It Has Always Been Around, It Will Always Have A Nitche

As I tend to be somewhat jaded about bad things that happen in the world...not at all disaffected, just rarely surprised...I didn't initially freak-out when I heard about the murder of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller. I was hurt to hear it, but hardly shocked. This is the kind of shit these devils do (much like the murder of Harlem police officer Omar J. Edwards by one of his colleagues). This land is wrought with people who will do whatever it takes to destroy the lives of women and people of color, both wittingly and subconsciously. Just because we have a Black, pro-female POTUS does not mean the country has moved past that.

However, when I really sat down at thought about it, I shed a few tears. Whether he was passionate about the meaning behind his work or if he simply saw the fiscal value in providing a service that many other doctors wouldn't is irrelevant. Dr. Tiller's work supported the legally protected right of women to decide whether or not they wish to give birth. The terrorist organization Operation Rescue (a member of whom is suspected to be the shooter) long since made the abortion provider a source of their attacks on choice and he was shot in 1993 by anti-choice lunatic Shelly Shannon.

The hypocrisy of radical anti-choice advocates is mind-boggling. If their argument against abortion is that it calls for humans to "play God" and decide when to end a human life, then how is it reasonable to end the life of an abortion doctor? It's enough to make your head explode. I understand the reasons for people being anti-abortion and I think that most women of any school of thought would prefer to go their days without having the procedure. But I find it deeply troubling that someone else would find it their place to decide what a woman can and cannot do with her body. And I find it horrifying that someone who is so passionate about the preservation of human life could take it upon themselves to end someone else's. But I don't find it surprising that these same folks are willing to do little to nothing to prevent the occurrence of rape (an event that would certainly make a woman consider abortion), as the safety of women doesn't seem to register high on their radar.

It shouldn't be so alarming, however, as anti-abortionists tend to be pro-death penalty. It is a matter of a group of people feeling that they should be the gatekeepers of life, that they are the ones who have the moral authority to decide whom shall be free to govern themselves and who doesn't deserve to live. My ire with the tendency of people to use religious texts to decide how the world should work is the assumption that everyone else reads these books the same way or has any interest or belief in them at all. Dr. Tiller read his Bible and worshipped just as his detractors did, but he felt justified in what he did for a living. And someone who saw things differently felt it was their place to end his life.

While Dr. Tiller was a man, his death is another casualty in the long-standing war of The World vs. Women. There are so many people (male and female) who believe (consciously and subconsciously) that women are somehow inherently incapable of being the makers and shapers of their lives. That left to our own devices, women are susceptible to destroying their existence or living without the appropriate level of morality. Jezebel recently discussed the large number of women who express their desire to bear sons and not daughters. I have personally always wanted sons because I wanted to send children out into the world who live in contradiction to what society has typically seen from men. Sons, who like Dr. Tiller, would support the lives of women and grow up understanding the equality of the sexes and the need to work for that equality.

My thoughts are a little disjointed (likely by my anger and exhaustion) and I feel like they are sounding like "Feminism For Dummies". I wish I could do Dr. Tiller more justice with my words, but I'm not finding them so easily as I'd like. Le sigh.

I'll leave you with a song that I posted early in my blogging career. I first heard this as a young girl and didn't quite understand it's weight. When I got to high school, I fully processed the words and was touched by the existence of a pro-choice anthem penned and performed by a man, when so much of the anti-choice movement seems to be an extension of patriarchal notions of masculine control over women's bodies. Hearing a Black man express such feminist ideology (when feminism has long since been labelled by my community as "White women's business" and the heavy influence of Christianity has rendered a lot of Black folks so fanatical about De Bible that they have voted for right-wing loons like George W. Bush in order to prevent THE GAYS from marrying and THE WOMEN from having choice) was also an OMG moment for me.

Digable Planets- "La Femme Fatal" (1993)


RIP Dr. Tiller. I will honor your memory by working to protect the continued ability for women to choose. And for those who oppose abortion, I'd suggest that you take Obama's advice and work to lessen the number of women seeking abortions by working to support pregnancy prevention education and anti-rape efforts.