On Sunday, May 31, 2009, Dr. George Tiller was assassinated while attending his church in Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Tiller has been the target of anti-abortion extremists for decades. His clinic was vandalized, picketed, and bombed, and in 1993 he was shot in the arms by Shelley Shannon (an anti-abortion terrorist in prison for shooting Tiller and firebombing clinics). Dr. Tiller and his dedicated staff endured years of harassment from anti-abortion terrorists.

Dr. Tiller's contribution to women's health and reproductive justice cannot be understated. He continued to provide reproductive health services to women - legal later term abortions - despite the violent targets against him.

While we are saddened by the loss of a courageous and committed physician who helped many women in their time of need, we are also outraged that violence and murder continue to terrorize women's health providers.

It is necessary to speak out about the lack of protection that Dr. Tiller and other abortion providers get from law enforcement agencies.  Hopefully, they will hear the protests of the pro-choice community.  But, it is not enough.  Think about it.  Approximately a million American women each year benefit from the courage and commitment and caring of abortion providers, hospitals, doctors, clinics and escorts and other supporters.  I know these millions of women are with us in spirit today, but they are not coming forward to protest the killing of an abortion doctor.

 

Why?

Justice Blackmun, in his Roe v. Wade decision built a great, big closet for us who get abortions to hide in.  He called it “The Right to Privacy”.  And, by the millions, we have hidden in that closet, and we have stayed hidden in that closet.  We have got to come out of that closet if we want to protect the right of other women to have help, like we got help when we needed it.  We have got to say,

Yes, I had an abortion.  My name is Carol Downer.  I had an abortion in 1965 when I already had four children and was getting a much-needed divorce.  Then, after remarrying and having two more children, I had another abortion because my family couldn’t afford another child.  I live in Los Angeles, and my e-mail address is cdowner@sbcglobal.net.

We need privacy when we become unhappily pregnant, to consider our alternatives and we need privacy to seek out and receive abortion care.  But, after our personal crisis is over, if we don’t start coming out of that closet in the hundreds and in the thousands, the killers and bombers and screamers and misanthropes will get their way.  George Tiller will have died in vain.

I would like to ask anyone who has had an abortion and who is willing to speak out publically to come forward to identify herself right now.  Brothers, and sisters who have not had an abortion, we need your support too, but right now, right this minute, from this time forward, this is the time for us who have had abortions to make our voices heard.  So, as Harvey Milk would say, come on out!