LAT: A Late Decision, a Lasting Anguish (KS - Late Term Abortion Doc)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-abortion31may31,0,186596.story?coll=la-home-headlines

The moment is burned forever in her mind: The small exam room, her husband's ashen face, her sobs as the doctor guided a needle into her womb to kill her son.

<snip>

She prayed for forgiveness from God as well. Becker had been taught that abortion was a sin; she wanted so to believe it might also be a blessing. In her seventh month of pregnancy she had learned Daniel had a fatal genetic disorder and his life would be brief and brutal. She wanted to spare him that.

<snip>

These days she also prays for one of the few doctors in the nation who will take them as patients: Dr. George R. Tiller, who performed her abortion. Specializing in late second- and third-trimester abortions, his clinic here draws women from across the country and around the world.

<snip>

But the clinic is now under criminal investigation for some of those procedures.

Like most states, Kansas does not permit abortions of viable fetuses unless carrying the pregnancy to term would substantially and irreversibly damage the mother's health. Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline is investigating whether Tiller's patients were truly in that much danger. Tiller's lawyers respond that he has "always consistently, carefully and appropriately followed the law in all respects."

[alittlelark]

1. Only Fundamentalist Sickos would target a doc who

specializes in saving the lives of pregnant women with unviable fetuses. I trust DOCTORS to be doctors more that I trust politicians to be doctors.

[kitkatrose]

2. I guess mental health doens't count?

What purpose would it serve to force a woman to have a baby that would die so soon after birth? Oh, I forgot, women have no feelings, they're just brood mares. :grr: :banghead:

[OKthatsIT]

10. How about the mental health of a 12 yr old

....hmmmmm

....how bout 12 yr old, raped by father and brothers?

....how bout 12 yr old white girl had sex with black teenager.

....how bout 12 yr old who doesnt know how it got there?

[saigon68]

3. Religious Right Wing Fundie Nut Cases

Go after medical professionals and try to convict them of murder--

For the hateful right wing twisted sense of JayZeus and the Bible.

[RamboLiberal]

4. And if that fails they shoot the doctors or bomb the clinic

The clinic in this story has been bombed and the doctor was shot in both arms.

[saigon68]

11. Yes, JayZeus was all for bombing Abortion Clinics

And killing doctors and nurses who work there.</sarcasm>

[Horse with no Name]

5. A Glimpse into a late term abortion

As many people who enter the nursing profession, you have the exact path of how you want things to go planned out...your hopes, your dreams, your naivity.
I was one of those students. My dream was to become a labor and delivery nurse. Wouldn't it be fun to hand people brand new babies every day? I even applied for and received a job at Parkland Hospital in Dallas--the largest maternity ward in the country.
However, still in nursing school, I still had my OB rotation.
First day on my rotation, I get an assignment. It is a woman who is at the hospital for a prostaglandin induced abortion at 7 months.
The baby is anencephalic--which means it doesn't have a brain.
The procedure is very simple. The doctor inserts a vaginal suppository and then nature takes it's course.
She actually goes into labor.
These parents were nice people. They had 3 other children. Their pictures were posted prominently all over desktop tables. Colored drawings with "I love you Mommy" were there as gifts.
She was kept fairly sedated during the procedure. Her husband never quit crying. They wanted this baby. They loved this baby. But this baby was only destined to be born to die, and they understood that.
Her husband told me that it was so hard on his wife when people came up to her--noticing she was expecting--and congratulated her.
He said it was really taking a toll on her. That is why they decided on the late term abortion.
The physician pulled me aside and told me how it would all turn out.
He said she would go to delivery and give birth, but they would knock her out before she actually delivered. The reason?
Because there is generally enough brain stem to elicit one cry from the baby when it was born. He said he didn't want the mother to hear that cry and then worry she had done the wrong thing.
He said the baby would take one cry and then no more.
That is exactly what happened. That one cry haunts me to this day.
That one cry changed my entire career path.
When rational people are forced to make these types of decisions, they do NOT do it lightly. These people were in agony. The mother's psychological status was in jeopardy.
Even as agonizing as this ordeal was, to all involved, it was the ONLY decision. It was the RIGHT decision.
Nobody has the right to put a woman through the ordeal of carrying a dead baby, only to be congratulated by well-meaning friends and strangers over and over.
I decided that day that I didn't want to be involved in labor and delivery. Not because of the dead baby, but because of the parents.
While it is true there is nothing more gratifying than handing parents a brand new healthy baby, there indeed is nothing more heartbreaking than parents who had that expectation and ended up with nothing.

[MrPrax]

6. Touching Post...Thx n/t

[Logansquare]

13. This happened to a friend of mine

They had difficulty finding a doctor right away who would perform the procedure. The fetus had only a brainstem--enough to be "alive" in the womb, but not so outside of it. It was a tragedy, made more difficult by having to shop for someone who would be willing to perform the abortion.

[David__77]

7. Tiller is courageous man deserving much support.

He has stood up to the Christian-fascists and done so with bravery and in the service of women's right to control their reproductive state. Supporting abortion providers is an important task.

[HockeyMom]

8. Free Republic

Posted this article, but conveniently left out WHY she had this late term abortion. Oh, yeah, the parents just did it on a "whim".

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1413809/posts

[Megahurtz]

9. Those people are

so strange.

[TiredTexan]

12. I rarely go on Free Republic because

I end up shocked at the level of name calling, but I read the posts on this one. Not a single poster notes that the child has a fatal condition, or that his life would be short and brutally painful. They have no compassion for tough decisions, no insight, just angry judgment and finger pointing. "We're right, they're evil," is the entire bulk of their arguments.

How do you connect with people like this? How do you communicate?