts the recent murder of Dr. George Tiller. Read the article here or below.
Our view on death in Wichita: Activists mount militant assault on abortion rights USA Today Editorial published 6/4/09 In the United States of America, medical professionals should not have to carry guns, wear bulletproof vests, hire bodyguards or live in fear of assassins. But doctors who provide abortions, particularly late-term procedures, often do some or all those things. The lifeline that these physicians provide for women in difficult, sometimes desperate, circumstances grew even thinner on Sunday, when Dr. George Tiller was gunned down in the foyer of his Wichita church. Vilified by anti-abortion groups, Tiller was a hero to thousands of women. Some came to him as a last resort after learning their baby had a fatal condition or that their own health was at grievous risk. Tiller's insistence on helping those women was remarkably courageous. He had already been shot, and his clinic had been bombed and vandalized. How many people would carry on doing what they thought was right if they had to live in constant fear that they'd be shot or blown up? How many medical students want to choose a life like that? Regrettably, threats by anti-abortion activists have worked all too well. The number of abortion providers is down almost 40% since the peak in 1982, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. Already, 87% of counties have no provider, and women often have to travel long distances to find a willing doctor. Tiller's clinic was one of only three in the nation offering the late-term procedure. Anti-abortion groups were generally quick to condemn his slaying, and the author of the opposing view below correctly calls the slaying a "cowardly act." Mainstream pro-life groups should not be blamed for the actions of a suspected killer who appears to have lurked in the violent and twisted fringe of the movement, where murdering a doctor is excused as justifiable retribution. That said, the braying of cable TV hosts such as Fox's Bill O'Reilly and activists such as Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry contributes to a climate of intolerance that can encourage deranged individuals. O'Reilly repeatedly referred to the doctor as "Tiller the baby killer," and Terry, who is no longer associated with Operation Rescue, called Tiller a "mass murderer" whose "hands were covered with blood." On an issue as heated as the abortion battle, not everything that's legal to say is wise to say. The fact that some activists see Tiller's killing as the murder of a murderer simply is not relevant. The doctor acted within the law. In the 36 years since Roe v. Wade, abortion foes haven't been able to outlaw the procedure or convince most Americans that it should be illegal. A recent Gallup Poll showed that 76% of Americans still believe that abortion should be legal in all or certain circumstances, virtually unchanged in three decades. Thwarted in legislatures and courts, some anti-abortion activists are achieving with intimidation and harassment what they can't through the political process. They harshly and aggressively confront women on their way into clinics, picket doctors at their homes or churches, and harass doctors, clinic workers, contractors and landlords. Regardless of personal beliefs about abortion, authorities have an obligation to protect those providing and receiving abortion services, and to prosecute those who harass or threaten them. The tragedy of Tiller's death will only be compounded if it frightens away more doctors and makes a legal procedure even harder to come by.
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