After Tiller

DOCUMENTARY PROJECT REFLECTION- AFTER TILLER

I chose to do my Guided Reflection on After Tiller. Dr. George Tiller is one of four doctors in the world that perform abortions during the third- trimester of a pregnancy in 2009. This is during a time when bombings are known to happen at any abortion location at any time. Society is very out spoken on their views and the Dr. had received an insurmountable amount of death threats. He has gone through many lows in like due to the nature of his work. He has not only been divorced because of his job, but also feels alienated for the rest of the world.

I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness, when I hear the secretary trying to explain how the procedure will work to a potential client over the phone. She is very detailed in her description and make sure the client knows that this is a labor and delivery, not a surgery. I can’t help thinking,” how does she feel? She looks like she may be under a lot of stress. She says, “You need to be psychologically prepared for that.”

What really surprised me is finding out that this is a three-day process and once started, it cannot be stopped.  It also surprised me the stories about why people wanted to choose this method of abortion. Hearing one mother explain how she found out about a condition after being twenty-five weeks and the issues that could arise. Hearing that the child that you carry is not a “viable child”, could be extremely overwhelming and harmful to her psychological and mental strength.

It shocks me that these doctors who take an oath to save lives, are able to find peace in ending lives. With so much opposition that they face on a day-to-day basis, it make me wonder, how do they have to strength to fight every single day?  The emails that they receive from the initial questions to potential clients, is mind-boggling. It makes me wonder if Dr. Tiller has a shrink on hand. How are these doctors able to deal with this amount of stress?

It’s really perplexing to comprehend how one part of the world feel that this type of abortion is an abomination and others think this is a “gift from God.” When you love your unborn child so much that you are burdened with the thought of bringing them into this world to only be able to live in a vegetative state, what are your options?

The questions that still remain is how accurate are these screening, that say these unborn fetus are going to have some disease. I feel I am able to question such decisions as I was told that one of my own children would have down-syndrome 23 chromosomes, and it may be best for me to have a Dilation and curettage also known as DNC at the hospital as I already had one child with disabilities. Well needless to say, I decided to  have my son and absolutely nothing is wrong with him. He is the smartest kid I know. In sixth grade, he had already read at a twelfth grade level. 

Not that I have any good feelings about the video that I have watched, but I will say that after learning about partial-birth abortion, I think this is the lessor of two evils. I do commend the doctors who stand up for what they believe in, even if my beliefs are not the same. I know that it takes great courage and strength to “go against the grain.” However, Susan Phillips once said, “Anything that’s worth having is worth fighting for.”