6/4/09
Dr. George Tiller in Doc "What's the Matter with Kansas?"

Salon.com has an extended scene from the forthcoming documentary “What’s the Matter With Kansas?“, based on Thomas Frank’s bestselling book of the same title about the Right Wing’s rise in the once-liberal state. It features Dr. George Tiller, the Wichita-based abortion provider who was gunned down last Sunday while attending church. The clip touches on the years of threats and abuse Tiller experienced — law suits, arson, death threats, failed assassination attempts — for his commitment to providing women with safe and legal reproductive care. When Tiller speaks, he seems exhausted yet resigned to defending women’s rights against these radicals. It’s tragic.

After the jump, a round-up of interesting articles and info on Dr. Tiller and reproductive rights in the wake of his murder:

Read the rest of this post on SUNfiltered



2 Comments

  1. When I found out what happened I was so sad. What he did was a great gift for many women who were suffering. The people who believe that it’s murder and that murder was a good way of getting their point across are crazy and sad in my opinion. Unfourtunaly it opens up the topic that these men and women who perform abortions are threatened to protect our rights and bodies and we should all be grateful we have the right to this procedure whether you want to keep your unplanned unaffordable baby or have tragically lost the fetus and want to terminate. People should be more grateful for our American rights than an antiquated religion which dictates how we should live and think when it is painfully clear it’s outdated and no longer applies to our higher sense of morality and right and wrong.

  2. thanks for posting. I’m glad that one of the sites talks about what exactly is going on as opposed to just spouting opinions and cliches. I do think more needs to be done to explain the numbers. The medical literature for example has estimates of between 25 and 50% of all pregnancies spontaneously aborting. Spontaneous abortion is a technical term and refers to death of the fetus prior to 24 weeks of gestation. Fetal death after that is consider stillbirth. This is important because we know that not all unviable fetuses are terminated naturally, those are the ones that Tiller was dealing with and only with the support of another physician and the request and consent of the women carrying the fetus. As all the testimonies point out, these were not frivolous choices made out of convenience. In fact, quite the contrary. On a slightly separate note, even C. Everett Koop, who had been opposed to abortion, recognized that as a matter of public health, a woman’s right to choose should not be violated. In countries where abortion laws exist and are enforced, maternal mortality rates are much higher. This is a direct result of failed attempts to end pregnancies. It was the same in the US prior to 1973. So, from a policy standpoint we are saving women’s lives and the lives of all the children they might have later in life by maintaining their right to abortion services. This is my off the cuff argument and it needs to be backed up with the stats out there. On a personal note as the son of a former Planned Parenthood OB, I’m proud of what my mother did, more so when I found out as an adult that she had recieved death threats that she and my father hid from my sister and I. As she would say, no one likes abortion. It isn’t a pleasant procedure or topic, but it is necessary and needs to be protected.

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