From: nyikos@math.scarolina.edu (Peter Nyikos)
Subject: MEET GEORGE TILLER, LATE-TERM ABORTIONIST Part Two
Summary: Second in a three-part series on "Killer Tiller of Wichita"
Keywords: abortion, digoxin, laminaria
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Date: 17 Dec 92 21:22:08 GMT

   George Tiller is the Wichita abortionist who is one of the few U.S.
abortionists who specializes in late-term abortions, and is the one who
advertises this specialty most openly.  His clinic was the target of the 
Operation Rescue blockade of the summer of 1991 which made the national
news.

   In this second of three parts, I will tell a little about how Tiller
advertises, then proceed to the nitty-gritty of how his late-term 
abortions are done.

  Tiller has ads for both 1st trimester abortions (though one such ad does
give a fee schedule for D&E abortions up to 23 weeks) and mid-term
abortions.  I have not seen an ad for "late-term" abortions and would
be interested in seeing one.  I do have a copy of a brochure on mid-term
abortions from which I quoted in Part 1; it also gives a bit of information
on the Fetal Indications Program, which begins at the end of the 26th week,
which puts it squarely in trimester 3 by anyone's reckoning.

  The brochure speaks in glowing terms of the programs.  Towards the end
it has a picture of Tiller in a business suit, apparently speaking to a 
young woman with her back turned [confidentiality is something the clinic
is big on] and between them is a statement which I am giving verbatim
below, caps and all, exactly as it appears except for linebreaks:

		PURPOSE
		
		Our purpose at Women's Health Care Services is to guide
	and support women through an experience which will allow them
	the opportunity to change the rest of their lives.  We are here
	to help our patients make their DREAMS COME TRUE by maximizing
	their assets and minimizing their shortcomings.  We are dedicated
	providing the chance for women to live joyous, productive and
	free lives.  The cornerstones of our organization are Attitude,
	Team Care, Safety & Comfort.  We are a Recovery based institution.

  The cold light of reality begins with the fee schedule.  Sixteen to 22
weeks, $750; 22 to 26 weeks, $1800.  Beyond 26 weeks, $2200.  This
information is missing from the brochure, and I am relying for it on
_Pro Life Answers to Pro Choice Arguments_, by Randy Alcorn, Multnomah
Press, 1992.  Information current as of May 1991, courtesy of Ann Tilson
writing in _Kansans for Life_.

  As is customary with abortionists, payment terms are none too lenient.
From a separate information sheet:

	Payment must be made on the day that the procedure is started
	(laminaria inserted). We only accept travelers [sic] checks, 
	cashier's checks, cash, and approved Visa/Mastercard credit 
	cards.  We DO NOT [boldface in the original] accept personal
	checks, payroll checks, or insurance forms in lieu of payment.
	We will be glad to provide you with an itemized statement so that
	you may file your own insurance.

From a letter by Luhra Tivis, 1988 employee of Tiller's and pro-choice
feminist, writing to three Wichita councilmen, from which I also quoted
in Part 1:

	...The whole thrust of the phone answering work was, as the 
	office manager put it, to convince the patient to schedule
	and come in for an abortion.  Once there, the late-term
	abortion patients were briefly counseled that they could not
							   ^^^^^^^^^	
	choose to stop the procedure once it had started, but could
	^^^^^^
	leave before the procedure was initiated.  Otherwise, we were
	told specifically to coax them by any verbal means available,
	outside of outright lies, to have an abortion..."

Further on in the letter, Ms. Tivis gets down to the nitty-gritty of
how the procedure for late-term abortion goes.

	...Although many clinics who refer patients to [Dr. Tiller] think
	that he performs tests for viability on the fetus, to my knowledge
	no such tests were ever performed while I worked there.  The first
	day the procedure is initiated, a needle is inserted into the 
	living heart of the fetus and a "foeticidal agent" as Dr. Tiller
	calls it, is injected to kill the fetus.  Over the next couple
	of days, laminaria packs are inserted into the cervix of the
	patient, and labor inducing drugs are administered...

	Aided by the body's natural inclination to expel a dead fetus,
	labor commences on the 4th or 5th day, and the group of patients
	are kept in a room in the basement together, separated by only
	a few feet of space from each other, and delivered of their dead
	infants [sic].  However, occasionally a labor begins at the motel
	where the patients are required [sic] to stay, so Dr. Tiller keeps
	a nurse there at night...

Eschewing such language as "living heart," Dr. Tiller describes the
procedure in a letter to doctors and clinics promoting his services:

	Our technique involves repeated insertions of multiple laminaria,
	digoxin as a feticidal agent, and prostaglandin and oxytocin [sic]
	augmentation of uterine contractions.

I put "sic" after "oxytocin" because I am under the impression that this
is the name for the natural hormone, whereas the hormone administered 
intravenously is known as "pitocin."  BTW, digoxin is a compound related
to digitalis with similar action on the heart, and is not to be confused
with the even more lethal chemical dioxin.
 
Now you would think, would you not, that there would be no instances of 
that "dreaded complication," a live birth, after such treatment.  Not so, 
apparently, because of what one reads in a set of instructions Tiller gives
patients.  I am working from a condensation and there may well be unmarked 
deletions:

	...In rare instances, the induction method will not result in
	abortion.  There is no guarantee that the medications [sic] used
	in induction will cause abortion.  Should this occur, the woman 
	is offered the opportunity to have a Dilation and Evacuation 
	procedure under anesthesia.  Thre is also the possibility of the
	live birth of the fetus [sic] and that the patient will be responsible
	as a parent for medical care rendered which will include all steps
	necessary in the judgment of the physician to maintain life, 
	including the possibility of the transfer of the fetus [sic!!!!!!!]
	to a neo-natal intensive care facility.

We are a long way indeed from the statement of PURPOSE near the beginning
of this post.  I can only conjecture as to the various scenarios that may
have been played out in connection with the disclaimer in the above 
excerpt, and this seems as good a place as any to close this post, leaving
the reader to ponder the possibilities prior to the posting of Part 3.

Peter Nyikos
			QUOTE OF THE DAY:
     ...in  March
   1978  in  Cleveland. A young woman entered the Mt. Sinai Hospital
   there for an abortion. The baby was born live and, after  several
   weeks of intensive care at Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital,
   the child went home--with its mother.

     The circumstances were so extraordinary that medical  personnel
   broke  the  code  of  confidentiality and discussed the case with
   friends. Spokeswomen for the two hospitals confirmed the sequence
   of  events. Mother and child returned to Rainbow for checkup when
   the child was 14 months old, the spokeswoman there said, and both
   were doing fine.

     The mother could not be reached for comment. But a source fami-
   liar  with  the  case  remembered one detail: ``The doctors had a
   very hard time making her realize that she had a child. She  kept
   saying, `But I had an abortion' ''.

	From: Abortion: The Dreaded Complication, PART II
	Originally appearing in The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 2, 1981
	by Liz Jeffries and Rick Edmonds
	Reprinted in The Congressional Record, April 21, 1986, S 4621

{Thanks to Doug Holtsinger for posting the article from which the
Quote of the Day is taken.}


Newsgroups: talk.abortion