Who Has A Right To Protest Womens Reproductive Health?

The weekend started slow here in Roswell. Not much happening beyond the usual small town crap and kinda mundane/average news on the world level. Saturday a young friend got the letter accepting him into the Eastern New Mexico University School of Nursing, where he wants to persue his RN license, so he celebrated with the “Old Folks” before going out with friends his age. His dream of taking medical care to impoverished people is coming true. We are all happy for him.

Saturday was a bore on the news and the forums I visit. The newest arguments there are about the SCOTUS nominee and whether she is a racist, anti gun rights activist or a socialist. The standard Rush O’Reilly spew being discussed there so I just gave the internets a rest and kicked back to the usual sofa gelling.

Sunday’s NASCAR race wasn’t going like I had hoped and Kevin Harvick was a lap down early. I checked my Facebook page and saw where my friend Dusty had posted the sad news of the Kansas doctor George Tiller had been murdered in his place of worship. Apparently churches are no longer places of sanctuary, even to the religious nuts who would kill “for God”.

Following the story closely I saw that the suspected killer was from a suburb of Kansas City and knew in my gut that he was part of the terrorist organization known as Operation Rescue based in K.C.. Turns out he actually had ties to them so my early theory was somewhat right. The whole tragedy was horrible to say the least and the impact of Dr. Tillers death on womens health issues is yet to be seen.

Reading posts of my fellow forum-ites I came across this one sentence that sums up the whole issue for me. The posters screen name is “radicalfanatical” and although we often differ in opinion we agree on most of the important issues. He said, “It is one thing to fight for children to be brought into the world, but in doing so, there is some collective responsibility to support those who do, not necessarily for the sake of the parent, but definitely for the sake of the child.”.

That made me think back to a time when I was living in Baton Rouge in the early ’90’s and Operation Rescue came to town to terrorize our womens clinic there. The only city on that tour that police set up barriers to keep the protesters away. The anti choice mayor also took into account the illegality of stopping medical care in his town as well as hating the outside agitators bringing havoc to the medical district of town. I took classes on how to help defend the clinic and was assigneb a time to be an escort on that Saturday. Friday was free so I went to the barricades to stand firm.

Totally unrelated the weekly ad mailer included an advertisement from the state depicting kids who needed Foster Homes and the plea to folks to take them in. I tore the page from the rest of the ads and when I was manning the barricade I held it in front of me. If I was confronted by any of the people attacking the clinic I would calmly ask them how many unwanted children they fostered/adopted. None had anything to say and moved on. I baked in the sun…well, I should say boiled considering the humidity in south Louisiana…and helped hold the line from the pressing crowd. The pro choice clinic defenders had made a pact to keep mellow and not to get into a shouting match with the anti choice crowds. It mostly worked even though our excitement levels were as high as our convictions were.

Then this beautiful couple showed up on the anti choice side of the barricades. The man said he had heard of my ad and wanted to speak with me. They were both so serene in the midst of the agitated crowd that it was almost as if that fabled angelic light surrounded them. Then the guy pulled out his wallet and spread out his pictures in their plastic sleeves. With loads of pictures of 16 different kids he proudly told me these were his children.

The pics showed kids of all ages. Brown, yellow,and white faces smiled at me from all of the pics. Some of the faces had the classic Downs Syndrome look and some didn’t. All were of the “unadoptable”, non white unhealthy group so often talked about.  All of them looked happy and healthy. They proudly proclaimed that all were adopted and they all had the parental love and guidance that all children need desperately. Then he told me his story.

He had once been a womens health provider in New Orleans. He had performed over a thousand legal abortions and along with his regular OB/GYN practice he had become wealthy. He talked about seeing the despair and hopelessness in the faces of most of the women who had chosen to terminate their pregnancy and saw the need for compassion and care for all. Then he met a homeless patient who would rather have her child adopted but because of the probability of mental and physical problems (stemming from alchohol abuse during the pregnancy) she knew there would be no adoptive parents who would want the baby. He told his wife, who could not have children, and she jumped at the chance to take the unborn child in. 18 years and 16 adoptions later they were part of the protests but also were advocates for the anti’s to find unwanted children and take them in.

I knew in my heart that these folks were two of the minority of the protesters. In fact in the 3 days of working the defense line for the clinic as well as escorting patients on the 4th day I never encountered another “Pro-Lifer” who had even Fostered a child, let alone adopted one. My feeble way of thinking made me know that they were the only folks there who actually had a right to be out there protesting.

A couple of years later I ran into them at a grocery store in New Orleans. We recognized each other immediately and they proudly showed off their new children to me. Beautiful twins of mixed race who were born with crippling physical defects. Their smiling 6 or 7 month old faces looked up fromthe baby carrier and their twisted arms reached out to me. I was so in love. With the babies as well as their new parents.

Yesterday I thought about that kind doctor and his family as I followed the Kansas story with horror. I thought about his loving way of protest and the good he has done. He is outspoken in his anti abortion views and although he is not a religious man he is much more of a Christian than all of those involved in the “Christian” group Operation Rescue.

He fights his fight without violence.

He truly believes in life.

He would never kill a doctor.

Only those who don’t believe in their own message would.

Rest In Peace Doctor George Tiller

Sphere: Related Content

Related posts:

1. Health Care: Congress Needs To Share The Benefits Throughout the entire health care debate it has been incredibly...
2. our culture is sick i have not been feeling well lately. don’t know whether...
3. Obama’s Surgeon General..fantastic pick! She rebuilt her clinic at least three times..after hurricanes and...
4. There must be a line…a wall to hit…or the struggle for reproductive justice is merely a suggestion. I am a woman of color who has a pre-existing...
5. Health Care Reform: More Than Insurance It seems, from what I have read, heard and seen...