Dr. Tiller
I've been trying to post about Dr. Tiller's murder for the last 24 hours, and all that comes out is type - delete - type - delete - type - delete.
My heart is broken.
Like everyone else, I am enraged by the pro-life glee that is blowing up the web. I want to pour out every single thing I know and have seen about why women have abortions, particularly late term abortions, and why I know this man was as compassionate as it gets.
I want to scream every time I see the lies thrown around about him, the outrageous arrogance that assumes he was rich, he was corrupt, he was evil, he cared nothing for women.
Several months ago I spent two weeks calling all over the goddamned country trying to find funding for a young woman who needed to see Dr. Tiller. Her child had a huge brain tumor that was not only ensuring it's death shortly after birth, but it was killing her because she had another medical condition. And no one would help her. No one. I spent several days on the phone with the staff of Dr. Tiller's clinic, with them trying to figure out how we could get the price lower, what they could comp, how they could possibly get her the meds she needed for free. We got her to Kansas, and she reported later that it was an incredibly compassionate experience on all sides that got her back safe and healthy to her three kids. That clinic deals with the hardest cases, so I suspect they got phone calls like mine every single day. Soon there may be nowhere for women like this to go.
When I hear people say that abortion clinics and their doctors make huge amounts of money, I want to spit on them. Most of the doctors make much less than gynecologists in the same area, and with the added pressure of safety issues and harassement. The clinics themselves often make very little, because so much of the money goes back into helping women who can't afford the service.
I've seen a million posts that have written about this issue much more eloquently than I will ever be able to, but I can talk about it. That's what I'm good at. So here is where I'm headed with my next actions - towards the middle, away from the people screaming in the streets.
To be continued.
My heart is broken.
Like everyone else, I am enraged by the pro-life glee that is blowing up the web. I want to pour out every single thing I know and have seen about why women have abortions, particularly late term abortions, and why I know this man was as compassionate as it gets.
I want to scream every time I see the lies thrown around about him, the outrageous arrogance that assumes he was rich, he was corrupt, he was evil, he cared nothing for women.
Several months ago I spent two weeks calling all over the goddamned country trying to find funding for a young woman who needed to see Dr. Tiller. Her child had a huge brain tumor that was not only ensuring it's death shortly after birth, but it was killing her because she had another medical condition. And no one would help her. No one. I spent several days on the phone with the staff of Dr. Tiller's clinic, with them trying to figure out how we could get the price lower, what they could comp, how they could possibly get her the meds she needed for free. We got her to Kansas, and she reported later that it was an incredibly compassionate experience on all sides that got her back safe and healthy to her three kids. That clinic deals with the hardest cases, so I suspect they got phone calls like mine every single day. Soon there may be nowhere for women like this to go.
When I hear people say that abortion clinics and their doctors make huge amounts of money, I want to spit on them. Most of the doctors make much less than gynecologists in the same area, and with the added pressure of safety issues and harassement. The clinics themselves often make very little, because so much of the money goes back into helping women who can't afford the service.
I've seen a million posts that have written about this issue much more eloquently than I will ever be able to, but I can talk about it. That's what I'm good at. So here is where I'm headed with my next actions - towards the middle, away from the people screaming in the streets.
To be continued.