A Friend Recalls Her Visit to Tiller's Clinic

A friend recalls her visit to Dr. George Tiller's clinic. You can read another memory of Dr. Tiller here:

It was horrible. We were driving onto the grounds and the protesters were there with their ugly pictures yelling at us. Just yelling. Then we got inside and it was calm, very professional. Those people are miracle workers, every last one of them, from the littlest nurse to the admin guys. They had to know their lives were in danger, and there was security everywhere, but they just wanted to reassure us.

The baby had contracted a virus and you could see on the MRI that its organs were all messed up. It looked like there were bubbles in them, instead of solid masses like they were supposed to be. Then they figured out that the baby had been exposed to Fifth disease. All sorts of researchers contacted us, because they wanted to study it.

That was at about 20 weeks. I got a blood transfusion and I thought everything was cool. We went on vacation. But then we came back, and the doctor realized everything wasn't cool. His brain had a hemorrhage. The MRI reminded me of my other son's. He's autistic, and when he was three he'd had an MRI that also showed abnormalities. At a minimum, they said the baby would have developmental delays. But the doctor also used the words: "This child could not make it into childhood." I was six months along then, and I was already showing. But we couldn't handle having another special needs kid. Psychically, we just couldn't handle it.

It was definitely not a threat to my life. My doctor sort of indicated that there were other options but he didn't give us any contact info. He basically said we had to go to Wichita, Kan., and we'd be in good hands. It was an unusual environment. There were about 10 of us, with our husbands. We stayed in a hotel with all-night security. They were parents from all over the country, and racially mixed. Some of them definitely could have been Republicans, and Christians. Some wanted to give the fetus a name, and bury it, but I didn't want that. Most of them had babies with Down's Syndrome. They wanted us to go through this together, and in therapy sessions they let us talk about it.

After they injected us with something to kill the fetus, they used some kind of seaweed stick, to make the process more organic, so the body would naturally start to abort the fetus. The whole thing took two or three days. We were all pulling for each other.

There were elections going on at the time, and in my hotel room I remember seeing Sam Brownback, a senator from Kansas, on T.V. giving some big speech, and he kept saying this is a message for Americans and for the "unborn children." And I thought, "this is just horrible." This is a very difficult decision, a very personal decision, and it shouldn't be up for debate in this kind of forum. It seemed totally inappropriate.

I cry all the time, and that will be for the rest of my life. Because I really, really wanted that baby. It's so sad, that no matter what was wrong with it, it was trying to grow, that my body was still trying to make that body grow. It could even have looked like a perfect baby—it probably did look like a perfect baby. So it's just weird and sad that nature is trying to do this thing, and everything is working against it.

You can read other tales from inside Tiller's clinic here and here.

Tags: George Tiller, murder, third trimester abortion

VIEW THIS CONVERSATION

Hanna Rosin Double X co- editor, reporter, prefer my friends live.

Comments

Sad

By: jthomps | Mon, 11/30/2009 - 11:36

I don't blame you for the decision you made. It was personal and nobody else's business, but I appreciate that you shared it regardless. The problem I find with all the so-called "pro-life" people is that they go on and on about the rights of the unborn child, but are the very same people who vote down tax increases to fund programs that would help families with special needs children, or families too poor to properly care for children, etc. Why defend the rights of the unborn, but then forget about the rights of the born? Roger

It will always be many

By: KevinB | Tue, 09/29/2009 - 13:53

It will always be many debates related to this topic. It is a painful confrontation between those who are for aborts and who are against them. And it would never be a right answer. We must realize that sometimes it is hard to give a birth for a child. Sometimes it would be better to make an abort. Of course those who are against abortions will say that it is child’s decision to live or not. And they will be right too. It is just… Too hard to discuss about topic like that. But I don’t think that people should use aggression like it was in Dr. Tillers case. Thanks for the article; it was really interesting to read it.

Sincerely,

Kevin Brighton from online prescriptions pharmacy

I'm not going to justify the

By: alexdenipaul | Tue, 09/29/2009 - 00:07

I'm not going to justify the killing of George Tiller, However I do have a few issues here.
I am myself pro-choice all the way for early term . However, I am pro-life for later term fetus's.

The reason beeing that only a complete idiot could look at the SCIENTIFIC FACTS of how well developed a fetus is in the late 2nd term and in the third term as well as view photos therof and deny that they are human beeings, little persons, not substantially different from a fetus in the ninth month or a baby emerging from the womb, or a newborn child loans; the only real differences are size and sematics or labels we use to define them with, and the fact they are swimming in living in liquid.

By the fifth or sixth month{the time when Tiller and others like him performed/perform abortions} role around, there is an entity that looks EXACTLY like any newborn baby, only slightly smaller, that has it's hart beating, brainwaves, senses to feel pain and pleasure and the brain neurons to register them, It can hear outside sounds and if it were out of the womb could make sounds wioth it's vocal chords credit report.

Tillman and others whom perform late term abortions are well aware of these facts. One wonders how they can exterminate these babies, see their bloody carcasses as they vaccum their body parts out or scrape them out and not cringe at the horror before them, when they know this{many average citizens may not}.

Now, to make it clear, I am left wing politically{I would call myself left libertarian/libertarian socialist}, I am an agnostic anti-theist faithless rationalist customer service, I am a feminist{at least "liberal feminist" anyhow}, an egalitarian,etc. I am no right wing type, nor a conservative, nor a person of faith.

But he does'nt need to be to see these facts{nor does one need to be like me and like liberals,etc, to see that a first term and early 2nd term fetus is not a viable person and that abortion in these periods is fine; which the far right neocons and many people of faith refuse to see}.

One thing that disconcerts me is the excuse of using womens lib and feminist rhetoric to justify late term abortions or the infanticide of partial birth{which some do try and justify using such rhetoric}.

Let me state unequivicably foreclosures, both those whom do the above and those whom are against all abortions{far right conservative christian/etc types} are FACTUALLY WRONG! Both are in denial and base their arguments on false logic and bad morality and a poor knowledge of the facts.

I don't think that it is nice

By: StevenZ | Mon, 09/28/2009 - 06:18

I don't think that it is nice to act like that. I will say more: It is just horrible situation. Society must go against late term abortions whatever it takes. It is no matter whether the child is disabled or not, if mother wants to have it - she have such rights. Nobody can decide that child must die. Of course it is not good that Dr.Tiller was killed, but he killed many people too. But it is how it is. Thanks for the interesting information.

Sincerely,

Jack Millson

good article

By: khemso | Fri, 08/28/2009 - 10:56

thanks for your article keep posting please don't stop
_______________
Gold Prices Today
اسعار العملات اليوم
Internet news blogs
Gamezia - Games News and Cheats
Recipe Pie
Recipe Soup
Gold Price and Currency
Projects Management
Currency Prices
Gold Prices
Hollywood Stars
Will Smith
Crafts Kids

I don't know how this

By: bananaripe | Tue, 08/25/2009 - 01:06

I don't know how this pregnancy happen , Just knowing that a nice cruise thailand helps me to enjoy a provestra night and carrying my pregnancy for 3 months now.

rugs

By: ses | Wed, 08/12/2009 - 17:50

rugs or any community

home decor or any community of people indispensable.

leather lounges or any community of people indispensable.

online auctions or any community of people indispensable.

dune buggy game or any community of people indispensable.

The experience of the action

By: idletom | Mon, 08/10/2009 - 15:57

The experience of the action doesn't affect the result. Consider the even more unpleasurable alternative extended over many years with no daddy

why is it okay to evaluate

By: jeni-martin | Tue, 07/14/2009 - 06:24

why is it okay to evaluate whether someone should live or die by what they can offer to others? Is this really the standard we want to use? Are children really only valuable if they are wanted? Is that what makes life a right? The plain and simple truth is that people with disabilities are discriminated against every day. Selective abortion is the silent way to keep yourself from having to have a disabled person in your family.

( buy degrees | high school diploma )

It was an agonizing thought

By: jeni-martin | Tue, 07/14/2009 - 06:23

It was an agonizing thought process for her and her husband to go through and she truly did not know what she would have done. But I believe she would have made a decision based not solely on emotion, despite this being her third pregnancy but only the first one to survive

( fast online degrees | affordable accredite degrees )