As Oklahoma enacts a law that could shutter all but one abortion clinic in the state and Louisiana is poised to follow suit, we turn to the legacy of Dr. George Tiller who was assassinated five years ago Saturday. Dr. Tiller was one of a handful of doctors in the country who provided abortions in the third trimester pregnancy. He faced constant threats and attacks. His clinic was fire bombed 1985. Eight years later, he survived an assassination attempt with gunshot wounds to both arms. Then on May 31, 2009, anti-choice extremist, Scott Roeder, entered Dr. Tiller’s church in Wichita, Kansas and shot him in the head. Dr. Tiller was 67 years old.
Dr. Chastine talking:
I travel to Wichita every week and I perform abortions for the women of Wichita and central and western Kansas as well as some of Oklahoma. We provide procedures up to the current Kansas legal limit, which is 20 weeks post conception or 21 weeks and six days post last menstrual period.
when I was in medical school I got the message that there is a shortage of abortion providers and that, therefore, if more of us, including myself, did not become providers, that there would be women who not be able to access abortion when they needed it. So when I got the call to help open this clinic, I felt a very strong pull of moral obligation that these are people who need abortions who will not be able to access them if I don’t do it. And so I asked myself, “If you don’t do this, who will?” I went to medical school to help people, same as all of us do. So I felt like these people have a need and I have the ability to fill that need, and so I could not in good conscience say no.
Kansas has strict laws that are nonetheless less strict than some of the surrounding states. So Kansas has a mandated 24-hour waiting period. The patient must be given a specific set of state mandated information that includes risks of abortion, some of which are not medically supported. Then she must wait at least 24 hours before she can have her procedure done. Kansas has bans not only on Medicaid coverage of abortion, but also on private insurance coverage of abortion. And so all of our patients are paying out-of-pocket for the procedure which is a significant amount, particularly for the women who disproportionately seek abortion who tend to be from lower income brackets. The patients are required by state law to meet privately with the physician and also to have an ultrasound and to be offered the opportunity to view the ultrasound. After meeting privately with the doctor, they’re required to wait at least 30 minutes before they can be given any medication. Kansas also requires dual notarized parental consent for anyone under age 18. And so the women I see are accepting of this, mostly, but they are very aware that the state is intruding into their relationship with the doctor so many will ask, “Why do I have to wait? Why do I have to do this?” And the answer is, because the State of Kansas is hoping that you will change your mind in this time period. But we have women, nonetheless, coming from all over the state of Kansas. Kansas has four clinics, counting ours; but three of them are in the Kansas City area which is in the northeast corner of the state so central and western Kansas is pretty much served by our clinic, by South Wind Women’s Center. We have patients come from Missouri, from Oklahoma, and we are even started see patients from Texas as the legal climate there and the availability of abortion becomes less.
I want to be very, very clear that the murder and other acts of violence against abortion providers are acts of terrorism. They are acts of violence directed at a few people designed to influence the actions of many people and so they’re putting the statement out there, using this language that is clearly intended to incite someone else, as they say elsewhere in that clip, to take action and to stop other providers. And so these are people who are, admittedly, on the fringe of the anti-choice movement, they are nonetheless encouraged by the mainstream movement. They are encouraged by rhetoric like comparing abortion to the Holocaust, comparing abortion to slavery. So these are extremists, but they’re operating within a very fertile ground of sentiment.
I can’t live my life that way. I get up in the morning and there are patients that need me and if I allow myself to be deterred during this work, then I am allowing a victory for terrorism. Yes, I am aware that there is a risk associated with what I am doing; but I don’t allow it to paralyze me.
— source democracynow.org
Cheryl Chastine, is the medical director and primary abortion provider at South Wind Women’s Center in Wichita, Kansas–the former clinic of Dr. George Tiller, who was assassinated five years ago.
[They are right. Killing god create life is wrong. But what about fossil fuels? God burried it deep down. Is it right to drill and get it back and burn?]