Thoughts on the George Tiller tragedy and related subjects

[matrixrefugee]

Yes. It is a tragedy. I'm generally avoiding taking sides politically on this. But it disgusts me and as much as I may not like what the man did for a living, he was still another human being, and he should not have been murdered, especially not in a house of worship, not in front of his family. Those poor people are going to be horribly emotionally scarred for life. Watching someone kill your loved one has to be near the head of the list of things that -- pardon my Old German -- can fuck your head up for the rest of your days on earth. And I have no sympathy for the people who dare to say, "He had it coming". Or say "It was God's judgement". Granted, I believe those who live by the sword run the risk of dying by the sword, but that applies to those who willingly put themselves in the line of fire, for whatever reason. This man worked in the medical field, not in law enforcement or the military, and he wasn't a gang-banger or a hoodlum, either.

I'm avoiding the Catholic Answers forum these days, but I'm really steering clear of it now, since I know that for every person who says this should not have had to happen, and that Dr. Tiller's murderer was clearly a very dangerously disturbed man, there will be at least one person who's practically singing the chorus of "Cellblock Tango" from Chicago or committing an insta-Godwin by making references to Dr. Mengele. I remember one incident involving a woman who came to the board, asking if God would hate her for having had an abortion before she entered the Church; most people were very, very empathetic and offered to pray for her peace of mind and reassured her that God loves her and understands her more than human beings can. But there was that howling handful of jerks who jumped all over her, like the Pharisees dragging down the woman caught in adultery. Thankfully, those people got banned, but she shouldn't have had to endure that kind of treatment.

That said, my thoughts on being pro-life? I believe that physical life begins at the moment of conception and ends at the moment of death, however it comes. I'm not in favor of abortion, but I respect those women who have chosen to medically terminate a pregnancy. It was their decision, though I may not like it. Personally, I like how some Japanese women handle having an abortion: after the procedure, many choose to make an offering to Jizoh, the bodhisattva who watches over children, and they offer a prayer of apology to the soul of the aborted child.

And I have to shake my head over how some people have added a certain weight of implications to certain words. Case in point the medical term for what's generally sanitized as "a miscarriage": medically, it's called a "spontaneous abortion". It's even held by some medical experts that a woman who's having regular sexual relations with a man may have as many as three "spontaneous abortions" in a year, just because for whatever reasons, the embryo just didn't thrive. And this happens without the woman knowing what went on; I know my mother mentioned being "a bit late" and then having a heavier than usual period, and that it could have been something like this. Just don't use the medical term around certain kinds of pro-lifers: they get their panties in a knot.

Same goes for another incident on the Catholic Answers forum, when a woman came on who'd had to have surgery for an ectopic pregnancy and was angry with a term used on the bill from the hospital, to whit, "surgical abortion". I'm sorry, but that's what the doctors call it. That's technically what it is. You don't substitute the jargon of of another field with what could be construed as weasel words, just because said jargon sounds icky. Please to be calling a spade a spade, thank you. I decided not to comment on this thread, since I knew it wouldn't go anywhere.

That said, if we were to criminalize abortion, I wonder if that would wind up canning surgical abortions to deal with ectopic pregnancies. Reasonable pro-lifers accept the fact that we currently don't have the technology to correct an ectopic pregnancy (ie. by somehow safely removing and re-implanting the embryo in the mother's uterus), and thus the only way to treat the condition, is something which will sadly terminate the pregnancy. But there's always the ignorant ones that don't realize that a woman can die if the embryo implants where s/he shouldn't: ie. in the mother's ovary, one of her Fallopian tubes, in her vagina.

Sorry for the rambling rant, but I needed to get this off my chest.

Comments

[veilofveronica.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed reading this. My views differ greatly (I'm proudly Pro-Choice), but I greatly respect civil and well reasoned statements like yours. I think that the murderer definately was NOT Pro-Life or Christian, any more than I'd be a car if I stood in a garage.
There are a lot of people that disagree with and would never have an abortion themselves, but still want it to stay safe and legal.

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

By all accounts that I have heard, he was the sort of "Christian" who'd be better off defining his religious designation as "pseudo-religious nutjob".

[koemiko.livejournal.com]

Yeah. My mother works at a clinic - not an abortion clinic, but just generic medicine - and she often receives phone calls asking about 'abortions,' or people needling her about it. They also get the "dead fetus" van parked in front of her workplace, like you mentioned in the next post.

Fun fact: Dr. Tiller's daughters, one of them, works there. As an optometrist, I believe.

His funeral is this weekend... Fred Phelps is going to be protesting. *sigh* I believe the American Legion is going to be there as a call out to the fact that Dr. Tiller was in the Navy.

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the clinic we go to apparently performs a few dozen abortions a year, but I wonder how many of them are because of an ectopic pregnancy? Most likely the majority, but to some pro-lifers, that doesn't make a difference. On one of the Catholic dating sites I used to frequent, I refused to answer one guy's emails to me because he'd stated in his profile that he was dead set against abortion for any reason; I've predicted he'd lose his future wife to complications related to an ectopic pregnancy, though I'd hate for anyone to have to have their face rubbed in it, to get them to think differently.

I swear to God, if Fred Phelps, or someone of his ilk, lived in the time of Christ, he'd be picketing the hasty funeral that Christ's followers had for Him, just because Christ counted tax collectors and prostitutes among His close friends and disciples...

[elaryn.livejournal.com]

Myself, I can't ever imagine the decision to terminate a pregnancy, for any reason, being taken lightly. It's not a choice I'd make, even at great personal risk, but that's MY choice, and as I've said before, I've never been:

* 13 (or younger) and pregnant
* pregnant as a result of rape or incest
* pregnant with a non-viable foetus
* pregnant and mentally ill
* pregnant and in dire poverty

I can't choose for the women in those (and other) situations. All I can do is pray for them and hope that whatever they decide to do is the right choice for them. God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, loves us and forgives us, which is always a comforting thought.

*hugs*

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much what I do: I don't pray for an end to abortion, I pray that people -- including women with any kind of high-risk pregnancy, or whose situations make it high-risk -- get the help they need, when they need it, and that other human beings have the humility to help their fellow man.

[elaryn.livejournal.com]

I also forgot to mention better education about preventing pregnancy in the first place. It's ironic that some of the most virulent "pro-lifers" are also against teaching contraception. So, what's better? An abortion or a pregnancy that never happened in the first place? Teaching abstinence and/or chastity? It certainly can't hurt, but the human race has been fascinated by sex ever since they first figured out what those funny bits "down there" were for, and I sincerely doubt they're going to stop anytime soon. Penalties for fornication and such used to be much worse than mere social disapproval, and yet, people still had lots of sex.

Education won't solve everything, but again, it sure can't hurt. And not everyone follows Judeo-Christian morality when it comes to sexual expression.

*sigh*