On May 31, 2009, Dr. George Tiller was murdered while attending church by an anti-abortion terrorist. We remember Dr. Tiller today. A kind and compassionate man, Dr. Tiller trusted women to know what was best for themselves.

Dr. Tiller understood what abortion meant to women. After his father died in an airplane crash, Dr. Tiller took over his practice and found out the elder Dr. Tiller had been providing abortions for his patients. Dr. Tiller said the women educated him about abortion and what it meant to their lives, and the younger Dr. Tiller continued the practice. The Our Bodies Our Selves blog posted on May 31, 2009, tells the story well.

Dr. Tiller was vilified by anti-abortion extremists, especially for his work with patients needing third-trimester abortions, where there were severe, fatal fetal abnormalities. These pregnancies make up around 1% of pregnancies and were wanted pregnancies. Dr. Carole Joffe's article in The Guardian last year is an excellent look at that practice; click the links in the article for further details and info.

In an article from August of last year, Jordan Smith of The Intercept spoke to Julie Burkhart, who worked with Dr. Tiller and drew a line from Dr. Tiller to today's continued violent rhetoric. "Burkhart says that the rhetoric and actions of anti-abortion politicians are really no different from, and may even inspire, the violence-filled rhetoric or actions of people like Randall Terry or members of the Army of God...And then there’s Trump, whose gaslighting Burkhart finds both dangerous and indefensible.

“You can’t go and say somebody’s a murderer, day in and day out. You can’t use that type of inflammatory language and then say, ‘Oh, gosh! Somebody got a gun and murdered him? Wow! How did that happen?’” she said. “Words are very important. And the way we talk about things. And they know exactly what they’re doing.” said Burkhart.

Today, we remember Dr. Tiller.

#abortionishealthcare #abortionisessential #stopthebans #stopthestigma #drtiller #abortionisawomansright #prochoiceisprolife #weengage #engagementmatters