Reverend Dr. Carlton W. Veazey, President and CEO
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
June 1, 2009

Today, we mourn the death of a humble, courageous man who dedicated his life to justice, liberty and freedom - Dr. George Tiller. George Tiller was murdered yesterday in his church, a place of peace and worship. This good doctor put his life on the line every day to make sure that safe, legal abortion was available to women in the greatest need, women with late-term complications and emergencies, who often had nowhere else to turn. He did so in respect for each woman he served and in the service of a great and noble cause - preserving the promise of reproductive freedom for all women.

Dr. Tiller had a powerful vision that sustained his daily actions of courage. In a letter thanking RCRC for our support during the hate-filled assault on his Wichita clinic in the summer of 2001, he wrote: "Together, we will create a society and a paradigm shift so that every pregnancy is an invited guest in the woman's body and a welcome addition to her family."

Dr. Tiller was a military man. He was proud of his service to his country and to the cause of freedom - and he felt that providing abortion services was part of this country's commitment to upholding women's rights and democracy. He hung an American flag at the clinic every day. After that summer assault on his clinic, he suggested to an RCRC staff member that those who harassed and threatened abortion providers and women needing services were tyrants - and he felt that in providing services, no matter the danger and difficulty, he was standing up to tyranny.

George Tiller was continually harassed - his home, church and clinic were picketed, his clinic was burned down, he was shot in both arms by a demonstrator who is now jailed, and he was recently targeted for investigation only to be acquitted by a jury just a few months ago. But he never backed down.

George Tiller began providing abortion services in the 1970s. We cannot say with certainty what motivated and inspired this man to persevere, despite almost daily threats. Perhaps it was the model of his father, also a doctor, who provided abortion services before it was legal to do so. After his father's untimely death in a plane crash, George Tiller took over the practice. Some women patients began to ask discreetly, "Are you going to help us out like your father did?" And so he did. This strong family connection is in the great tradition of American values.

Women in the greatest medical need came to Dr. Tiller's clinic in Wichita; women in the final weeks of pregnancy, with crushing medical conditions were among his patients. His clinic was a warm, welcoming place. Once past the gauntlet of angry demonstrators, women found a compassionate staff, a well-run medical practice, and the sense they were respected and safe.

Reformation Lutheran Church, Dr. Tiller's church, also sought to be a safe place for all people. In a statement yesterday, church members wrote: "...we reject any notion that violence against another human being is an acceptable way to resolve differences over any issue. We must always strive to engage in peaceful discussion. Our faith calls us to this. Our humanity demands it."

With members of Dr. Tiller's church, we pray for healing and peace to be restored. We pray for Dr. Tiller's family, for the clinic staff, for patients and their families, for friends, and for our country.

We pray for George Tiller - a true American hero, who lived his life according to his values and his faith, who was selfless and fearless in the line of danger to the very end.

There’s Good News and Bad news!

After 8 long years of the Bush Administration’s repeated attacks on reproductive justice it is clear in the first 6 months, progress has already been made by the Obama Administration in several critical areas.

The Obama Administration moved quickly to rescind the Bush administration "religious refusal" rule (also called a "conscience clause"), which vastly expands the leeway for healthcare personnel to refuse to provide abortions or even refer patients to another provider who does perform abortions.

President Obama signed into law the Affordable Birth Control Act, which closed a loophole in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2006 that had resulted in skyrocketing prices for Birth Control prescriptions for College Health Centers and Public Health Family Planning Clinics.

The FDA announced that emergency contraception (Plan B) will now be made available to 17-year-olds without a prescription and will review the Bush Administration ruling that denies EC to young women under 17 without a prescription.

And for the first time ever, Abstinence-only-until-marriage funding was cut, by $14 million, in the 2009 budget, and President Obama’s 2010 budget zeros out this wasteful and ineffective program. In his first week in office, President Obama overturned the global gag rule, which prevented US foreign aid recipients from counseling women about the availability of safe abortion services and from advocating for the liberalization of abortion laws and restored US contributions to the United Nations Population Fund, providing $50 million to the UN agency that funds family planning assistance internationally.

President Obama’s decision to lift restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research is expected to provide a major boost to one of the most promising but controversial fields of biomedical research in generations.

So in the face of so much progress, so quickly, in addition to the tragic assassination of Dr. George Tiller, what could the bad news be?

The election of President Obama and the progress toward Reproductive Justice has been a strong recruiting tool for anti-choice activists, causing them to mobilize in ways they never needed to during the Bush Administration.

The Susan B. Anthony List* says its supporters sent more anti-abortion-related letters, e-mails and faxes to Obama and lawmakers in the first quarter alone than during each of the last two years.

The American Life League reported a 30 percent increase in donations over last year. And they plan to increase their staff in Washington and, after their post-election website crash, recently upgraded their computer system to handle their surge in online activism.

More than 261,000 people signed an online petition calling on Notre Dame to withdraw its invitation for President Obama to speak at the Catholic university’s May 17 commencement. The petition says Obama has carried out “some of the most anti-life actions of any American president," including expanding taxpayer-funded research on embryonic stem cells.

As much as we would all like to finally relax and let our guard down, the assassination of Dr. Tiller reminds us that we cannot afford to. Anti-choice activists are mobilizing to oppose the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sotomayor. Here in New Mexico, St. Vincent Hospital is pulling back from its promises that doctors would not be required to comply with Catholic teaching when treating their patients, and abstinence-only sexuality education advocates continue to present their failed programs as the answer to New Mexico’s increasing teen pregnancy rate.

Just to make up the gains we lost in Reproductive Justice in the last 8 years, we need your continued support. And if we are to make any progress toward moving Reproductive Justice forward, we will need more than that. Please share this newsletter with your friends, family and worship community. Our speaker’s bureau is available to meet with your bible study group, women’s circle or prayer meeting. Ask a friend to volunteer with you as a patient escort or state fair booth. And don’t forget to join our monthly donor club, the Flame-Tenders, so that more of your donation can go directly to our work. Because your regular donations allow us to reduce our fundraising staff time, we can spend more time expanding our programs. We can’t do it without you!

*(a 501c4 advocacy organization, with a Political Action Committee, whose goal “is getting more women active in the political and legislative arena. We need both women candidates, as well as grassroots activists speaking out against abortion.” Close to half of the candidates it endorsed in recent campaigns have been pro-life men.)

On Wednesday, June 10, 2009, Senior U.S. District Judge John E. Conway accepted plea agreements that set the prison terms for Sergio Baca at 46 months and Chad Altman at 40 months. The NM Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice attended the sentencing hearing in support of Dr. Boyd and his staff. Here is Dr. Boyd’s statement, that was given by a member of his staff at the hearing:

Your honor, for years we were picketed by a man who carried a placard stating: “What Man Would Allow His Baby to Be Aborted?” Although many men love and care for their children (a blessing for any child and a good for all of society), love for a woman and child and a commitment to raise that child is not what our picketer’s sign was about. That sign says that women and children should be the property of men--without rights of their own. Fortunately for all of us, that woman negating (if not hating) sentiment is not the law of our land. In America women do have rights, granted by law: abortion is legal.

On the night of December 6th, 2007, these two men took violent action against us based on the belief that they were above the law: a belief that they were entitled to control a woman’s life, her decisions and her body, since one of them thought he had impregnated her. There was no love for that woman. They were no longer in a relationship, and there was no commitment to support, love and care for the baby she might have. These two men destroyed our medical office in an arson that had enough fire power to destroy the entire medical complex in which it was housed. Only the prompt response of the Albuquerque Fire Department and the firefighters who risked their lives to put out the blaze saved the other offices.

Although we have no wish to harm these dangerous men, it is essential that as a community we not condone their actions. They destroyed our clinic, endangered lives, and denied abortion services to women they did not know, whose stories of need, endangered health, and desperation they can neither imagine nor respect.

Because we believe that justice tempered by mercy is our best hope for a safe and fair society, that hatred and revenge serve no good end, we agreed that these men who mercilessly damaged us could plead guilty to a lesser charge.

We work every day to see that women’s rights are a reality--that women are able to legally and safely end pregnancies they cannot in good conscience carry further. Yet we lost our own sense of safety in the world. It took us nearly a year (and incalculable time and money) to rebuild our office. We are still rebuilding our sense of safety in this world.

Because we were targeted as abortion providers and because we take such pride in our work, it is tempting to see this as solely a crime about abortion. It is not. The principle at stake here is an American ideal written into law: in America we should not destroy another’s home or business because we happen to disagree with them. Today these men are brought to justice as an affirmation of the American way.