Notes from providers
Labels: provider stories
I am honored to have had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Tiller. He was a sincere and gracious man. He
was there for our patients who needed and wanted his special services. He was a lifesaver for many of the women we referred to him and his caring staff. He not only wore the botton but practiced the words of the button, "Attitude is Everything" We will miss him. Our condolences to his wife, children, grandchildren and to all who loved and respected him.
I watched Vicki Saporta on MSNBC last night and wish to send her my thanks for her poignant and effective commentary on the murder of Dr. Tiller, as well as the lack of an effective response from law enforcement and the government over the past 35 years.
As the former director of a women's health clinic, my passion and commitment have always been to provide quality healthcare services to women and to protect their reproductive rights. My staff and I were picketed and threatened continually, patients were harassed and traumatized, and I truly expected to be shot in cold blood by one of the anti-choice fanatics one day. Although that didn't happen to me or our medical staff, I have grieved as good men and women providing legal, critical pregnancy termination services have been threatened, harassed, shot at and murdered.
Why has this been allowed to go on? In a country so focused on "terror", how can these domestic terrorists be allowed to sow their hatred?
My thanks to all of you for the work you've done over the years to protect the rights of women to seek a pregnancy termination when their situations dictate the need for such a decision. All of you, including Ms. Saporta, should be congratulated on your courage and determination in the face of potentially devastating personal and professional consequences.
If there is any way I may assist you in these efforts, I hope you will count me among your supporters.
The "Attitude is Everything" paper weight that sits on my desk brings tears to my eyes. We have lost such a great man who cared for so many women who had no where else to go. It was an honor to have known him.
My Friend, My Hero, George Tiller
My Sunday morning reveries were shattered by the sobbing voice on the telephone of a close friend, a young OB/GYN who spent time at my office while in medical school. Our friend George Tiller had been murdered at his church in Kansas.
You see, many of us who are involved in this line of work are members of a large extended family called the National Abortion Federation, a group of physicians of various specialties, administrators, counselors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, lawyers, and clinic workers who gather once or twice a year at different cities around the country to discuss the work that we do and the challenges that we face. The common thread that binds this group is the certain knowledge that our efforts have dramatically improved women’s lives, both in our country and around the world.
As I have attended these meetings I have had the great pleasure of spending approximately three days a year with George in each of the past thirty years, most recently last month in Portland. He was one of the most thoughtful, considerate, and sensitive human beings I have had the pleasure of knowing, never too busy to sit down with anyone to discuss difficult situations or cases while bringing to the table his own considerable experience. When George rose to speak in his rather soft and hesitant voice you could hear a pin drop in the room. He was universally respected and epitomized the very pinnacle of medical care as it is practiced in this country.
And what was his reward for this life of exemplary service? We are all by now aware of the incredibly brutal treatment he received from the hate mongers and terrorists of the religious right, including the previous attempted murder by Shelly Shannon of Grants Pass, and the ongoing vituperation and character assassination by such “champions of women” as Bill O’Reilly and Randall Terry.
But even more challenging may have been the attacks from more establishment figures, politicians and physicians, who bought into aspects of the inflamed rhetoric and took it upon themselves to punish George. He confided in me last month that he had just spent approximately a million dollars in defending himself against bogus misdemeanor charges brought by a politically motivated attorney general in Kansas. A jury of Kansans acquitted him after less than an hour of deliberation. The very next day the Kansas medical board initiated an action to take away his medical license, so rather than celebrate his victory in court he was forced to prepare for another expensive and draining legal action.
Prominent amongst the criticism I have seen directed against George in recent days is the idea that he would perform an abortion at any stage of a woman’s pregnancy simply because she requested it. Nothing could be further from the truth. All of us turn away patients and counsel them about other alternatives such as adoption when the pregnancy has progressed past a certain point. But George did feel that it was immoral and unacceptable to do elaborate prenatal testing if the only response to a devastating diagnosis was to force the woman to carry the pregnancy to term.
This has been a difficult week for all of us who knew George, what with the alternating emotions of extreme sadness that he will no longer be with us and the incredible anger that we feel towards the many who contributed to and were responsible for his death. Our hearts go out to his immediate family, who by this cruel act are deprived of the inspirational and loving role he played in their lives.
Peter Bours
By 
Peter,
June 8, 2009 10:53 PM
I met Dr. Tiller recently at NAF's reproductive health conference in Portland. Each time he walked into a room people's heads would turn and they would look and usually smile in his direction. Each time he spoke people leaned forward in their chairs to hear what he had to say. He spoke very quietly and in my opinion, without ego.
Respect and compassion for the women he cared for came first in everything he said and did as an abortion provider. He said once that "abortion is a matter of the heart. For until one understands the heart of a woman, nothing else about abortion makes any sense at all." I believe that George Tiller was able to look into the heart of women because he opened his heart to them and they in turn could open their hearts to him.
When I heard about his murder last Sunday I immediately knew it to be true, but I did not want to believe it. I had really hoped that society had risen above committing murder because of a belief in abortion as a wrongdoing, a sin or whatever else anti-choice people deem abortion to be. I lost some faith in humanity the day Dr. Tiller was shot, and am having a very hard time getting it back. I heard Peggy Bowman, who previously worked with Dr. Tiller at his clinic, mention that he frequently wore bulletproof vests, including at church, yet he was not so protected on the day of his death. I wonder why he didn't wear protection on that particular day. Maybe he had faith as well that society had risen above this kind of violence. Believing that Dr. Tiller sustained his faith in humanity goes a long way to helping me find my own way back to that faith. My heart goes out to his many beloved family members and friends. He will always be missed and remembered.
Rejena Miles
By Rejena Miles,
June 8, 2009 10:54 PM
i only met Dr. Tiller once at a conference in New York years ago,i made it a point to meet him and had to shake his hand to thank him for all the great work he has done.
He will be missed by everyone in my office in mass. he was very kind, gentle, and one of the most caring men i have met. i will not forget him. My sympathies go out to his family, and he is in my prayers.
elizabeth m Massachusetts
By elizabeth,
June 8, 2009 10:58 PM
IN MEMORIUM Dr. George R. Tiller Ours is a prof... IN MEMORIUM
Dr. George R. Tiller
Ours is a profession filled with sadness. The bitter sweetness of life is our specialty, as we take one life to preserve the choice to create another. Thus are we steeped in the catechisms of sacrifice.
We gather here to remember one whose life was an offering, a penance and a redemption. Smitten in a very public spasm of violence, his loss is our shared and very private grief. For we alone and only can fully know the depth of his love, the fire of his mission, the covenant of his devotion and the endlessness of his forbearance.
The journeys of men and women like George Tiller are often lonely ones, but in his case it was not. Fortified by those who came before, strengthened by his family, cherished by his colleagues and heralded by a courageous few persons in the public eye—some of whom are here today—he is now carried to his place of peace by those who will carry on his work.
Blessed are those of us whose dear friends sustain us with faith, infuse us with courage and delight us with humor. Never more do we need them than on this day.
We bear collective witness to a life of service; we lay to rest a soul of courage.
May the Lord bless him, honor him and keep him close to his bosom, evermore.
Amen.
Steve Lichtenberg
Betsy Aubrey
For me the highlight of the NAF conference each year was the opportunity to hug Dr. Tiller. My heart hurts for his loved ones, the families he helped heal and the providers who looked to "St. George" for pearls of wisdom.
Dr Tiller was a great man. He was always available to me in person or by phone to discuss difficult cases. He thereby helped ame grow in my skills and protect the women of northern Nevada. Dr Tiller found it difficult to believe the evil in the souls of the hateful terrorists even after the attacks he suffered. My soul has lost a part of itself and the force of life on this planet has been diminished.
Damon L. Stutes, M.D.
Dr. Tiller was trained in the clinic in which I work. I never met him, but have heard the stories of women who had been helped my him. We used to refer women to him who were farther along in their pregnancies than we could service. A true hero has died, but his legacy will live on forever. Thank you, Dr. Tiller, for everything you accomplished and every woman you helped. You are missed.
From Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada I send my sincere condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. I have assisted women to leave their home, family and country to seek care and he was there to provide it. Over the years I have referred women to his clinic, and they all said they felt heard, respected and cared for. In my career I have had the privilege to work for Dr Morgentaller. In one career knowing two men that sacrificed so much to assist women, it has been an honour.
Lisa
By ,
September 13, 2009 12:12 PM
California Academy of Family Physicians Statement
on the Murder of George R. Tiller, MD
August 2009
Members of the California Academy of Family Physicians mourn the murder of George R. Tiller, MD, a family physician, who was assassinated at his church in Wichita, Kansas, on May 31, 2009. As outlined in an extensive article in the New York Times in July, Dr. Tiller had long been a target of protest for anti-abortion activists in the United States.
Academy members send their deepest condolences to Dr. Tiller’s family, friends, patients, colleagues, and community. We are grateful to Dr. Tiller for his many years of courage and his commitment to providing reproductive health services despite extraordinary opposition.
We believe disagreements over health policy should be resolved solely through legal and humane means. No physician, other health care provider, or staff member should be forced to work in a climate of vigilance and fear when providing legal health care services.
It is our fervent hope that physicians’ right to engage in a full medical practice and women’s right to choose are not compromised in the aftermath of the murder of Dr. Tiller. Instead, we commit to renewed courage and dedication in practicing according to the dictates of our own individual consciences, without illegal, immoral, or criminal actions toward those who may hold differing beliefs.
By ,
September 25, 2009 11:56 AM
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