Homage

I wrote this post on June 2nd and am just now getting around to editing it. My thoughts and feelings are still as strong as they were two weeks ago and the topic of the assassination of George Tiller will remain as important and pertinent for as long as pro-choice providers are being threatened and intimidated.

Early Saturday morning, I got my call: "We have a woman in labor, we need you to come". As usual, I hustled, got there, witnessed the beginning of a beautiful little family- it was a little boy. Such overwhelming joy. Such a pleasure and an honor to be present for the birth.

Late Sunday afternoon, I got the email that Dr. Tiller had been shot. Monday evening, I attended the vigil in Union Square. I was moved by the support and strength that the New York community brought to this tragic situation. It was a honor to stand among my peers to pay our respects to this hero.

Last year, when my mother told me that my grandmother had died, I attended back to back births of two baby girls. I have, now, a couple of times witnessed this line between birth and death, their close proximity and synchronicity- it is deep and profound.

Personally, I think I'm still processing what this murder means to me....Yesterday, one of the speakers recounted that after George Tiller had been shot in both arms in he returned to his clinic the next day. I hope that some day I can live up to his model of medical practice- that I will always be there when my patients need me. I am blessed to stand by women and to honor their choices about their bodies, lives and reproduction: to be woken in the middle of the night with birth calls and to, simultaneously, fully participate in the pro-choice and reproductive rights movement.

There has been an outpouring of sadness, support, and admiration in the blogs, in real life and in the media. Some of these words are so eloquent and insightful- I hope you had the opportunity to read some of them.
Here is what I have been thinking about today:
This prayer from last nights vigil.
The Dr. Georoge Tiller Fund
This letter from Planned Parenthood.