A Day at George Tiller's Office

The recent murder of Dr. George Tiller has brought to memory a visit I had with Dr. Tiller a number of years ago and the impact it made on my understanding of how someone could perform abortions on so many women. The abortion issue is certainly the question of our time as we ask “When should we protect life?” Years previously the thought was that the baby in the womb was just a “mass of tissue” – it certainly wasn’t “life” or “human life”. Yet, as we have pondered the question, most reasonable people must ask, if the baby in the womb is not “life” then what is it (after all it is growing – it is certainly moving and evolving)? If it is not “human”, then what would we call this “life”?

I was very much involved in the “Summer of Mercy” in 2001 and I was actually arrested in 2001 when I stood in front of Dr. Tiller’s office and was told that I was trespassing. When the State Representative for our district, Dale Swenson, contacted me and issued an invitation to visit Dr. Tiller’s Clinic (He was trying to lobby the Kansas Legislature for a law that would be beneficial to his clinic), I accepted.

I remember going into the clinic (which he had closed for the day) and going through the security, which was very similar to what we see in courthouses today. I remember going into the lobby where what was first noticed was a large picture of Dr. Tiller shaking hands with President Clinton. I also remember that all around the lobby were framed letters that patients of Dr. Tiller wrote thanking him for his services. I remember thinking how unsettling that scene was. It seemed that Dr. Tiller was trying too hard to find solace in the letters posted there.

I remember the tour and having the opportunity to ask questions of the staff. They seemed kind and conscientious and I wondered how they were able to cope working in such a place. I remember when I had the opportunity to visit with Dr. Tiller and I asked him when he thought “life” began. His response was that it wasn’t “his responsibility” to make that decision, that the legislature makes those decisions, and until they state differently he will continue to perform his “service”. I asked, "What is the difference between life immediately after birth to those babies aborted other than time?" Again his response was that that was not his “responsibility” to determine. As we continued our discussion I sensed that he had really “convinced” himself that he was doing a service and he did not think about the actual babies he was terminating. In fact, he bragged that he would baptize the aborted babies if the families wished. He described that he thought partial birth abortion was wrong and described the process of how he would “terminate” the babies in the womb and then they would be delivered.

He was clearly intelligent and articulate and I felt sad that a man with so much potential for good had taken such a horrible path. I wondered how he could find peace. Obviously he was involved in church, and while I cannot speak to the thoughts of the church, it was certainly not appropriate for one who was involved in such sin to be a “member in good standing”. I left that clinic with a feeling of profound sadness for the entire process: the babies, the mothers, the staff, and even Dr. Tiller.

After returning home I wrote Dr. Tiller a letter expressing my concern for him and what he is doing. I said I would pray for him (which I have often done since that day) and hope that he would find real peace. I never heard back from him, and often wondered what he might have thought about my response.

I remember when I heard at the end of our Sunday morning service that Dr. Tiller had been shot and killed in the foyer of the church he attended that I once again felt that profound sadness. I feel sad for Dr. Tiller’s family being brought into the violent end to his life. I feel for the church, while I disagree with their allowing Dr. Tiller to be a part of their church family, in having such violence happen in their church building. What a tragic situation.

We do not know how this will impact the entire abortion question, but we have recently seen some change in how Americans view the issue (for the first time, more Americans describe themselves as pro-life). It is my prayer that we will see an end to abortion in my lifetime.