Vigil in Remembrance of Dr. George Tiller.

Atlanta Vigil for Slain Abortion Provider, Dr. George Tiller.

Tuesday, June 2 *Woodruff Park* 7pm

Yesterday morning while attending church service in Wichita,Kansas, heroic abortion provider, Dr. George Tiller, was shot and killed. This is horrible news and a blow to women’s reproductive health care in this country. Dr. Tiller was one of very few doctor’s who provided late term abortions for women. Dr. Tiller was often the only option for women seeking this particular type of care- women facing one of the hardest decisions facing their bodies and pregnancies.

Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go to Dr. Tiller’s family, his clinic family, and the women of Kansas and beyond. Our thoughts are also here in Georgia and the South, where access to abortion care is limited and our amazing providers and tireless clinic staff, even in the face of real danger, give compassionate, necessary care for women. Thank you for all you do!

Anti-choice violence is back and in full force. Many of us have been fearful of the violent back lash after the election of a pro-choice president. During the Clinton administration, anti-choice attacks on providers and clinic workers increased 5 times.

In these times, when it is hardest to be visible- when visibility feels like a risk to safety- it is most important that we join as a community to amplify and demand reproductive justice now. Attacks to providers and clinics, threaten lives, make access to basic healthcare impossible, and silences women and our communities.

Join us Tuesday June 2nd 7PM at Woodruff Park for a Vigil in Remembrance of Dr. George Tiller. We will peacefully join together as a community of activists seeking answers, comfort, and to collectively think about our next steps.

If you have any questions, please email paris@sparkrj.org or call 404.532.0022.

Posted

June 1, 2009

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Juliana

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31 responses to “Vigil in Remembrance of Dr. George Tiller.”

innerredneckexposed

June 3, 2009

Logic: this thread has none.
CatherineAtlanta

June 3, 2009

What is the “average pro-lifer”?

Are they the ones who stalk patients outside local clinics? Are they the ones who financially support Operation Rescue (lets face it-they get their money from somewhere)?

Or are they the ones who advocate for sex education; pre-natal care; children’s medical care; parental education?

If it’s the latter, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, in my experience, the former are more prevalent.
Zaid

June 3, 2009

Either way, it’s still unfair to associate your average pro-lifer with terrorists.
odinseye2k

June 3, 2009

“Great point here. It would be wrong to associate all antiwar people with terrorists, as it’s wrong to associate all prolife people with terrorists. The problem is the violence itself.”

Except that the “baby killers” and spitting on GI’s upon their return was found to be a myth, and that the most radical anti-war actions involve the blockading of ports. I don’t know of any web boards that post the home addresses and photos of defense contractors and/or senior military officials. The “lone crazy” thesis fits the shooter of the Private better, especially since the guy had to travel *outside* the US in order to find a group organized enough to send him after Army personnel. Our anti-choicers homebrew their own.

I can’t remember where I heard it, but there was a quip that leftie radicals like to break and burn stuff while rightie radicals liked to kill people. I’m thinking the latter deserves a bit more attention.
Zaid

June 2, 2009

“I would also like to take a moment to remember Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, Arkansas, who was gunned down yesterday at a military recruiting center. The cops say the shooter had a problem with the military and this was his response.

Death penalty, war, UFC, Mortal Kombat, John Wayne… using violence to solve our problems is so ingrained into our society…”

Great point here. It would be wrong to associate all antiwar people with terrorists, as it’s wrong to associate all prolife people with terrorists. The problem is the violence itself.
David

June 2, 2009

The murder of Dr. Tiller will be our lead topic on Game On: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gameon

Feel free to call in tonight at 8:00 pm to (646) 929-0643

to discuss this tragedy and the explosive politics surrounding it.
J.M. Prince

June 2, 2009

Who Dr. George Tiller was and what & why he did it. Part 3:

George Tiller Refused To Quit: “Women Need Me”

Story from Huffington Post/AP:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/02/george-tiller-refused-to_n_210202.html

“To some he was an unflinching hero, to others a remorseless villain. As a late-term abortion doctor, George Tiller knew he had chosen a dangerous career, one that made him a lightning rod. His clinic was a fortress, his days marred by threats, but he refused to give up what he saw as his life’s mission.

“He never wavered,” says Susie Gilligan, who knew Tiller as part of her work in the Feminist Majority Foundation. “He never backed away. He had incredible strength. When you spoke to him, he was a soft-spoken man, a very gentle man. He said, ‘This is what I have to do. Women need me. I know they need me.’”

Tiller, 67, whose Wichita, Kan., clinic had been the target of anti-abortion protests for more than two decades, was fatally shot Sunday while serving as an usher at his church. The suspect, identified by police as Scott Roeder, was taken into custody three hours later on suspicion of murder.

As one of a few doctors across the nation to perform third-trimester abortions, Tiller had survived an earlier shooting, his clinic was bombed, his home picketed. He hired a Brink’s armored truck to take him to work for several weeks, he had federal marshals protecting him for 30 months. He built a new surgical center without windows and he was known to wear a bulletproof vest, sometimes even to church.

Through it all, he stood defiant.

When a pipe bomb heavily damaged his clinic in the mid 1980s, he hung a sign outside the rubble saying: “Hell, No. We Won’t Go!” He offered a $10,000 award _ which was never collected.

When thousands of protesters gathered at the Women’s Health Care Services clinic in 1991 for the 45-day “Summer of Mercy” demonstration staged by Operation Rescue, he was again unbowed.

“I am a willing participant in this conflict,” he said at the time. “I choose to be here because I feel that it is the moral, it is the ethical thing to do.”

Story continues below

He told The Wichita Eagle newspaper in 1991 that prayer and meditation helped him through hard times. “If I’m OK on the inside,” he said, “what people say on the outside does not make much difference.”

When a woman passing out anti-abortion literature shot him in both arms outside the clinic two years later, he briefly pursued her by car, recalls Peggy Bowman, his former spokeswoman. “He didn’t even know he was shot and all of a sudden he saw this blood (and figured), ‘I probably shouldn’t spend my time chasing this woman,’” she says.

Tiller suffered minor wounds _ and was back at the clinic the next day. (That’s when he hired the armored truck.)

This spring, Tiller was acquitted of misdemeanor charges of violating Kansas restrictions on late-term abortions. Shortly after, the state’s medical board announced it was investigating allegations against him that were nearly identical to those a jury had rejected.

Tiller’s outspokenness rankled his critics, who decried as a publicity stunt his offer several years ago to provide free abortions on the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. He said at the time at least 32 low-income women signed up for the free first-trimester abortions.

Abortion opponents also claimed Tiller’s large financial involvement in Kansas politics thwarted prosecutions against him. They routinely blamed Tiller’s “corrupt influences in the government” whenever legislation strengthening state abortion laws failed to pass the Legislature or was vetoed by the governor.

While anti-abortion activists have condemned Tiller’s death, Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue _ who also said the gunman was wrong _ told the National Press Club on Monday the doctor was “a mass murderer and, horrifically, he reaped what he sowed.”

Tiller, a former Navy flight surgeon, hadn’t planned to be an abortion doctor. He hoped to become a dermatologist.

But when his father, also a doctor, died in a plane crash (his mother, sister and brother-in-law also were killed), he took over the family practice. He soon learned the elder Tiller had performed abortions.

“In reading through some of his records, he realized his father had done abortions when they were illegal,” says Bowman, his former spokeswoman. “At first, he was really shocked. Then in going through those charts, he totally began to understand the importance of this service.”

Friends and colleagues say Tiller, a father of four and grandfather of 10, was a strong-willed, unassuming man who was quick with a hug or a joke. He decorated his office with family photos. He cherished rituals; he raised American flags in his clinic parking lot after the 1991 protests were over and later gave them to volunteers.

“He was never riled, he was always calm and cool,” says Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. “He was a very serious man, but a very good-natured one.”

In a 2008 speech to a young women’s leadership conference sponsored by the foundation, he said he was on a hit list in 1994, leading to federal protection. His wife was stalked, he said, and the names of his vendors were made public on the Internet.

“But the good news,” he said, “is we still live in the United States of America” and Roe vs. Wade allows women the opportunity to terminate pregnancies.

Dr. Susan Robinson, a California obstetrician-gynecologist who calls Tiller her mentor, recalls one day when she asked him: “How can you stand it being in a pressure cooker?’ He said, ‘If it it’s none of my business, I don’t get involved. If it doesn’t matter, I don’t get involved. If there’s nothing I can do about it, I don’t get involved.’ ”

But it was clear his work had taken a toll. Willow Eby, who worked as a volunteer escort at the clinic, remembers a conference she attended last year for abortion providers where he talked about his work.

“He explained that this would take your youth, it would take your energy, it would wear you down,” she recalls. “But he said he would not let down the women who needed him badly.”

Tiller once said his “gifts of understanding” helped him bring a service to women that aided them in fulfilling their dreams of a happy, healthy family. It was important, he said, that women have a choice when dealing with technology that can diagnose severe fetal abnormalities before a baby is born.

“Prenatal testing without prenatal choices is medical fraud,” he declared.

Colleagues said Tiller’s office walls were lined with letters from patients expressing their thanks.

One woman who turned to him was Miriam Kleiman, of northern Virginia. Nine years ago, a routine sonogram revealed her 29-week-old fetus had major brain abnormalities that prevented the baby’s heart and lungs from functioning properly.

Doctors told her the baby would die in utero or soon after birth. Kleiman’s doctors told her a third trimester abortion was not possible.

Kleiman says she could not bear a two-month death watch. “There was a baby dying inside of me, and it wasn’t if, but when,” she says.

After desperate pleas, she says, a doctor scribbled Tiller’s name on a scrap of paper. She and her husband flew to Wichita and drove through a gauntlet of protesters to the fortress-like clinic.

She remembers Tiller and his staff as kind and compassionate. She had the abortion and brought home her baby to be buried.

Kleiman, who now has two sons, says she cried when she heard of Tiller’s death while watching her son’s soccer game.

“I fear,” she says, “that other people might not have this option in the future _ to have a medical option that was safe, that was legal and allowed us to say goodbye with dignity.”

___

Lest we forget. JMP
innerredneckexposed

June 2, 2009

In before lock.
Drew

June 2, 2009

Zaid, if this were an instance of a homophobe planting a bomb in a gay bar, not only would we not be called upon to label anti-gay groups “pro-family” in the interest of comity, we wouldn’t be criticized for calling the terrorist himself “anti-gay,” no matter how respectable, polite most anti-gay people are, or how many there are.

I see no reason to adopt a different standard here.

The problem with your demand is the implicit equivalence you assert between the pro-life movement and the pro-choice movement, when as Dr. Tiller’s life illustrates, there is none. He and his family were terrorized. His clinic was bombed. He was shot. Three times.

Even the government, which should have defended him, was so dominated by the pro-life movement that it joined in the persecution, prosecuting him rather than defending him from the violence that perpetrated by the pro-life movement.

And he wasn’t the only one. He’s only the latest victim.

I don’t think we should ignore the truth of what happened to Dr. Tiller, and I especially don’t think we should do so on behalf of those who labeled him a murderer, or so that those who call themselves “pro-life” can continue to ignore the nature of the extremists who serve as the muscle for their agenda.

Really, in order to understand exactly who Dr. Tiller is, and why he is important, you have to acknowledge what he dealt with.
JerryT

June 2, 2009

I would also like to take a moment to remember Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, Arkansas, who was gunned down yesterday at a military recruiting center. The cops say the shooter had a problem with the military and this was his response.

Death penalty, war, UFC, Mortal Kombat, John Wayne… using violence to solve our problems is so ingrained into our society…
J.M. Prince

June 2, 2009

Who Dr. Tiller was & what he did, Part 2:

Via the DailyKos.com

“A Doctor’s Story – Why I and my patients will miss Dr. Tiller

by dagan68

A Doctor’s Story – Why I and my patients will miss Dr. Tiller

Mon Jun 01, 2009 at 10:08:42 AM PDT

I am an internist in Texas.

Dr. Tiller was the only physician in this part of the country to whom I could send patients for critical procedures.

I wanted to share a patient’s story – and what has happened to that patient’s family because of men like Dr. Tiller.

This is a true tragedy – I am just heart-broken.

* dagan68’s diary :: ::

*

A few years ago, I was on call to take unassigned patients from the ER. My job as an internist is to admit patients whom the ER doctor deems need to be admitted.

That night, I admitted a 32 year old man for chest pain. When I opened the door to his room, I realized that this was not a normal “chest pain” admission. Sure, that was his main complaint – however, he was in perfect physical shape, muscular, thin and healthy – not the usual McDonald’s physique that would most likely produce coronary disease in a 32 year old.

He was, however, sobbing uncontrollably. He was completely stressed out – emotionally and spiritually. He cried and cried and cried. Through the tears, the story finally emerged. I would have been crying too, had it been me.

His wife was 28 weeks pregnant – about 7 months (far too late for a normal abortion). He and his wife had just been informed that day by their OB-GYN that the fetus had severe deformities of its heart’s left ventricle and pulmonary veins. The fetus would live about 5 minutes upon birth. However, they were told, there was a surgical corrective measure that could be done immediately upon birth that would give the child a 10% chance of living to be 21. Furthermore, that procedure would require a 50,000 dollar co-pay – and the baby would have to have several very expensive open-heart procedures througout its lifetime. The total cost to them and their insurance company ( and by extension SOCIETY ) would likely be 2 – 3 million dollars in the first 15 years of the baby’s life.

The young man was beside himself – not only with grief – but with overwhelming fear about the future. Any conscious human being with an IQ would be able to immediately realize the ENORMOUS FINANCIAL strain this would take on this young family.

This young man and his wife had discussed this together. They had decided that 50 years ago – if this had happened to their grandparents – the baby would be born and just die. They both decided together that they wanted to abort the fetus, mainly, just to get the death of the fetus over for all involved and to do so in a controlled way. They decided they would immediately begin working on another baby to join their other two. They had prayed about it, discussed it with their families and wanted it done.

Then they talked to their OB – and found out it was not going to happen in Texas. By the laws of the State of Texas – and by extension the Southern Baptist Convention, late-term abortions are impossible to be done here. And thus, in total despondency – my patient just could not handle the stress and ended up in the hospital with chest pain.

I spoke with Dr. Tiller’s clinic the next day – and fortunately, he was able to help them very soon thereafter. This family now has 4 healthy kids – and more importantly, are not burdened with the financial disaster of having a child who needs open heart surgery every 3 years. They are ardent Evangelical church-goers and they called me this morning to share their intense grief at what had happened to someone they view as their hero.

These issues are so much more than just a surgical procedure for this family. Late-term abortions – despite what Bill O’Reilly has to say – are almost NEVER if EVER done for birth control or because someone just “doesn’t want to be pregnant”. They are NOT done to fix pregnancy-induced depression. They ARE done to abort fetuses who are found to have disastrous problems like this couple’s baby. And in the process, relieve both the family and society from gigantic emotional and financial pain.

In all my years of practice, I have had a mere 2 women who have had to do this – one is above – the other was very similar.

I thank God there are men like Dr. Tiller who were out there doing this for the women of America.

May God Have Mercy on his soul – and be with his family in these trying hours.”

Dr Tiller was never just ‘an abortion Doctor’. He was a fully qualified internist & OBGYN, and provided deeply compassionate and unique care for all who knew him.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/1/737587/-A-Doctors-StoryWhy-I-and-my-patients-will-miss-Dr.-Tiller

I’m sorry that I’ll probably be unable to make the vigil tonight. Thanks for the opportunity here & there for people to express their grief & frustration over this madness & concerted political violence. JMP
J.M. Prince

June 2, 2009

Just the facts ma’am:

What Dr. Tiller Did, Part 1:

“Some Thoughts on Dr. Tiller

by BooMan [Boomantribune.com]

Mon Jun 1st, 2009 at 12:55:57 AM EST

I know most of my readers are pro-choice but I still think it worth considering what it means to ask a woman to carry a pregnancy to term when she knows that the baby will have one of the following conditions:

Anencephaly

Trisomy 13

Trisomy 18

Trisomy 21

Polycystic kidney disease

Spina bifida

Hydrocephalus

Potter’s syndrome

Lethal dwarfism

Holoprosencephaly

Anterior and posterior encephalocele

Non-immune hydrops

The cached version of Dr. Tiller’s admission criteria shows the following:

Admission Criteria

In order to offer you an appointment, we require that a physician refer you to our center. In addition, we need your genetic counselor or doctor to provide us with gestational and diagnostic information regarding your pregnancy. Over the past twenty-five years, we have had experience with pregnancy terminations in such situations as anencephaly, Trisomy 13, 18, and 21, polycystic kidney disease, spina bifida, hydrocephalus, Potter’s syndrome, lethal dwarfism, holoprosencephaly, anterior and posterior encephalocele, non-immune hydrops, and a variety of other very significant abnormalities.

Dr. Tiller was acquitted of all charges that he failed to consult a second doctor or demand referrals. A lot of bogus charges have been made against him. Late-term abortions are not performed for frivolous reasons, no matter what Bill O’Reilly says”.

Again the admission criteria taken directly from Dr. Tiller’s site: drtiller.com

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/6/1/05557/09911

FYI.

JMP
innerredneckexposed

June 2, 2009

“even my go-to disgust for some organized religions”

Quoted for LULZy-ness.
PaulaG

June 2, 2009

P.S. You all need to get to bed at a decent hour! I think the late nights are making everyone cranky. 😉
odinseye2k

June 2, 2009

Okay, Judean People’s Front and People’s Front of Judea.

The sadness of this thing just reminds me of gay-bashing, hippie-bashing, and SUV’s out to run over bicyclists (okay, the last is a little hyperbolic, but I’ve definitely had things shouted at friends on bikes – usually by idiots in trucks). It is entirely about restricting the choices that free individuals have.

There just seems to be a certain group so threatened by people living their lives as they see fit that they are willing to move to violence. I really don’t know what that is – even my go-to disgust for some organized religions lacks enough explanatory power to latch onto that dark part of the human psyche. Maybe it’s projection, maybe it’s desire for acceptance in a group on no matter what terms, maybe it’s a need to do something, anything significant in the world. And maybe it is just plain derangement and / or self-addiction to righteousness (which in some experiences can be a drug as potent as an opiate).

It seems at some point there really needs to be some refining of the legal machinery about incitement vis-a-vis the First Amendment. At some point, the ringleaders must become accessories to the crimes. And when I say that, I do mean that some kind of rigorous test must be put together (or tweaked – as I’m sure many legal eagles here will point out existing statute).

As for Dr. Tiller, all I can say is that it is a tragedy that he is a “hero” at all. He was a licensed provider of a legal medical procedure. He did not do so in a war zone, for the destitute out of his pocket (although he may on a couple of occasions – I don’t know his biography), or in other circumstances we usually associate with heroism. It should have been a boring office job. The fact that circumstances raised his work to heroism speaks to a certain brand of sickness in our society that I have mentioned above.
PaulaG

June 2, 2009

Seriously, people, you are skating on very thin ice with this thread. I respectfully ask you all to save this discussion for some other thread, some other time, and reserve this one for more appropriate comments celebrating the life of Dr. Tiller.

Zaid, you are like a broken record. A tactless broken record. Can you please give it a rest, even a short one?
innerredneckexposed

June 2, 2009

Love the fallacies from both sides here!

Great thread! A+! Would read again!
J.M. Prince

June 2, 2009

Umm, I’m like really sorry I tried to make a self professed ‘liberal’ UGA student read something over 1000 words. Sorry. I know it’s exhausting & tiring. Even thinking about it all. But no, you really did not read it. And I’m sorry no one’s ever asked before either. How very unreasonable of me!

So again, please find the civil ‘non violence’ or ‘pro-life’ here:

Yesterday‚Äôs ‚Äúslaying of Dr. George Tiller in his Kansas church‚Äù was ‚Äúpart of a decades-long history of domestic terrorism aimed at abortion providers,‚Äù which has included bombings, butyric acid attacks, sniper shootings and letters filled with fake anthrax. The National Abortion Federation ‚Äúhas documented more than 6,100 acts of violence against abortion providers in the United States and Canada since 1977.‚Äù

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-na-abortion-violence1-2009jun01,0,5206324.story

See also:

“Sarah Palin, like most right-wingers, doesn’t get it: Abortion-clinic violence is terrorism”

By David Neiwert Monday Jun 01, 2009 4:30pm

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/sarah-palin-most-right-wingers-doesn

And again not to be always talking past each other here. I know regular ‘rank & file’ ‘pro-life’ people. It’s the anti-choice Leadership, political & otherwise I worry about. They’re the people who have consistently mobilized the violent hatred & attacks. Mostly strictly for political gain & advantage too. Which is the very definition of Evil to my mind, BTW. Now if you knew anything about history Z, you could understand the distinction. As you don’t, won’t & can’t, well you’re probably condemned to a purgatory of your own misapprehensions. But not to worry. It’s not affecting the quality of your comments any.

I’m saddened by your struggle with all those words, but not unsympathetic.

JMP
J.M. Prince

June 2, 2009

Who this well known and Operation Rescue connected terrorist assassinated:

Via the DailyKos:

“The George Tiller I Knew

by loree920

Sun May 31, 2009 at 06:45:47 PM PDT

[Promoted by Meteor Blades]

Like many in this community, my heart is heavy today. There have been many great diaries that talk about Dr. Tiller’s years of service to women, and the threats he has endured throughout the last years of his life. My story is a bit more personal and I want to share it with all of you to give you more insight into the man.

In 1975 my Mom noticed an indention in her left breast. She called and made an appointment with her OB/GYN, Dr. George Tiller. After his initial examination, he ordered a biopsy. While performing the biopsy he immediately knew that the lump was cancerous. Instead of just closing and scheduling surgery, he ‚Äúgrabbed a handful‚Äù, his words not mine. Her cancer Dr. credited this quick thinking by Dr. Tiller with saving her life, and due to this she didn‚Äôt even have to undergo chemotherapy.

Several years later my Mother and I were driving by his clinic in Wichita. Mom started complaining of chest pains, so I drove into his parking lot and ran in to get help. Dr. Tiller was by Mom‚Äôs side immediately, and stabilized her, before the heart attack could cause severe damage.

In 1980 I was pregnant with my first child. I had no insurance and couldn’t afford a doctors appointment until I was approved for a medical card.. Mom told Dr. Tiller and he brought me into his office where he examined me, free of charge. I can credit him with the very first picture taken of my son.

The last story I have to share is about my friends who could not have children. Dr. Tiller‚Äôs office worked with several attorneys in the Wichita area to provide adoption services for his patients who wanted this option. My friends have a 10 yr. old boy now, who is loved and adored.

I‚Äôm not a great writer, so I apologize that this isn‚Äôt nearly as eloquent as some of the diaries on Daily Kos. I just wanted to get this story out to you, so you could hear how this man wasn‚Äôt just a tremendous fighter for women’s rights. He was a brilliant physician, and a kind and compassionate human being. RIP Dr. Tiller and thank you for all you did for my friends and my family.”

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/31/737320/-The-George-Tiller-I-Knew

Yeah Z, tell me again, how many cops did MLK kill? How many people did the SCLC assault? How many ebbil ‘white folks’ were hit over the head with sticks, signs, had their kids stalked at school, their wives harassed in stores, their work lives constantly threatened by ‘outside agitators’ bent on their utter destruction?

MMMM? Find us a few. Then wake up and find the real terror waiting for you. At home. Where it’s always been. The most devastating US terror attack before 9-11? The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, by domestic Right wing militia forces, including principally, Tim McVeigh. Strangely, an anti-government US Army vet:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing.

The single greatest source of terrorism throughout the 1980’s into the early 1990’s in the US? Anti-abortion attacks on Womens Health clinics.

So Pro-life? Perhaps. Occasionally. Prove it! JMP
Zaid

June 2, 2009

And I didn’t say calling them anti-choice will cause terrorism, I just think it’s immature and useless — like them calling you anti-life.
Zaid

June 2, 2009

And Drew, you’re a lot more reasonable and less blindly partisan than JMP, so I ask you this question: if you’re going to associate pro-life people who are respectable and polite to you despite the differing of views (this is what, 40% of the country?) with terrorists freely, what do you think the response will be? Will they say, “By golly, he’s right!” or will there be a further division between the two sides created?

I certainly think O’Reilly, Erickson, and a lot of these folks are complete scum, but you can’t associate fringe elements with the mainstream.
Zaid

June 2, 2009

“No, MLK would not recognize these people, and would unreservedly condemn them for their violent acts & intent. JMP”

In all your hyper-inflated blathering you failed to note that I wasn’t talking about terrorists, I was talking about pro-life people.

Again, all of you have conflated pro-life people in general with terrorists who are a fringe of the pro-life movement, just like people like ELF/ALF are the fringe in the environmental movement.

That’s wrong, and you are not helping. I wish JMP you could at least not help with less words (eyesore, you know).
J.M. Prince

June 2, 2009

Not a ‘non violent’ Civil Rights Movement, Part 2:

Via Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/31/recent-cases-of-abortionr_n_209528.html

“A look at recent cases of abortion-related violence:

_ May 31, 2009: Prominent late-term abortion provider George Tiller is shot and killed in a Wichita church where he was serving as an usher. The gunman fled but a city official said a suspect is in custody.

_ April 25, 2007: Authorities say Paul Ross Evans placed a homemade bomb in the parking lot of the Austin Women’s Health Center in Texas. A bomb squad disposes of the device, which contained two pounds of nails. There are no injuries.

_ Oct. 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian is fatally shot in his home in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y. Militant abortion opponent James Kopp is convicted of the murder in 2003 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

_ Jan. 29, 1998: A bomb explodes just outside a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic, killing a police officer and wounding several others. Eric Rudolph later pleads guilty to that incident and the deadly bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He justifies the Alabama bombing in an essay from prison, writing that Jesus would condone “militant action in defense of the innocent.”

_ Jan. 16, 1997: Two bomb blasts an hour apart rock an Atlanta building containing an abortion clinic. Seven people are injured. Rudolph is charged by federal authorities in October 1998.

_ Dec. 30, 1994: John Salvi opens fire with a rifle inside two Boston-area abortion clinics, killing two receptionists and wounding five others. Sentenced to life without parole, he kills himself in prison in 1996.

_ Nov. 8, 1994: Dr. Garson Romalis, who performs abortions in Vancouver, Canada, is shot in the leg while eating breakfast at home.

_ July 29, 1994: Dr. John Bayard Britton and his volunteer escort, James H. Barrett, are slain outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic. Barrett’s wife, June, is wounded in the attack. Paul J. Hill, 40, a former minister and anti-abortion activist, is later convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

_ Aug. 19, 1993: Dr. George Tiller is shot in the arms as he drives out of parking lot at his Wichita, Kan., clinic. Rachelle “Shelley” Shannon is later convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

_ March 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn is shot to death outside Pensacola, Fla., clinic, becoming the first U.S. doctor killed during an anti-abortion demonstration. Michael Griffin is convicted and serving a life sentence.”

See also on Earlier Tiller attacks & demos:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/6388324/one_mans_god_squad/

No, MLK would not recognize these people, and would unreservedly condemn them for their violent acts & intent. JMP
J.M. Prince

June 2, 2009

No, it’s not really like the Civil Rights Movement: Part 1:

A Classic from Scott Lemieux over @ ‘Lawyers, Guns & Money’

lefarkins.blogspot.com/

“FactChuck: Randall Terry=MLK

As previously mentioned, NARAL did a convincing job of demolishing this typically atrocious FactCheck.org article. One claim made by the hack who wrote it, however, is offensive on so many levels it demands further attention: the argument that Operation Rescue’s methods “mirrored the non-violent tactics used earlier by civil-rights activists.”

* Contrary to FactChuck, violence was not merely “threatened” by radical anti-abortion activists. Members of the group in question in this case were involved in bombings and other extreme acts of violence, and women were injured by Operation Rescue blockades. (Conversely, Martin Luther King never bombed a Klan meeting. Fred Shuttlesworth didn’t shoot George Wallace with a high-powered rifle. Nor did civil rights leaders condone such acts.)

* Even if we write off the violence as aberrational, to compare the tactics of OR to those of the civil rights movement is empirically wrong and morally and politically reprehensible. Sit-ins were not trying to prevent other people from eating; they were trying to compel restaurants to provide African-Americans with the same service they were providing everyone else. Non-violent resistance on behalf of voting rights did not try to stop white people from voting. (This is not to say, of course, that groups like OR do not use any tactics comparable to the civil rights movement, but these tactics are completely irrelevant to Bray. To borrow Amanda’s language, OR can wave all the bloody fetuses and hand out all the pamphlets they want; nobody questions that.)

* Perhaps most importantly, civil rights activists had positive law on their side. While it was true that civil rights activists were often charged with trespassing, violating injunctions, and the like, these actions by the state were almost always unconstitutional. (And, by this I don’t merely mean that I think they were unconstitutional, but that the United States Supreme Court thought they were unconstitutional.) While Randall Terry may sincerely believe that a fetus is a human life and that this justifies a variety of illegal activity, this belief (unlike equal protection and voting rights) is not inscribed anywhere in American law. OR and its ilk, therefore, are more comparable to the Klan than to the civil rights movement. They use illegal means to achieve illegal ends.

What a disgrace that FactCheck would publish this garbage. Further reading: Bader and Bind-Widdle, Targets of Hatred : Anti-Abortion Terrorism.

…from the above-mentioned book, here’s some data. In 1991, the year Bray was decided, there were 2 cases of murder or attempted murder of abortion providers, 9 bombings/arsons (or attempted bombings/arsons), 83 cases of invasions, assault and battery, vandalism, death threats burglary or stalking, and 3,885 arrests at blockades. To take one example, by the end of a seven-week Operation Rescue operation in Wichita that summer, “police had arrested 1,734 people for 2,657 acts of trespassing, resisting arrest and violating injunctions against blockading.” But, you might ask if you’re a FactCheck hack, couldn’t this be because they were the victim of trumped-up charges like the civil rights groups Operation Rescue and its fellow travellers are so similar to? Er, no. In fact, Mayor Bob Knight “did nothing to curtail their activities,” and governor of Kansas Joan Finney spoke at an OR rally. Think about that–with the tacit or explicit support of the two most powerful relevant political officials, OR members were still subject to well more than a thousand arrests. I think you can see the scope of the threat they posed, and that OR apologists like FactCheck are completely full of shit…

http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2005/08/factchuck-randall-terrymlk.html

Posted by Scott Lemieux at 7:23 PM ”

JMP
Drew

June 2, 2009

Given the number of people who have been murdered by pro-life terrorists, not to mention every other crime visited upon them by the pro-life movement, I think you have to find more than the use of the phrase “anti-choice” to justify the comparison of the two extremes of the abortion debate.

But I’ve been thinking about the civil rights era, too. There were a lot of pro-segregation people then, like there are a lot of pro-life people now. And after an event like this, they would offer the same pro-forma condemnation of violence.

Then they would fight any and every effort by the federal government to bring the killer to justice or pass federal law to protect the civil rights workers from harm.

And that is what the pro-life movement does, too. Even now, they’re girding to fight any federal or state effort to prevent them from continuing their campaigns of harassment and protect people like Dr. Tiller from harm.

If the pro-life movement wants to illustrate its committment to nonviolence, maybe it should reconsider not only its rhetoric and tactics but its legislative priorities as well. Maybe it should not only abandon its efforts to demonize women who consider abortion and doctors who perform it, but abandon its efforts to criminalize the procedure and instead join with the pro-choice movement to reduce the demand for abortion through promotion of contraception and provison of greater economic and social support for parents.

Maybe, but they won’t. Instead, they’ll do what they do the every time a pro-life terrorist murders a doctor – complain that they have been victimized by the harsh words of the pro-choice movement, then return to the same rhetoric, tactics, and agenda as before.

And so it will continue, until the next doctor is murdered. And the next. And the next.

But hey. Maybe this time, because I didn’t say anti-choice, it will be different!
J.M. Prince

June 2, 2009

Thanks for this Juliana. IRE called it. It’s down hill all the way.

There’s too much confusion in Z’s posts to do them much justice here. Suffice to say that this from Z? “Groups get to decide what to call themselves”. Is just more errant idiocy. Deadly idiocy. It probably works best in the well maintained & manicured settings of some staid Uni’s, but in real life? This is almost never the case universally.

So our opponents get to characterize a decent, diligent, hard working, talented, long tenured & very smart Latina jurist as ‘an dumb affirmative action hire’ and worse still as an out & out “Racist” for some minor comment taken wildly out of context? They’ll lie about it until, well forever actually.

The ones that liked to ‘render vigilante justice’? Were called noble sounding things like ‘White Citizen Councils’, the ‘Sovereignty Commission’, ‘Committee in Defense of…’. They called their movement without any intended irony the ‘states rights’ movement for ‘limited governance’, and of course it’s still with us today.

Terror. Domestic terror used to advance political aims. And often protected by some of the most powerful forces on the planet: the Church & state. Like demands for the universal & unilateral imposition strict religious Sharia Law on a population? That’s what we’ve got here. In the US. Doubt it? Read here:

http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/

and the new book by David Neiwert a journalist based in Seattle. He is the author of “The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right” (PoliPoint Press, May 2009).

So this goes well beyond ‘courtesy’ and ‘privileged debate’. It stopped being about politics as usual, and became a yes, a decades long campaign of domestic terrorism, oh about the time you were in diapers. That’s why you really don’t understand.

Want to know where to start? It starts with the rhetoric calling for the ‘elimination’ of ‘those baby killers’. For DECADES. By well known clerics, by well respected ministers & TV & radio personalities, like Rush & Bill O’Liely.

So the appeal to MLK is touching, since you rarely do so for anything in the ME, preferring the usual irredentist call of the Arab League, but this is a bit different. The terror is strikingly similar, but the war’s upon a much larger class of people: Women.

MLK called out the terror. Called it for what it was. Are most ‘pro-lifers’ violent? No, probably not. Survey’s show that only a small but irredeemably intractable section of the people who claim to oppose abortion want to see it truly eliminated & outlawed. And again, only a small segment ever has agreed that violence or murder was a proper way to carry this out.

But to an persistently & disgustingly unnatural degree, many of the leaders of the anti-abortion forces are in favor or tacitly tolerate violence to suit their ends. Not prayer. Not ‘non violent action’, but very Violent confrontation. The endangerment of public resources, private property, and yes, even the murder of doctors who dare to perform a Legal and Justified, Life saving Medical Procedure, like Dr. Tiller.

There IS a middle ground, and it’s easily found all over Europe, where the abortion rates are far lower than in the US. Easily available, Cheap & effective contraception would prevent perhaps 1/3 to half of all abortion, when coupled with medically accurate and early & consistent sex education.

But for the most part, we’re schizophrenic on the topic of sex as a culture.

And you’ll not find ONE of the major ‘pro-life’ organizations that promotes safe, effective & modern birth control. Or, gosh ever dares to pair this with medically & clinically proven effective information on how to prevent pregnancy. The Single Greatest Effective Way to Eliminate Many Abortions! No it HAS to be 2000+ year old Church Approved BC for you & the world, or else you’re WRONG, EVIL & a Sinner. NOT even condoms, (originally dating from the time of the Pharaohs) are allowed by the Catholic Church & the ‘anti-abortion’ crusaders. Not for any reason. Not to prevent the deadly spread of HIV in Africa & elsewhere, not anywhere.

So what if 1/4 of all African men/women are either infected with or in danger of being infected with HIV? Your immortal Soul is more worthy of attention and Potential salvation than your life. No condoms for you! Ever!

About 600K women per year die from lack of access to adequate BC & abortion. If you’re not working for the most readily accessible & available solutions because your dogma demands that other people you do not know somehow need to be enslaved by your centuries old pre-scientific ideology & willful ignorance& stupidity? That’s not precisely ‘pro-life’. Not by anyone’s fair description.

So yes, some folks can accurately be described as ‘pro-life’, especially those few who Do embrace a ‘whole life’ philosophy, a very small minority of the whole. (They would also be against the death penalty, against war, against hunger & against most human suffering too). Those are some rare folks. I know a few. They’re not typical of the ‘anti-abortion movement’. They’re just not in the leadership. Never were, never will be. Some poseurs will claim to be carefully observant of ‘whole life principles’, but if they’re not out there advocating for more spending by the state for crippled kids & adults? They’re really not ‘pro-lifers’. No, not really.

Life does not begin just at conception and ends for all practical purposes for these folks at Birth. It Must continue for the entire life course. Which BTW, happens to be much shorter for most handicapped people & folks who suffer from chronic diseases. A universal health care plan for everyone? Very pro-life. Find me one group that’s advocating this, instead of gearing up to re-fight the Clinton era wars of ‘no reproductive health care for women allowed in this plan!’

So there’s a natural divide here. And like the ‘ordinary folks’ who just ‘went along’ with the Nazi’s violence (or even the Klan’s), the onus lies within the anti-abortion movement to purge themselves of any contact or support of the violent extremists that have yes, defined their movement, well for much of the time you’ve been alive.

Yeah, I know this is too long too… JMP
Zaid

June 2, 2009

If you go over to our blog, you’ll see that we’ve spent the past few days calling out right wing extremists who have done everything they can to justify the murder of Tiller.

But at the same token, I’ve taken the time to defend pro-lifers who are just as ashamed of this as anyone else who are being attacked despite their innocence in all of it.

Sara, this isn’t going to be solved by letting extremists control the debate, using it to win their partisan battle against the other side. We have to bring people together, not continue to throw molotov cocktails.

King valiantly defended whites, even intolerant whites, after the murders of black people, and he did it because he understood that the problem wasn’t going to be solved simply by attacking the other side, but by winning them over by looking for their hearts.

I don’t live in a vacuum where everyone has my exact point of view. I never have. So I’ve learned, when things like this arise, really extreme acts of intolerance and violence, that it’s time to play peacemaker, not continue to demonize the other side and escalate things.

I immediately denounced the murder as terrorism and called out the head of Operation rescue and resident Georgian douchebag Eric Erickson for using the murder to attack the left and pro-choice people.

I think if we call people on the pro-life side anti-choice, and ramp up the rhetoric against all pro-life people rather than a violent minority (I’ve seen this on DemocraticUnderground and other places), we risk escalation and further radicalization here.

I thought out what I’m doing here, because I don’t want to see any more violence. You might disagree with me, but don’t be so quick to judge. I don’t judge you.
innerredneckexposed

June 2, 2009

There needs to be [IMG] embed soon. (and I realize this is probably in poor taste too).

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3424/3192435737_6d81f4bb88.jpg
Sarawaraclara

June 1, 2009

Way to show class, Zaid. A man was murdered in cold blood because he continued to practice medicine in the way he believed was best for his patients. Maybe not the best time or place to complain about semantics.
Zaid

June 1, 2009

My commentary on this is as long as one side is calling the other baby killers and the other is responding that the other folks are misogynists who want to dominate women, well, we’re not going to get anywhere.

One issue where Obama is dead on.
Zaid

June 1, 2009

If you want to be called pro-choice and not anti-life, you should be able to refer to your opponents as pro-life. Groups get to decide what to call themselves.

Vigil in Remembrance of Dr. George Tiller.

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31 responses to “Vigil in Remembrance of Dr. George Tiller.”

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