This is what the domestic terrorists were fighting...

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_06/018420.php


By: Hilzoy

Dr. George Tiller

My thoughts are with the family of Dr. George Tiller, who was killed today.

I'm not sure how many doctors still perform late-term abortions in this country -- one and two seem to be the most common estimates. This is, of course, due to the campaign of terrorism that has been waged against them. I cannot imagine the courage it takes to go on doing what you think is right in the face not only of consistent harassment and death threats, but of actual attempts on your life.

Why go on doing it? Here's one reason:

"Sometime early in the 8th month my wife, an RN who at the time was working in an infertility clinic asked the Dr. she was working for what he thought of her discomfort. He examined her and said that he couldn't be certain but thought that she might be having twins. We were thrilled and couldn't wait to get a new sonogram that hopefully would confirm his thoughts. Two days later our joy was turned to unspeakable sadness when the new sonogram showed conjoined twins. Conjoined twins alone is not what was so difficult but the way they were joined meant that at best only one child would survive the surgery to separate them and the survivor would more than likely live a brief and painful life filled with surgery and organ transplants. We were advised that our options were to deliver into the world a child who's life would be filled with horrible pain and suffering or fly out to Wichita Kansas and to terminate the pregnancy under the direction of Dr. George Tiller.

We made an informed decision to go to Kansas. One can only imagine the pain borne by a woman who happily carries a child for 8 months only to find out near the end of term that the children were not to be and that she had to make the decision to terminate the pregnancy and go against everything she had been taught to believe was right. This was what my wife had to do. Dr. Tiller is a true American hero. The nightmare of our decision and the aftermath was only made bearable by the warmth and compassion of Dr. Tiller and his remarkable staff. Dr. Tiller understood that this decision was the most difficult thing that a woman could ever decide and he took the time to educate us and guide us along with the other two couples who at the time were being forced to make the same decision after discovering that they too were carrying children impacted by horrible fetal anomalies. I could describe in great detail the procedures and the pain and suffering that everyone is subjected to in these situations. However, that is not the point of the post. We can all imagine that this is not something that we would wish on anyone. The point is that the pain and suffering were only mitigated by the compassion and competence of Dr. George Tiller and his staff. We are all diminished today for a host of reasons but most of all because a man of great compassion and courage has been lost to the world."

snip//

And this essay that I will never forget, about a woman whose child died in her womb, and who couldn't find anyone to do a dilation and evacuation, the safest procedure for someone in her condition, because it was too controversial:

"I could feel my baby's dead body inside of mine. This baby had thrilled me with kicks and flutters, those first soft tickles of life bringing a smile to my face and my hand to my rounding belly. Now this baby floated, limp and heavy, from one side to the other, as I rolled in my bed.

And within a day, I started to bleed. My body, with or without a doctor's help, was starting to expel the fetus. Technically, I was threatening a spontaneous abortion, the least safe of the available options.

I did what any pregnant patient would do. I called my doctor. And she advised me to wait. (...)

On my fourth morning, with the bleeding and cramping increasing, I couldn't wait any more. I called my doctor and was told that since I wasn't hemorrhaging, I should not come in. Her partner, on call, pedantically explained that women can safely lose a lot of blood, even during a routine period.

I began calling labor and delivery units at the top five medical centers in my area. I told them I had been 19 weeks along. The baby is dead. I'm bleeding, I said. I'm scheduled for a D&E in a few days. If I come in right now, what could you do for me, I asked.

Don't come in, they told me again and again. "Go to your emergency room if you are hemorrhaging to avoid bleeding to death. No one here can do a D&E today, and unless you're really in active labor you're safer to wait.""

Why didn't her own Ob/Gyn do the procedure?

"I can't do these myself," said my doctor. "I trained at a Catholic hospital."

George Tiller endured decades of terrorism to help women like these, women in unspeakably awful situations whom very few people were willing to help, given the price domestic terrorists had decided that anyone who helped them would have to pay. Now he has given his life.

[ejpoeta]

1. this is horrifying to me! i was pregnant back in 2004 and had a miscarriage.

i was 14 weeks along when i discovered that the baby stopped growing at 7 weeks. it was awful. And my doctor decided to let it come out naturally. So I waited. I got blood drawn weekly to see if the hormone levels were decreasing and walked around for several weeks with this dead baby inside of me. A couple of days before an appointment where the doctor was going to have the baby taken out, I had my miscarriage right in my house. I was watching my niece and nephew along with my own daughter at the time. Luckily my husband was home. It hurt so bad! and it was very messy. You don't want to know. It was very traumatic to me, frankly. The idea that I wouldn't even have the option to have a miscarried child removed from me if it wouldn't come out on it's own is horrifying to me.

There is something very wrong when a doctor won't do anything even when there is a dead fetus involved. I think the girl ought to rethink who she has a doctor. And I think there needs to be a discussion about what a doctor's obligation is in regards to their patient. It is one thing to be against abortion or not to provide them... but when you are talking about a dead fetus or baby in a woman's belly, that is a different animal altogether!

[babylonsister]

2. So you more than most know how horrific this would be.

I have a friend who had to carry her dead baby full-term. Another one had twins who had problems in utero; one died a few minutes after birth, the other one 10 days later. I can't even imagine the agony.

[OneGrassRoot]

5. I see I was more blessed than I knew at the time....

I was full-term with my first child back in 1991. A picture perfect pregnancy. About two weeks prior to my due date, I realized there was no movement. I wasn't overly concerned, as everyone said the baby has such little room to move around by then, so movement does drastically decrease.

Still, to be safe, I was worked in to have an ultrasound.

No heartbeat was found.

The ensuing week was truly a nightmare, though I moved through it largely in shock. I can't imagine NOT having supportive healthcare providers during such a time.

I traveled quite a distance throughout the pregnancy to the women's clinic I chose; I chose this clinic because it was the only one with certified midwives at that time.

I was given a choice. Wait until labor naturally occurred or induce labor; I was told of the medical risks of waiting, not that I was concerned with my own life at time, quite frankly.

Still, in hindsight I now realize, if I had other children depending on me, and knowing that my life would have been in danger and my as-yet-unborn child was no longer alive, how horrible it would have been to not have professional, compassionate medical care. And personal choice.

As with so many things involved with this "culture war," the Limbaugh Republicans like to perpetuate the lie that most abortions are done in a carefree, negligent manner, and it's the "Welfare Queens" using abortion as a form of birth control. So many of our culture wars stem from the same corrupt seed of thought and belief.

While there are irresponsible women who no doubt misuse this procedure, it's my personal opinion that the vast majority do NOT take these decisions lightly whatsoever, whether it's in the first, second or third trimester.

It is NOT taken lightly, and it is reprehensible that others' narrow-minded, bigoted, judgmental nature -- cloaked in "moral righteousness" -- inflict pain upon an already painful situation.

Not only pain, by they literally threaten lives.

And the more radicals among them take lives.

So much for the pro-life crowd.

[moobu2]

4. That exact same thing happened to my sister

I’m not sure why the doctor wanted her to carry a dead fetus to term but it was awful.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. this is the horror that the "right to lifers" WANT women to endure

to satisfy their twisted sense of doing things.

[OneGrassRoot]

6. Perhaps not consciously, I do believe they are consumed with fear....

which is conveyed as hatred (lots of self-loathing to boot). So, of course they want others to experience the same existence.

Theirs is the "hellfire and brimstone" God of fear and hate.

How sad for them, but how horrible that they inflict this on others even passively, let alone through brutal violence.

I sure hope the laws of karma come into play for the judgmental bigots who inflict so much pain.

[mainer]

7. The fetus is dead -- why would ANYONE object to doing a D & E?

Leaving a dead fetus in utero could lead to any number of complications, including infection. I'm aghast that medical personnel wouldn't assist women in this situation.