George Tiller is expected to play the “poor me" card as a defense in his trial in Wichita today. His lawyers will likely portray him as a valiant medical specialist, for whom the legal burden of finding doctors to render medical opinions was made impossible by what they call “anti-abortion vigilantes.”

Today’s trial focuses on the sole use of disgraced ex-abortionist, Ann Kristin Neuhaus, to justify 19 Tiller abortions, past 21 weeks gestation, performed in 2003, according to LifeNews.

Kansas law demands an independent medical opinion for every such abortion, agreeing that it was needed to prevent either a woman’s death or permanent impairment. A pro-abortion attorney general filed the Tiller charges in June 2007 saying he could prove Tiller and Neuhaus were “in cahoots.”

The reason why doctors are reluctant to join Tiller in signing off on viable baby abortions, however, is not the fear of pro-life recriminations if their involvement becomes public. It is that doctors want to save - not destroy - human life, and successful doctors are not tempted by money to overcome that orientation and risk law-breaking in the process.

If a pregnant woman receives a lethal diagnosis for her unborn child, free prenatal hospice is available and a special birthing plan can be arranged to protect the mother’s health and help heal the family grief. If a mother cannot manage a baby with complex medical problems, a C-section delivery and adoption certainly trump a violent, destructive abortion.  

A late-term abortion lasting 3-to-4 days is never even a valid medical solution to maternal or fetal problems, as bona fide medical experts have repeatedly testified to the U.S. Congress. Tiller admitted to the National Abortion Federation in 1995 that only 8 percent of his abortions done at 24-36 weeks gestation were done for fetal anomalies.

That Tiller’s late-term abortions are done for elective reasons - not dire medical situations - was also borne out by impeccable expert testimony from Dr. Paul McHugh in 2007. As NewsBusters reported, not even bad reporting could hide these obvious facts.

Public evidence had surfaced earlier, on May 31, 2005, when the L.A.Times showcased five women who had obtained late-term abortions from Tiller without the legally-required medical threat of death or irreversible bodily damage. Tiller proudly advertised this first-person testimony on his political lobbying site, although it is evidence of his law-breaking. A prime example from the story describes a depressed woman who aborted her child in the third trimester because it was diagnosed with Down syndrome:

“Plazio [her maiden name] had studied special education in college; working with adults with Down syndrome, she had seen their lives as lonely, frustrating, full of hurt. She was not sure she could find joy in raising her son to such a future. She didn't think she could cope with what she expected would be a lifetime of sadness and struggle.   

Giving her son up for adoption seemed even worse — to wake each morning not knowing where he was, imagining him scared and alone. "I could not live with that fear all my life," Plazio said. …"I was not just sparing him problems. I was sparing my daughter, my husband, me and all those who depend on me…. I knew the limits of my family and my marriage. Maybe there are families who can handle it all. Maybe they are better people. But I knew I could not do it."  

In March 2001, a week into her third trimester, she and her husband flew to Tiller's clinic…Since her abortion, Plazio has suffered such severe panic attacks that she can't drive even as far as the high school to watch her daughter cheerlead. She has gained 60 pounds as she battles depression. The abortion she sought to preserve her mental health has left her deeply shaken; doctors say she suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome.”

Plazio’s own admission that she is suffering paralyzing, substantial mental harm FROM her abortion shows yet another reason why doctors reject late-term abortion participation.

Tiller’s lawyers may tell the jury in Wichita that he is a victim of a climate of extremism that causes Kansas doctors to shy away from helping him. But the horrors of abortion are really what keep them away.

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Kathy Ostrowski is State Legislative Director of Kansans for Life, the Kansas affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee: http://www.kfl.org.

The Week in Review