On Dr. Tiller and reproductive rights
Friday, June 5th, 2009 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Posted publicly because I think this is important (comments are enabled on this entry, for now, though I reserve the right to turn them off if any ensuing discussion grows uncivil):
My friendspage has been buzzing all week with reactions to last Sunday's act of anti-choice terrorism, the brutal murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, KS.
Links from today that I found particularly meaningful:
"The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion": So what does an anti-choice woman do when she experiences an unwanted pregnancy herself? Often, she will grin and bear it, so to speak, but frequently, she opts for the solution she would deny to other women -- abortion.
Dr Tiller's murder: What you can do
That last article links, among other resources, to Medical Students for Choice, an organization dedicated to "Creating Tomorrow's Abortion Providers and Pro-Choice Physicians. [...] Medical Students for Choice® stands up in the face of violent opposition, working to destigmatize abortion provision among medical students and residents, and to persuade medical schools and residency programs to include abortion as a part of the reproductive health services curriculum."
I clicked through immediately and made a donation. I am a longtime Planned Parenthood member and onetime clinic defender... but beyond that, I often think that if I had it to do over again, I would seriously consider medical school SPECIFICALLY in order to become a provider of women's reproductive health services. I'm glad to know there are concrete ways of supporting others to carry out that mission in my stead.
Shabbat shalom, y'all. I'm headed out of here shortly.
My friendspage has been buzzing all week with reactions to last Sunday's act of anti-choice terrorism, the brutal murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, KS.
Links from today that I found particularly meaningful:
"The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion": So what does an anti-choice woman do when she experiences an unwanted pregnancy herself? Often, she will grin and bear it, so to speak, but frequently, she opts for the solution she would deny to other women -- abortion.
Dr Tiller's murder: What you can do
That last article links, among other resources, to Medical Students for Choice, an organization dedicated to "Creating Tomorrow's Abortion Providers and Pro-Choice Physicians. [...] Medical Students for Choice® stands up in the face of violent opposition, working to destigmatize abortion provision among medical students and residents, and to persuade medical schools and residency programs to include abortion as a part of the reproductive health services curriculum."
I clicked through immediately and made a donation. I am a longtime Planned Parenthood member and onetime clinic defender... but beyond that, I often think that if I had it to do over again, I would seriously consider medical school SPECIFICALLY in order to become a provider of women's reproductive health services. I'm glad to know there are concrete ways of supporting others to carry out that mission in my stead.
Shabbat shalom, y'all. I'm headed out of here shortly.
no subject
Date: Friday, June 5th, 2009 08:04 pm (UTC)Could you please elaborate on your role as "clinic defender?" I'm curious to know what that involved, i.e. is that another term for "donor" or did it involve in-person protection of clinics against aggressive protestors and such? Or some other activity?
no subject
Date: Friday, June 5th, 2009 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, June 5th, 2009 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, June 6th, 2009 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, June 5th, 2009 08:55 pm (UTC)In all the time I've known of its existence, though, I still am trying to figure out how those women who do that can have a morally consistent viewpoint, and I'm still coming up empty.
I mean, it is possible that they say to themselves "Yeah, okay, I'm a hypocrite, but I need to do this anyway", but I continue to wonder if there's more there.
no subject
Date: Friday, June 5th, 2009 10:36 pm (UTC)I mean, I honestly can understand an anti-abortion position. I think there are a lot of good arguments to be made on that side of the debate. I personally believe that the arguments for allowing abortions are far more compelling, but I can see why someone with different values than mine would not, and I can respect that while still disagreeing.
But to hire the person you've been demonizing as a murderer, to commit the act you've been calling morally wrong and arguing to ban, and have him commit the act on your behalf, while continuing during and after the act to do the same thing?
Honestly, if I were the abortion provider in such a circumstance, I don't think I would willingly permit such a person to remain in my presence or on my property, let alone perform any service of any kind for them beyond holding the door and letting it hit them on the way out. I'm just not that nice.
no subject
Date: Saturday, June 6th, 2009 04:07 am (UTC)Hence the behavior like refusing to sit in the waiting room with the "slutty" women -- the ones who so totally believe that THEIR situation is different, that they actually expect the abortion providers and other abortion seekers to recognize it too.
I also imagine that it depends on the situation. Like the 16 year old who had an abortion and was back picketing the next day -- she may have just been hiding her true experience, and the guilt and shame she probably felt about it, from her parents and those close to her. If that fear of having her secret discovered were removed, maybe she'd give up the protesting.
And of course there are those who, upon suddenly discovering that *their* situation demands an abortion, actually reconsider their views. So it's not so much that the anti-abortionists are more likely to be hypocritical; it's just that the people who don't behave hypocritically (for whatever reason) don't stick in the memory and baffle logic and understanding the way the hypocrites do.
no subject
Date: Friday, June 5th, 2009 08:59 pm (UTC)Awesome. In my nonprofits class today, our instructor was telling us that fundraising isn't begging, it's enabling people to live out their values by supporting those who are doing that work.
no subject
Date: Friday, June 5th, 2009 11:50 pm (UTC)shabbat shalom
Date: Friday, June 5th, 2009 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, June 6th, 2009 02:24 am (UTC)If I had a clone-double who was just like me but not so squeamish, she might go become an abortion provider. Not one of these non-judgmental, super-tolerant types, though. More like a "f*ck you, if you think I'm a murderer then go ruin your life getting stuck with a squalling baby" abortion provider. I'd be pretty tempted to expose the hypocrisy of all those protesters who go back to protesting the day after their abortion, too.
Maybe it's good that I'm too squeamish to be an abortion provider. :)