Dr George Tiller

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5 June 2009

A terrible tragedy occurred last Sunday with the murder of Dr George Tiller, a physician from Wichita, Kansas. While his name might not mean much to most people, his death has been mourned by many. Dr Tiller was a doctor whose clinic performed abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy. He was allegedly murdered in his own church by an anti-abortionist.

Despite the fact that the Supreme Court in 1973 held - with limits - that the constitutional right to privacy extends to the decision of a woman, in consultation with her doctor, to terminate a pregnancy, abortions are not that easy to obtain in the United States. And it is these "limits" that have caused so many women so much grief and fueled the pitched battle between pro-choice and anti-choice activists in the U.S. for over 30 years.

Barely two weeks after the President called for middle ground on the issue of abortion and asked both sides of the debate to try to take a more rational look at each other, a brave and committed doctor is dead.

It is a heartbreaking that it took Dr. Tiller's murder to again highlight the difficult plight of women seeking an abortion in the United States. His murder also raises the ugly specter of homegrown terrorism that continues to trouble the nation's consciousness while its energies are directed elsewhere. Sadly too, the violence appears to increase whenever a Democratic President comes to power, so we have no way of knowing whether Dr. Tiller's murder was the last.

Hopefully, Dr. Tiller's death will not have been in vain.

For a start, his murder only serves to make anti-abortion activists look too extreme, violent and radical for mainstream tastes and certainly for those Members of Congress facing reelection in 2010.

Secondly, it was the bombing of abortion clinics and the murder of abortion doctors in the 1990s that ushered in new federal laws protecting the right to access an abortion clinic and protecting the clinics themselves. Despite the fact that President Obama doesn't want to get involved in any kind of culture war as President Clinton did, there may be others in Congress who can do that work for him. Pro-choice Congressman Jerrold Nadler's office has already suggested that he will push for the Freedom of Choice Act, a bill which would undo many of the Bush Administration's restrictions on abortion.

Dr. Tiller's murder might also decrease the opportunity for the issue to be brought up as a weapon against Judge Sotomayor during her upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings. While the chances of that happening were lower anyway because Judge Sotomayor has no clear record on abortions, even conservative activists have reportedly admitted that bringing the issue up so soon after Dr. Tiller's murder would be "foul play". Once on the court - as she is expected to be - it is also unlikely that her vote will change very much, assuming that President Obama has not chosen a nominee who intends to overturn Roe v Wade.

Tragically however, while these acts of calculated violence might not have the desired impact on Congress or on the rulings of the Supreme Court, they do have the desired impact of decreasing the number of professionals who are willing to perform such services and the number of women who can access their services. Increased violence on the part of the anti-abortion movement will only make it more and more difficult for doctors to take the risk of performing abortions and will make it more difficult for women to receive one if they so choose.