Mermaid Musings

It’s like salt in the wound. The Tiller family announced today that they are closing the clinic. Permanently. As one of my volunteers asked me, how do we spin this so it doesn’t sound like utter defeat? I’m at a loss.

I keep telling myself, we ARE winning. We ARE WINNING. The discussion of late-term abortion has caused some media pundits to shift their arguments from ‘it’s always wrong’ to ’sometimes it’s necessary’ - that IS progress. And I remind myself that we don’t have to convince the vitriolic, misogynist, terrorizing anti-abortion groups that women have a right to their bodies and their lives. We’re never going to. The majority of people in this country already believe that women have those rights. The fanatic fringe who will not rest until ‘abortion is illegal’ aren’t going to win. Because they have lost more this day than we have. They had to resort to the most deplorable violence to shut down Dr. Tiller. And if they see this as a victory, they are not as pro-life as they claim.

I fervently hope that other doctors will step forward with the courage and grace that Dr. Tiller exemplified and offer their services to the women that Dr. Tiller also served. In this way, the cowardly, vile person who shot a decent and courageous man will have defeated his own purpose - instead of one Dr. Tiller, I hope that in the coming months there are dozens of Dr. Tillers.  And in a few years, I hope there is a Dr. Tiller in every state. In this way, those wack-jobs passing for christians and human beings will have, by their own actions, opened up new choices for women.