Choices, Choices, Choices

5/1/2024

It was a warm sunny day in Wichita, Kansas that Sunday morning in May 2009. George Tiller, a well-known physician was serving as an usher at his church, the Reformation Lutheran Church. Dr. Tiller, 67, was a staple at his place of worship, attending regularly with his wife Jeanne who was a member of the church choir. This Sunday, however, would be different from all the other Sundays that Tiller had attended his beloved church. It would be his last Sunday in church. And his last Sunday alive. A little after 10 am, a man walked up to him, pulled out a pistol and shot him at point blank range in the head. While the man tried to flee, other church members attempted to stop him but were confronted with threats of more violence. The man escaped. Dr. Tiller died that morning. Why did he die? Because he was a target of an anti-abortion militia group. You see, Dr. Tiller performed abortions and for a group that was extremely prolife, the best way to stop abortions for this pro-lifer would be to end a life.

This didn't come as a surprise to anyone who was a fan of Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly, who had a show on the Fox Network, one of the most Right leaning networks on TV, spoke of Dr. Tiller often. He didn't praise Tiller or speak of him in a fond way. He vilified him. O'Reilly, who is vehemently pro-life, despised this doctor who performed abortions as thousands of doctors do, but also performed late term abortions. Something that is very rare and only a handful of doctors perform. O'Reilly's hate filled rhetoric was an essential part of his show because he spoon fed his audience the rancor, venom and animosity that they hungered for. The left were killing babies! The left are coming for your children! The left are coming for your God given 2nd amendment gun rights! The left are Godless hedonists! This, a form of stochastic terrorism, turned Tiller's shooter, Scott Phillip Roeder, into a murderer. Roeder believed that he was performing an act of mercy. If he could kill one abortion doctor, then he was saving the life of hundreds, if not thousands of "unborn" children. Roeder, who is now rotting away for 50 years without parole at Hutchinson Correctional Facility in Kansas, said he felt no remorse.

Why are people killing to save lives? Why do people think that having an abortion is killing? This is a debate that has been going on for over 50 years when the landmark case of Roe vs. Wade was decided in the United States Supreme Court. It freed millions of women from having underground dangerous abortions. It freed millions of women from the shame of needing to obtain an abortion. It gave rape victims a choice of not having to give birth to their rapist's baby. The main purpose of this court case was to give women the freedom to make her own decision, whatever it may be in whatever circumstance she may be in. She could choose to have the baby and raise it as her own. She could choose to go through with the pregnancy and after giving birth, give the baby up for adoption. Or she could choose to have an abortion. The latter being the worst-case scenario but necessary depending on what the woman's situation was, which, as the Supreme Court adjudicated fell under the fourteenth amendment (right of privacy) and in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people. Still, for those who felt this was a victory for women's rights, there were many who believed this to be a travesty. They believed aborting an embryo or fetus was murder and no one had that right. They were headstrong and never wavered and have continued that same fight all the way to present day.

During election time, the abortion issue naturally comes up. The Republican candidates will make promises about overturning Roe and the Democrats say they will protect it. But election 2024 has turned out to be different. In June of 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe. Most liberals had a sneaking suspicion that something was brewing in the caldron of Trump's extremely Right-Wing Supreme Court with his handpicked Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Although all three swore that they wouldn't touch the ruling, surprise-surprise, they lied. Trump, who's always been in bed with the Evangelicals for their votes, made a deal with those sneaky devils and made them promises that only an overwhelming (7-3) SCOTUS could keep. And they did. But all is not lost! They didn't ban abortion all together. They simply, "handed it over to the states." Which in lay man's terms meant, states - do whatever you want. And they sure did. Fifteen-week ban, six-week ban, heartbeat law, an all-out ban and most recently in Arizona a revival of an old 1864 law that outlawed all abortions with the only exception being for the life of the mother. Yes, 1864! Before Arizona was a state. Before women even had the right to vote. Those old men in the Arizona senate thought it was a great idea. The video clip of them cheering when it was passed made me physically ill.

Fortunately, the Republican party bit off a little more than they can chew. When news of Roe reached the masses, they realized that they pissed off a whole lotta women. And these whole lotta women vote. Almost immediately, referendums were added to local elections regarding women's reproductive rights and women came out in droves to vote to keep our rights. In local election after local election, women made their voices heard. No, we don't want the government taking away a right we've had for 50 plus years. No, we don't want politicians making these personal decisions for us. And some of these newer laws were murky at best. When it came to laws that were outright bans except in the case of the mother's life, doctor's faced consequences. If a woman was miscarrying and needed an emergency abortion, some states were threatening doctors with jail time if they couldn't prove that there was a real, absolute danger to the mother's life. Women were sent home bleeding and told to come back later. Cases such as these were popping up in these ruby red states and getting lots of publicity, shocking even the most conservative of conservatives. The monster that Trump and his cronies had unleashed had taken a life of its own. It was right in their faces, and they couldn't look away. Now, their perfect plan to strip away one woman's right was morphing into another monster. But they kept on with talks of possible repercussions for women, ban on pregnant women traveling out of state, possible charges on the out of state doctor who performed an abortion. Yep, they doubled down. And now we are here. There is a great divide amongst the pro-life and pro-choice bunch. With most (67%) of the country in favor of women having some abortion rights. But why would the Right wing, the GOP or SCOTUS care what the majority of the American people want? 

In this great divide, I've participated in discussions and debates. During these heated conversations, I've been called a murderer. A brute. Soulless and evil. A horrible excuse for a human...and everything in between. Why? Because I have and always will support a woman's right to choose. Does that make me any of those things? No. I gave birth to two beautiful children, a son and a daughter. They are adults now and have their own lives. But I loved being pregnant and although giving birth was rough, I would do it all again to bring them into this world. The thing is, I chose to bring them into this world. They were wanted and I feel so lucky to have had that choice. Shouldn't every woman have that same choice?

Editor's note: As of 5/2/2024, Arizona has repealed the 1864 abortion ban.