Dr. LeRoy Carhart Steps In to Fill Void After Dr. George Tiller’s Death and Clinic Closing
News that The Women’s Health Care Services clinic, the clinic that Dr. George Tiller ended up giving his life for, will remain closed broke a few days ago, and while I have not published the news and my opinion on the topic, not a day has gone by where I have not thought about it. Cara over at Feministe shares my exact sentiments on the issue.
We can’t blame Dr. Tiller’s family for their decision to keep the doors of the clinic closed and we wouldn’t have been able to blame Dr. Tiller if he had decided to close the doors of the clinic after the several acts of domestic terrorism that had been carried out against the clinic as well as to him throughout the years; even after having his clinic bombed, his roof tampered with before a horrible storm, droves of protesters in front of his clinic daily, being shot in both of his arms, death threats, and finally, murder, Dr. Tiller’s life was stolen from him, his family, his friends, his patients, and everyone who ever cared for him because he believed in saving women’s lives and putting those lives before the not-yet life of a fetus. He was assassinated because he firmly believed and worked for reproductive freedom, so no, we could never blame him if he had made the decision to close his clinic’s doors at any point in his career.
The people who are to blame are anti-choicers. The people who stalked Dr. Tiller and continue to stalk other abortion providers, using scare tactics, lies, and violence to attempt to stop reproductive health service providers from doing their jobs; from doing what they believe is right; from helping the lives of countless women every single day; from doing something that the law protects them under. The people who are to blame for Dr. Tiller’s murder, his clinic closing, and sending waves of fear, disgust, and anger throughout the world are those who claim to be “pro-life,” “against violence,” and working with those same women who they are hurting in the process of their war on reproductive health in mind.
Which brings me to another point… People who advocate for reproductive rights are not going out to protests or anti-choice organization buildings where we know a large group of anti-choicers meet and opening fire on those meeting to plan their next move on reproductive rights. We are not going to churches and insisting that every pregnant woman immediately run to her nearest reproductive health care clinic and get an abortion. We are not forcing our beliefs on you, we are simply advocating for choice which we then respect women and their intelligence enough to be able to make that choice on her own.
When news of Dr. Tiller’s clinic closing, founder of the original Operation Rescue group, Randall Terry, had this to say:
Randall Terry, the founder of the original Operation Rescue group, responded to news that Tiller’s clinic would remain closed with, “Good riddance.” He said history would remember Tiller’s clinic as it remembers Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.
“What set him apart is that he killed late-term babies,” Terry said. “If his replacement was going to continue to kill late-term children, the protests would continue, the investigations would continue, the indictments would continue.”
Current Operation Rescue president Troy Newman, who had condemned Tiller’s killing as vigilantism, called the announcement “a bittersweet moment.”
When Randall Terry insisted that the anti-choice movement had nothing to do with the assassination of Dr. Tiller he was obviously lying; well, we pro-choice folks already knew he was lying, but he just contradicted himself publicly by saying that if someone hadn’t killed Dr. Tiller he would still be working to promote and support trumped up charges be cast against him for his work and he would still be working to promote and support domestic terrorism. Nice going, asshole!
So where do we go from here?
Well, for women in Kansas who had feared that they too would be forced to travel around the country looking for a doctor who would help save their life when threatened by the fetus they are carrying as well as women from around the country who have to travel to Kansas, reproductive rights will not just go away, as anti-choicers had hoped.
It was announced Wednesday that Dr. LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska doctor, will begin performing third-term abortions in Kansas to fill the shoes of late Dr. Tiller.
A Nebraska doctor said Wednesday that he will perform third-term abortions in Kansas after the slaying of abortion provider George Tiller, but would not say whether he will open a new facility or offer the procedure at an existing practice.
Dr. LeRoy Carhart declined to discuss his plans in detail during a telephone interview with The Associated Press, but insisted “there will be a place in Kansas for the later second- and the medically indicated third-trimester patients very soon.”
“I just think that until everything is in place, it’s something that doesn’t need to be talked about” in detail, Carhart said a day after Tiller’s family announced his Wichita clinic was permanently shutting its doors.
Tiller’s clinic was one of the only facilities in the country that performed third-trimester abortions. Carhart has run his own clinic in Bellevue, Neb., since 1985, but had performed late-term abortions at Tiller’s clinic because of Nebraska’s more restrictive abortion laws.
It is understandable why Dr. Carhart will not release information on if he will be opening a new clinic or where his place of business will be located due to obvious reasons (but if you’re still lost, it’s probably because he doesn’t want to murdered–Just a thought!) Dr. Carhart has been an abortion provider since 1985 and since Dr. Tiller’s death, he has seen an increase in patients at his own clinic; seeing an obvious need for his services is what we can assume prompted his decision to offer his services to women in Kansas.
We know for sure that the act of performing a legal medical service to grown women sparks violence and even murder within the “pro-life” movement, so we must be sure to keep Dr. LeRoy Carhart in our thoughts as he continues to stand up for the reproductive health of women everywhere.
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Lost in the rhetoric about these late term abortions is how many of them are done to avoid delivering a severely malformed or genetically damaged child.
Those children are tremendous drains on the already overtaxed medical system. Saving those dollars makes great sense.
But no one points this out, because we are all lost in the shame of “life, terminated.”
Sorry, don't buy it. I've done autopsies on these babies, carried to term and then poked, prodded and abused in the neonatal intensive care, in an effort to keep them alive for one more day. That's not life, that's horror.
Wow! Pretty chilling stuff. This article was worth the read and also a reality check
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well, well, nice post
good nice
As a buddhist i belive that to take any living beings life is a negative act and will certainly reap negative Karma.
However, as a realist sometimes we have to make awkward choices that will result in negative actions, the question of devotion and love seems to play a great deal in this decission. If only delusions were so easy to cut through, we may see that life is beautiful and worth fighting to preserve. For any pregnacy may be a long lost friend or partner waiting to meet you again to repay karmic debts…
Just my thoughts…
Maybe Dr. Carhart was the one that set up Dr. Tiller's assassination so that there would be 'an increase in patients at his own clinic' – “Just a thought!”
Thank you for this article.
This is a serious thing to read especially when it's about abortion.
This is a serious thing to read especially when it's about abortion.
Thanks for the excellent article..
Thanks for the excellent article..
I’ve bookmarked this page so I can return to read it again. I think you have made some interesting points that I agree with and your writing skills are great.