Tiller The Baby Killer

Up until yesterday Dr. Tiller performed late term abortions in Wichita, KS. Yesterday, he was gunned down on as he was serving as an usher at his church. Dr. Tiller performed these abortions for women who met certain criteria, the mother and or baby needed to be in danger. When I was younger and more naive I would have categorized myself as pro-life under any circumstance. Through life experiences my views have changed, I am still pro-life, but I do understand there are women who may need Dr. Tiller's services.

When I was 16 weeks pregnant with my first set of twins, Nate & Spence, I had a bright red gush in the middle of the night. Travis and I went directly to the emergency room to discover that my water had broken. The twins were fraternal, so Nate had no amniotic fluid, but Spence was still okay. In the morning a specialist that did his best to explain what had happened visited me. After he told me the outcome would most likely be negative he told me that I had one week to decide if we wanted to end the pregnancy. In Nebraska, abortion is only legal up to 17 weeks. I was so happy to have Travis by my side. Travis is pro-choice, but he knows and understands my beliefs. So, when the doctor asked us if we wanted to schedule an abortion, I froze up, but Travis was able to say "NO!” We put our babies lives in God's hands and hoped and prayed for the best. I went another 10 weeks on bed rest trying to maintain the pregnancy. When I was nearly 26 weeks, Spence's water broke. We were told that the babies wouldn't benefit from being inside anymore. However, in the state of Nebraska they could not induce labor at 26 weeks because it would be considered abortion, therefore illegal. The doctor suggested I discontinue my bed rest in hopes of inducing labor. I walked around for a day, but labor didn't happen. My doctor then told me about a clinic in Kansas that would be able to help me. I don't know if it was Dr. Tiller's clinic, but if it wasn't him it was someone similar. I called the clinic in hopes that they would induce labor and we could hand the babies over to the NICU to nurse the babies back to health. But, that was not the service the clinic provided. The clinic explained that they would give me some medicine to kill the babies so they wouldn't feel pain, then they would break the babies up and pull them out piece by piece. Needless to say, this is not what I had in mind! I got off the phone with the clinic and called Travis to tell him that we weren't doing that. After explaining the process Travis agreed with me! I called my doctor to tell him that wouldn't be happening. The doctor suggested I return to bed rest until my body naturally went into labor. I spent another couple of days on the recliner in front of the television until I went into labor. The babies were born premature and only lived a few hours each.

Through this experience my beliefs changed. I am still pro-life for myself, but I now understand this is not a black and white issue. I think columnist Toby Harnden said it best when he wrote "To be bitterly opposed to such abortions - or, indeed, any abortions - is a completely respectable moral and political position. To regard abortion as murder and to regard the likes of George Tiller as "baby killers" is also legitimate. But to murder Tiller, to appoint oneself as judge and executioner, to take a life as retribution for other lives that have been taken is another matter entirely. To do so while Tiller was inside his church only adds to the twisted evil of the act."