Tiller the “Healer”?

It seems sort of oxymoronic to read a news report that starts with the following sentence:

A complaint has been filed with the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts demanding the emergency suspension of the medical licenses of George R. Tiller and Shelley Sella, whose involvement in a late-term abortion last week nearly cost the life of a 23-year-old woman.

The very idea that a man known all over the world as the abortionist who specializes in late-term abortion could classified in the same category as those involved in the “healing arts” boggles my mind, but such is the case in Kansas. Tiller has become such a lightning rod among pro-life activists because of his arrogance. One of those activists has established a web site that focuses exclusively on Tiller, his practices, his associates and his apparent insulation from the law, even when his actions nearly kill the mother of a baby he has aborted.

The most recent complaint against Tiller, filed by Operation Rescue, represents only the latest of OR’s efforts to expose the cruelty of abortion and those who make their money by killing the preborn. What is perhaps most chilling about this complaint is that “Patient S.” can be seen discussing her agony after the abortion on a video that is also posted on the OR web site.

I cannot tell you how troubling it is to watch and listen to her discussing the horror she experienced. Even though we know that abortion is a wound that never leaves the child’s mother, this fact does not make it any easier for someone like Patient S. to experience the inhumane treatment she received when she became deathly ill after the abortion.

Beneath the video report posted on OR’s web site, we read,

Patient S. has alleged that on Tuesday, September 23, abortionist Shelley Sella may have botched an injection into her abdomen, causing sepsis, a systemic infection that rapidly spreads throughout the body and can cause rapid death.

You simply must watch this video and listen to her describe how they determined her due date and how she suffered, trying to let the doctor know she was in pain while on the brink of hysteria. Her boyfriend points out that, at the time of her initial cries for help, he was convinced they were simply waiting for her to die so that nobody would have to do anything.

It is patently clear that not a single Tiller employee bothered to pay attention to her, and Tiller never once dropped by to check on her after the abortion. Cases like this make me wonder if anyone will act against Tiller and his accomplice, abortionist Shelley Stella, by actually filing criminal charges.

If Patient S. had been admitted for any other type of surgery, you can bet your bottom dollar that heads would roll if something similar had happened. But abortion is, after all, upheld as sacrosanct and protected by law, by the very people who are supposed to mete out justice.

The allegations in Operation Rescue’s complaint include the following:

• Patient S.’s pregnancy was misdiagnosed by Tiller’s staff to be 19 weeks, even though    according to her last menstrual period and previous medical examinations, she was actually 23 weeks pregnant at the time of the abortion, beyond the legal limit.
• Patient S. developed severe pain and other complications after having received a dioxin injection from abortionist Sella that was meant to stop her pre-born baby’s heart.
• Patient S. spiked a fever of 103.7 degrees, yet was not treated for possible infection by Tiller or his staff.
• Patient S. was locked in a room against her will for over four hours without treatment for over four hours while feverish and in pain, and was not allowed to communicate with her family.
• Tiller threatened to withhold treatment from Patient S., even though she was sick, in pain, and had not yet delivered the baby that was presumed to already be dead.
• Tiller threatened to send Patient S. to a hospital in Kansas City, three hours away, in spite of her life-threatening condition and incomplete abortion.
• Because of her treatment, Patient S. feared she would be killed while under sedation.
• During the final abortion procedure, Patient S. stopped breathing and her heart stopped. She was revived.
• Tiller refused to call an ambulance and instead personally drove Patient S. to Wesley Medical Center in his private vehicle, further endangering her life.
• Tiller was observed to be shaking excessively, and exhibited extremely poor eyesight during the drive to the hospital.
• Tiller never provided follow-up care for Patient S.

In addition to the license suspensions, the complaint urges that the Board evaluate Tiller’s fitness to continue providing surgical procedures due observations of extremely shaky hands and extremely poor eyesight.

Out of the many things that trouble me about this mother’s experience, the one question I have to ask is, why is this man still walking around as a free man?

Clearly, Tiller is shrouded by the aura of death that is his stock in trade. For as we know, under our laws, abortion is not classified as a crime, even though the end result is the death of a baby whose only crime was being conceived.

And when a woman is permanently scarred by a botched abortion or dies, it is a rare thing to see justice carried out against the offending practitioner. Oh, it happens now and then, but one has to wonder why it doesn’t occur with greater frequency.

Where is the justice for abortion’s secondary victims, such as Patient S.?