What Happened When an Anti-Choice Catholic Woman Needed an Abortion at Dr. Tiller's Clinic

[babylonsister]

What Happened When an Anti-Choice Catholic Woman Needed an Abortion at Dr. Tiller's Clinic

By Amanda Mueller, TruthOut.org. Posted December 6, 2009.

The Andersons were devastated to learn their unborn child wouldn't live. Dr. Tiller showed them the compassion they so badly wished they had from their friends.



At the home of Gail and Robert Anderson, a large statue of the Virgin Mary sits in the yard, welcoming guests into the home while protecting the family that lives there. Next to the statue of Mary, inside a labyrinth of daisies, daffodils, tulips and roses is a stone engraved with the word grace. For the Andersons' grace is not just a word or a concept taught through their strong Catholic faith, but the name of the daughter their hopes and dreams hung onto. It is the name of the daughter they said goodbye to in the Kansas office of a man named Dr. George Tiller.

snip//

"Dr. Tiller was a very gentle man to my husband and me. He wasn't the villain that people, me included, had often painted him. He was soft-spoken. He held our hands while we mourned our loss. He even prayed with us."

Explaining the procedure to the Andersons and the efforts the clinic would make to help them memorialize their child, Dr. Tiller showed the Andersons the compassion and support they so badly wished they had received from their neighbors and friends.

The next day as they arrived at the clinic, they found themselves surrounded by protesters chanting, begging the Andersons to change their mind and group of children holding a pro-life model of a fetus while calling the Andersons murderers, telling the Andersons that God would not save their souls for taking away the life of another. What was already a traumatic experience was now infused with guilt, panic and fear.

"The staff was respectful and allowed me to have a little bit of dignity where I didn't think I had any left. It made me sad that I didn't get that from my friends or my religious community, but from strangers in a hospital setting. To this day, I am bitter about that," Gail confessed.

On the wall of their living room, next to a crucifix and a painting of the Virgin Mary and St. Brigid of Ireland, is a plaque that holds on it two tiny footprints.

"They do not just look at this as being abortion mills - the staff," Robert says, looking up at the footprints of their baby Grace.

"She was real. They made her real for us. Those footprints were Dr. Tiller's idea. He wasn't a man with crazed eyes anticipating the kill like some anti-abortion activists would like you to picture. He understood the difficult position we were in. He allowed us to still have a piece of the family we wanted. He even called the baby by her name, by Grace."

more...

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/144396/what_happened_when_an_anti-choice_catholic_woman_needed_an_abortion_at_dr._tiller%27s_clinic?page=entire

[boobooday]

1. Great article

I was so happy to find out at the end that this couple went on to have two healthy children.

I don't understand how anyone could think that a higher power would sanction the killing of a man of compassion like Dr. Tiller. To me, that kind of hateful blindness gets close to the definition of evil.

[old mark]

2. Thanks for this post - I know not all religious people are crazy facistic

bigots, but sometimes I lost track of that.

I feel sorry for their loss, but I am happy they awakened to some understanding of the damage their religion does to people it officially hates.

Rec.

mark

[noel711]

3. Why isn't this 'witness' out in the media?

Why are the voices of those who have walked that 'line'
ignored?

This family IS the truth of why the Dr. Tiller's of the world
are necessary. But we don't hear these voices.

I've stood outside abortion clinics,
I've held the hands of women and very young girls
as they walked that threshold of what was necessary
despite the evil shouting at them.

WE need to hold this up....

Take it from me:

Not every 'religious professional' is a closed minded bigot.
There are many of us who walk with women,
with faithfulness and compassion.
Don't whitewash all clergy...

[Dogtown]

4. The moral of this story

is *not* that some Christians are good people, we know that. I'm as fervently anti-christian as any, but there's a definite difference between decent *individual* Christians and a belief system that encourages the flawed.



This story is about a bigot that learned her errors and regrets them.

[demigoddess]

5. This should be on front pages everywhere, all us mothers who have lost children

would understand and maybe some of those fanatic pro-lifers would change their minds.