This is an interesting article by Chip Berlet over at Religion Dispatches (which, by the way, a fantastic resource for progressive religious folk). Berlet compares Bill O'Reilly's numerous public outbursts about Dr. George Tiller--outbursts in which O'Reilly repeatedly referred to Tiller as an indiscriminate "baby killer"--to King Henry II's rhetorically deadly question "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?" in reference to Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket in 1190.

The article is definitely worth a quick read, but my thoughts quickly broke away from the religious/historical comparison and I started thinking about some of the things O'Reilly said about Tiller. Three of O'Reilly's phrases jumped out at me:

• “In the state of Kansas, there is a doctor, George Tiller, who will execute babies for $5,000.“
• “For $5,000, ‘Tiller the Baby Killer’—as some call him—will perform a late-term abortion for just about any reason.“
• “Tiller has killed thousands, thousands of late-term fetuses without explanation.“
• “This guy will kill your baby for $5,000, any reason. Any reason.“

These are outright lies. Not distortions, not twisted truths. Absolute lies. Kansas law allows late-term abortions if two doctors agree that it is necessary to save a woman's life or prevent "substantial and irreversible" harm to "a major bodily function." Therefore Dr. Tiller, who was cleared of numerous trumped up charges over the years, could not and did not perform a late-term abortion without the explicit support of an independent doctor offering an informed second opinion.

Furthermore, the “explanation” demanded by O’Reilly seems to indicate that he expects the private medical records of women under Dr. Tiller’s care to be publically available. Which is explicitly illegal in Kansas without the consent of the patient. I could be wrong about this, but I highly doubt O’Reilly himself wishes to make his medical records free and open to the public. Of course, one could say that he has nothing to hide and his reproductive health record will show nothing so egregious as “baby-killing,” as he’s wont to call it.

But therein lies the point. HE’S NOT A WOMAN. Or a doctor. And the whole point of medical record privacy and it’s extension to reproductive health services is to ensure that decision are made privately between a patient and her doctor, the only two people qualified to speculate on, let alone judge, her medical treatment (save the second consulting doctor required for late-term procedures). It is intellectually and journalistically dishonest for O'Reilly to claim publicly that Tiller "killed babies for any reason."

Dr. Tiller was an ethical and responsible doctor who respected the medical needs and legal rights of his patients, all of whom were dealing with the tragic and frightening situation of needing to terminate a late pregnancy. He never owed an "explanation" to anyone other than his patients, himself, and his God.*

*Which I include here because he was  devout member of the church where he was gunned down.

Trigger Warning

Idiocracy by XKCD