Dr. Tiller's Late Abortion Patients

Last night, I went to make a cup of tea. All the cups I normally use were in the sink (whoops), so I reached to the back of the shelf where I keep my "special" mugs, and I pulled a mug for Women's Health Care Services, Dr. Tiller's now defunct clinic.

There has been renewed interest in his clinic and the doctors he worked with. More specifically, Dr. Ann Kristin Neuhaus, who provided the legally required second opinion for Dr. Tiller's late abortion cases from 1999-2006. 11 cases are under review, because someone filed a complaint to the State Board of Healing Arts.

I read about it in this article. One of the patients in question, a 15 year old from Illinois, bothered me in particular because the author of the article makes it seem like she got an abortion because she didn't like basketball anymore, and that's it. The cases described in the article are missing a lot of details in general, ie, was the 15 year old pregnant because her 22 year old boyfriend impregnated her? Did she spend 20 weeks trying to get an abortion and was unable to raise funds and ended up at Dr. Tiller's clinic? If there is anything my experience in the field has taught me, it's that the reasons and psychology of a woman seeking an abortion is very complex. Just like people in general. We aren't one-dimensional images that can be fully understood in a few sentences. People reading these articles can easily jump to the conclusion Dr. Tiller was doing abortions on young women for totally ridiculous reasons. He didn't do that.

Dr. Tiller didn't take abortion lightly and did not give abortions to people who were flippant about it. He just didn't. I am thinking because of HIPAA laws the article couldn't reveal more, and as Dr. Neuhaus stated herself, she was worried anti-choice people would get ahold of these documents. Clearly her fears were correct. Obviously, if Dr. Neuhaus was cutting corners and not properly documenting these cases, then that is wrong. I could only find articles about this from the anti-choice perspective, so it's hard to fully determine what was going on her.

It just saddens me that anti-choicers are still obsessing over this clinic which is now closed. Dr. Tiller has been dead for 2.5 years. RIP.

Anti-Choice Legislations Abounds

Recently, five states - Kansas, Alabama, Idaho, Indiana and Oklahoma have all banned abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. The basis of these bills is that fetuses can feel pain at this gestational limit and therefore abortions shouldn't happen for that reason.

This is interesting because there is NO agreement on when fetuses can feel pain. It is generally thought to be around the 24th week of pregnancy, not the 20th.

And, as we know, only 1.5% of abortions are done after 20 weeks, so this is a very small number compared to the total number of women getting abortions.

The women who are getting these later abortions generally have special (aka fucked up) circumstances. They didn't find out they were pregnant until later in the pregnancy, the pregnancy has fetal anomalies, cases of rape and incest, etc.

In my experience, though, this is usually what happens:

1. Woman finds out she is pregnant when she is about 10 weeks along. She has 2-4 weeks to get the money together together before the price will go up.

2. She usually can't get the money together in time. This is because most women getting abortions already have children and are single mothers living under the federal poverty line.

3. She pawns most of her possessions, tries to clean houses, babysit, etc other random jobs to get the money. She will ask the guy involved and invariably he will be completely out of the picture/unavailable/say no/make excuses/etc.

4. Week 14 comes and the price goes up $250.

5. Now she needs even more money.

6. I can try to contact local or national funds, but because of the economy being so bad many funds are low/out of money.

7. Patient is now 16 weeks along; no clinics in her area will now see her because she is too far along for them.

8. In addition to getting the money together, she must also figure out extended child care for her children because her procedure will now be multiple days. She also needs a hotel.

9. She tries and tries to get the money but it just isn't happening.

10. She is now 18 weeks and cannot be seen in her state because of the state's gestational limits.

11. She must now travel a couple hundred miles to a clinic that will see her. So in addition to child care, hotel, etc she has to factor in travel costs. Additionally, she has to wait 24 hours once she sees the clinic staff once because her state has a law that she has to wait 24 hours after the initial consultation, just so she has time to think about it. She has clearly not had it on her mind, so. Thank God.

12. Many clinics have laws that require the second opinion of another doctor who agrees the woman can have the abortion. Because at this point, she is probably just pulling everyone's leg, right? This usually involves a fee and can be a logistical nightmare.

13. If she can get the money, funds can help out, a miracle of child care / transport, etc happens, AND she makes it to the clinic, she can finally get her abortion.

14. Let's keep our fingers crossed she doesn't have a negative blood type, because once she gets to the clinic and they do the blood testing, that will be an additional fee. Let's also hope she doesn't have a sonogram and turns out to be a few days farther along that we thought; that will cause the price to up as well.

Sounds so easy and fun, right? No wonder so many women get late term abortions.

With more and more states banning abortions after 20 weeks, they are only making it harder for these women to get to a provider that can help them. Making it harder for women to attain a later term abortion isn't going to make them go away; it's just going to cause more women to self-abort or do other desperate things.

No woman having a late term abortion (or even just a "regular" abortion) wants to be in that situation. NOBODY. I'm glad Republicans and other anti-choicers are so pro-social programs to help the poor, though. Since now women can't get the abortions they were so desperately seeking, it's nice to know they'll have access to health care, shelter, food etc for themselves and their children + newborn post-partum. Also someone to help with the diapers, etc.

Oh... nevermind.

Her Body, Her Life

Working in an abortion clinic is a job, but its also more than a job. In my job I have to answer questions for women about their bodies and personal lives. I believe that my roll is to give them as much information as I can in the short interaction we have. Women need to control their bodies and life decisions in order to control their lives. There is a great book that most of us feminist, abortioneering womyn already own and love but its worth recommending here called Our bodies, Ourselves.

The clinic I work in only does abortion into the very early second trimester. There are many reasons we can't do procedures farther including the availability of doctors who will do the procedures. The state I live in is also quite conservative in regards to abortion and attempts to pass and enforce anti-abortion legislation almost on an anual basis.


We often get call from women much farther along in their pregnancy. I try to make sure to give women as much information as possible when the clinic I work in does not offer the services she needs. I recognize that I operate as a gatekeeper who has information that people need. I often hear co-workers act as though women should not get abortions beyond 16-18 weeks. The same people make a judgement of women who have multiple abortions. I wish that every single person working in abortion care understood that our job is about making sure women know they can decide what to do with their bodies for themselves regardless of any one elses personal views.


The other day I had a 17 year old express her wish to keep her pregnancy so I wrote gave her information regarding seeking medical care and advised her to take care of herself and her body. I also spoke to a woman in her third trimester and informed her of the safe haven laws. Dozens of times a week a woman will ask me"so, whats better the surgery and the pill?" Now, personally I think if I need an abortion I would get a surgical abortion over a medical(pill). However, when I answer this question at work or even among friends, I explain its about a personal preference and offer a few reasons someone might prefer each type of procedure.

This work is about abortion, but abortion is about reproduction and women's lives. When women have control of our lives our families are strong and so are our communities.