I just read this article over at cnn.com
There's nothing about this case that doesn't upset and disturb me.
However, that there are people cheering his death...I literally feel sick to my stomach
Dinwiddie said Tiller's slaying was "absolutely" justified.
"He forfeited his life by taking the lives of innocent children," she said.
And in Iowa, Dan Holman, of the anti-abortion group Missionaries to the
Preborn, told CNN that Tiller's death was something to "cheer."
"I was cheered by it, because I knew he wouldn't be killing any more babies," Holman said.
Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry told reporters in Washington
that Tiller's killing was "wrong, period," and that anti-abortion
leaders "are not responsible for George Tiller's death." But he added,
"George Tiller was a mass murderer and horrifically, he reaped what he
sowed."
Regardless of your stance on abortion...cheering a murder is just sick. If you are pro-life then, in theory, you are supposed to believe in the sanctity of all life...not just the unborn. That you can twist it up and say that being an OB/GYN who also performs abortions justifies murder makes me worry for the future of my country.
I have had an abortion. When my first child died in utero, a procedure called a D&C was performed. Technically, any medical procedure in which an embryo or a fetus is removed from the mother (whether the fetus is dead at the time or dies because of the procedure) is an abortion.
There are many who would say that my procedure doesn't count as an abortion.
I say you're splitting hairs.
And splitting hairs is what this debate is all about.
Something like 80% of all Americans support some exemptions if there was an abortion ban. Rape, incest and health of the mother.
And let's examine that last one...the health of the mother.
-Who gets to decide which medical conditions count? There are pro-lifers who claim that the "mother's health" exemption is used as an excuse. Who decides if my condition is severe enough to warrant the abortion?
-What's the process? How many doctors have to look at me? How many people have to sign off? How long does this process take? HOURS matter, especially if the mom develops severe complications.
-If abortions are banned, how to we ensure that the woman can receive the care she needs in time? There are plenty of instances where there are only hours left to save the life of the mother. If there are only 3 doctors in the country who can perform the operation that would save her life, how does that doctor get to the woman in question in time.
-If you think that there should be NO health exemptions, does that mean that losing both mother and child is the right course of action? I can point you at plenty of stories where that would have been the case. The worst thing I had to think about when I was pregnant is what to do if a situation arose where it was my life or the child's.
Cecily sums up many of the issues with the health exemption....after having to abort her twins at 20.5 weeks of gestation to save her own life.
Other than having a medical termination, the options open to someone
in my position are usually either a) emergency c-section, and b)
induced delivery.
My doctor believed--given my particular circumstances--that it would be better for both my short term and
long term health to not cut open my body if at all possible. My health
was in a precarious state, and the option of a medical termination was
the fastest, safest, and least complicated procedure to use. It also
preserved the health of my uterus for future pregnancies.
Also, my doctor (you know, the man in the room with me, the one with
a medical degree and my chart in hand? that guy) knew that inducing me,
with my insanely high blood pressure, would be likely to cause me to
have a stroke.
Please remember that even if my twins had both been alive, THEY
WOULD NOT HAVE SURVIVED. Do not tell me they would have, because you
are wrong. There have been NO DOCUMENTED CASES of
babies born that early surviving--I don't care what pro-life websites
you send me links to that say differently. THEY ARE LYING.
Trust me. Don't you think that I wanted those babies and would have
done anything I could to save them? And don't you think that my
doctor--who knew about my struggles to get pregnant and called the day
of my surgery "the worst day of my professional career"--would have told me if that was possible?
Lastly, let's discuss, using me as an example, the difference between HEALTH and LIFE.
Where do you draw the line? Was my life actually at risk at the
moment they chose to terminate the pregnancy? Well, my blood pressure
was going higher and higher and they weren't able to get it under
control with the medications they had available. My kidneys has begun
to shut down and I'd stopped producing urine. But I was alive.
I could have remained alive, possibly, under those circumstances for a
while. Maybe they could have pushed it until I actually began to have
seizures. Or maybe until I had a stroke. Or, maybe, since even after a
stroke and having seizures I would have still been alive,
maybe they would have to wait until after I felt into a coma. But wait!
If I'm in a coma, I'm still alive, right? Even if my brain has been
irreparably damaged, I'm still ALIVE. Right?
So, my point is, sure-- the "Partial Birth Abortion Ban" has a
provision for the LIFE of the mother. But there is NO PROVISION FOR HER
HEALTH. Or the health of her uterus, or her future children.
To sum it all up, if I hadn't had the procedure that I had, Nicholas, Zachary, me AND Tori would all be dead.
If you hate abortions...how about helping us prevent them in the first place?
Ironically, because most pro-lifers are big abstinence fans, they are perpetuating the cycle. Many of them are also Republicans, who constantly try to cut the funding and supports of programs like Head Start, WIC, and other services that help mothers who choose to have their children, whether they can afford to or not. So basically, many of them are all about the life of the baby in utero, but preventing that unplanned pregnancy in the first place, or supporting the single mom afterward...well, then they're on their own, aren't they.
As for the women who would suffer irreparable damage having a baby conceived in incest or through rape? Well, emotional health isn't of any import, is it?
And for the women who would die without the abortion? They must have done something wrong or they wouldn't have gotten sick, right?
People spend so much time and effort protesting Planned Parenthood without ever understanding that the majority of the work PP does is to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place. They provide care for women who can't afford OB/GYN's, who can't afford birth control, or whose insurance screws them on gyn and OB stuff. Abortions are such a SMALL part of what they do.
Anyone who thinks that Dr. Tiller's death is anything but a tragedy...let us not forget that regardless of his job (which was primarily to be an OB GYN...he delivered far more babies than he aborted), a man was gunned down in cold blood in his church...you are horrible horrible people, and hypocrites.
I am not speaking to the pro-lifers who agree that Tiller's death was a tragedy, but do not agree with his choice to perform abortions. I am speaking to the wackjobs who are rejoicing in his death. You disgust me.
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