Church, no matter of what faith, has always been (and is always supposed to be) sanctuary. If you make it in the door, you're safe. The fight over abortion is about religion and nothing else, so for the murderer of Dr. Tiller to claim that his death is righteous and then kill him within the walls of his church, is obscene.
To hear all the right-wing pundits and conservative politicians express their polite sorrow, then deny responsibility, is heartbreaking.
They'll put on a sad face and say they certainly don't condone the murder of Dr. Tiller, but they'll be patting each other on the back when yours is turned.
The sad thing? They don't even bother to find out what they're talking about. They talk about Dr. Tiller as a "baby killer" or a "mass murderer." Bill O'Reilly has said repeatedly over the past 4 years on his nationally televised show, that Dr. Tiller for only $5,000 and for any reason, will abort a late term baby. This is a lie and Bill O'Reilly knows it's a lie. Late term abortion is illegal except in certain specific circumstances. Dr. Tiller went on trial for this very reason because people like Bill O'Reilly couldn't stand the fact that what he was doing was legal, and they wanted to stop him at any cost. He was acquitted. Here are the only reasons that Dr. Tiller would perform an abortion. These are the rules from his clinic:
Admission Criteria: In order to offer you an appointment, we require that a physician refer you to our center. In addition, we need your genetic counselor or doctor to provide us with gestational and diagnostic information regarding your pregnancy. Over the past twenty-five years, we have had experience with pregnancy terminations in such situations as anencephaly, Trisomy 13, 18, and 21, polycystic kidney disease, spina bifida, hydrocephalus, Potter's syndrome, lethal dwarfism, holoprosencephaly, anterior and posterior encephalocele, non-immune hydrops, and a variety of other very significant abnormalities.
Just any old reason, huh? And $5,000? I don't know where that number came from or if it's correct, but only someone like Bill O'Reilly would say only $5,000. To me and most of the people I know, I'd be that's a lot of money and not so easy to come up with if I found out I had a life-threatening need to have a late-term abortion right away.
I wonder how many of these right-wing pundits know someone who miscarried late in pregnancy or experienced complications during childbirth. There are many, many stories of women whose lives were saved because of late-term abortions, situations where the child was already lost and the mother would have been lost as well. I know 2. We probably all know women like this, but they rarely tell their stories. They hurt. If they've had an abortion, it's unlikely they'll speak up, especially if they've had a late-term abortion and most especially if their audience is of the Bill O'Reilly mindset. It's not baby murder. It's a medical procedure designed to save lives. As you can see from the criteria above, it is not used lightly. It is used only when the child will not live or will live in unspeakable pain (and I do not say this about disability, but about pain and suffering that cannot be eased) or to save the life of the mother which if lost, would also cause the loss of the child.
For this, Dr. Tiller died, and others before him.
Regardless of my personal feelings about abortion, to me, right to life means life is precious - all life. That means the lives of our soldiers, the lives of those on death row (many of whom are most likely innocent based on past history), and the lives of the mother. It's not up to me to tell her what to do or how to live her life. These people claiming to be pro-life aren't. When they care about stopping executions, war, and saving the lives of the mothers, and caring for the children after birth, then we can talk.
Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon.
k
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