From Tragedy

This has been a tremendously sad week for me, and I have yet to truly mourn the death (assassination) of Dr. George Tiller. For the last 6 days, I have watched the community around me reel with pain, with sadness, with anger, and with the simple loss of a compassionate human being.

I have drafted press releases, attended vigils, consoled colleagues, read countless articles and blog posts, and talked with new interns about the sheer tragedy that is the needless death of Dr. Tiller. And yet, I cannot wrap my head around it.

I first heard the name 'Dr. Tiller' when I started working for the Feminist Majority Foundation in the fall of 2007. FMF has worked with Dr. Tiller and his clinic for years--fundraising to help him stay on top of the legal costs of frivilous cases, working with local and federal law enforcement to combat violence at his clinic, and finding ways to thank and support his staff as they were relentlessly targeted and harassed by anti-abortion extremists.

In March of last year, Dr. Tiller agreed to speak at FMF's National Young Women's Leadership Conference, and it was there that I truly learned what an amazingly courageous and compassionate person this man was and will forever be. Dr. Tiller spoke of horrendous conditions and incomprehensible choices, but what struck me the most was that while most doctors would reference a "case," Dr. Tiller spoke of his patients. He never boasted about saving lives or coming to the rescue. He simply saw himself supporting women who came desperately to his door when no one else could or would help.

We all celebrated this past March when Dr. Tiller was justly acquitted of the 19 bogus charges brought agaisnt him by a politically motivated prosectution. We were concerned when his clinic was recently vandalized. And then there was Sunday. There simply are no words.

I lament the reality that it takes such a gut-wrenching tragedy to evoke REAL conversation on the medical, cultural, political issue of abortion, and yet, here we are. I have been surprised by the national dialogue I've begun to witness:

• brave abortion providers and supporters coming forward to not only support the memory of Dr. Tiller, but to re-affirm their commitment to ensuring SAFE and LEGAL abortion in the United States;
  
  
• national media outlets taking a hard look at the skewed politics of the zealotous anti-abortion movement, using every last measure to imprint their religious doctrine on anyone who will give them the time of day;
  
  
• bloggers from every walk of life asking real questions in an attempt to dispell the hatred that is so often spewed from one "opponent" to the other.

While the grieving process will take a long time, I am encouraged by how it has started in communities from coast to coast. So many of the hard truths to come in the wake of Dr. Tiller's assassination are not comforting, but there is much to be gained from the dialogue.