Abortion After Tiller
by Justin Dyer
A new documentary on late-term abortion providers shows us
that the abortion debate is much more about why life is valuable
than about when human life begins.
On Pentecost Sunday 2009, Scott Roeder entered Wichita's Reformation Lutheran Church and fired a single round into the forehead of George Tiller, a 67-year-old late-term abortion provider who was serving the congregation as an usher that morning. News that Tiller had been killed in church softened his public image, and tributes from family and colleagues seemed to cut against the conservative media's portrait of him as a cold and calculating killer. For years Bill O'Reilly had referred to him simply as "Tiller the Baby Killer," but in his last act the doctor was the victim, rather than the perpetrator, of violence.
That image continues in After Tiller, a new documentary by filmmakers Martha Shane and Lana Wilson. The film, which debuted at Sundance and was screened at my hometown's True/False Film Festival, offers a soft and humanizing portrait of the nation's four remaining late-term abortion providers (three of whom were trained by Tiller). Doctors Leroy Carhart, Shelley Sella, Warren Hern, and Susan Robinson are simultaneously the protagonists and heroes of the film. All have families they love, all struggle with the work they do, and all are subject to public scorn and protest for their chosen profession.
After Tiller paints an emotional and challenging portrait of women who are faced with the heart-wrenching news that their six- or seven-month-old unborn child has been diagnosed with a seemingly impossible and perhaps even fatal medical condition. As the documentary opens, the decision to end the life of a child in such a circumstance is depicted as merciful and even right.
In one scene, Dr. Sella counsels a patient whose baby has a rare congenital disorder in which part of the brain--the corpus callosum--fails to form. The woman is emotionally distraught and struggles with the guilt she feels for choosing abortion. Yet she is tormented by the thought that she might "bring him into this world and then he doesn't have any quality of life."
In an interview, Sella confesses her own struggles. "I think about what I do all the time," she says. "And I recognize what I do. And at times I struggle, and at times I don't. But I always come back to the woman and what she's going through. And, often, what life will this baby have? What will it mean to be alive with horrific fetal abnormalities? It's not just about being alive. It's about life and what does it mean."
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