Thanks so much for your interview with Miriam Kleiman. Her perspective has gone so unrepresented. No one has a late term abortion on a whim.

Thank you for your incredibly thoughtful story on Dr. George Tiller and his patient Miriam Kleiman. As a physician, I deal with end-of-life decisions on a daily basis. Ms. Kleiman’s story illustrates the intensely personal nature of each and every decision. Very few cases present clear-cut, black and white, wright and wrong options. Patients, not legislators, should make these decisions with the assistance of their trusted physicians. Impersonal laws stripped of context lack the nuance required to guide such complicated and difficult decisions. Society should empower physicians, rather than tie our hands when our patients need us most.

I just heard your terrific interview with the three recent graduates in New Orleans. Thanks very much. They are inspiring, warm-hearted people who will accomplish many good things for the city.

They reminded me that the major technology conference I work on will be in New Orleans in August:

SIGGRAPH 2009: http://www.siggraph.org/s2009/index.php

And it is encouraging attendees from all over the world to do some small things that will (we hope) benefit the New Orleans community.

Thanks so much for broadcasting the story about Dr. Tiller. I was at the vigil in Wichita, and her story echoes what I heard there from women. There is so much hate-filled misinformation about Dr. Tiller, his practice, and all abortions. Thanks to you, and Miriam. Speaking out is difficult, but necessary to dispel lies and half-lies.

I just sat in my car to listen to the wonderful story about how Dr. Tiller helped Miriam with her very difficult pregnancy. It is important to put a face to the compassion of this man, instead of making it a black and white issue as so many anti-choice people do. Dr. Tiller was obviously a good man, who wanted to help people and realized that every situation is different and complex. I hope that more of the women he helped are able to come forward and drown out the hatred towards this man who was murdered in cold blood. Understanding the situation is the first step finding common ground and respecting those who make choices different from your own.

Thank you for providing a forum for people like Ms. Kleiman to present the intensely personal stories that demonstrate the need for such courageous people as Dr. Tiller. Your recent interview of Dr. Susan Wicklund and my subsequent reading of her book “This Common Secret” is what alerted me to the shocking struggle and sacrifices such doctors and their families must undertake just to provide necessary (and legal) medical care for their patients. I simply had no idea. As Susan Wicklund called out in her book and interview, it has never been more critical that the voices of women helped by such doctors are heard. I hope that Dr. Tiller’s tragic murder will embolden many more women and families to come forward and reveal how crucial are the services provided by these doctors, and how personal the abortion decision must perforce be.

Your coverage of late term abortion was perhaps the most courageous and honest radio I’ve heard in ages. Miriam’s story was so heart-wrenching, I found myself welling up with tears as I imagined how difficult a choice it must have been to face. Thank you, Here and Now, for humanizing this issue, and thank you, Miriam, for sharing, so articulately and sensitively, your story.

I listened to Miriam’s story. It is certainly tragic, and heart-wrenching, as many of the comments indicate. And she is very passionate about her view, although she did fail to answer some of the questions you asked probably because she realized that they ran counter to her perspective. You filled in that the pregnancy was in the last 2 months. And I think it is telling that the overwhelming majority of counsel she and her husband got was against the path she eventually took. Maybe that suggests something in itself.
I personally have not experience her pain, but I am good friends with a couple who did. They had a pregnancy that was a genetic malfunction – I think the term is “triplody” though I’m not sure. They chose because of their views on abortion to deliver the already deceased fetus (I’ll use your term). It was extremely painful for them, but they knew it was the right thing to do and the staff (public hospital, not affiliated with any denomination) was very supportive and caring through the entire process.
In my opinion, it would be helpful to hear a real unbiased presentation of the subject. It is typically very slanted from both sides, as yours was, though I will state definitively that I am not a supporter of abortion, period.

Thank you for the story on Miriam Kleiman. Like Miriam, I made the heart wrenching decision have a late-term abortion at Dr. Tiller’s clinic. I made this decision because we loved our unborn child so much that we could not bear the thought of her living a life of unbearable pain and suffering. This was the most agonizing decision of my life, yet I know I did the right thing… how could I possibly bring a child into this world knowing that her short life would be full of distress? Dr. Tiller saved us from a terrible tragedy when there was nowhere else to turn. He treated us with the utmost respect and kindness and will always be remembered as a true hero.

The pain that Miriam felt about her abortion ordeal came crashing thru, even tho she tried so very hard to control her emotions. How telling that the only negative comment on Miriam’s story that has appeared so far is from a man, Ralph. How easy it must be to disapprove of women when you will never ever face what we must sometimes experience. From the safety of their judgment seats we hear from priests, Popes, ministers, Congressmen, talk-show mouths. How sick of hearing it we are, it never changes.

I am grateful to you and Miriam Kleiman for finally giving a voice to those of us who benefitted immeasurably from Dr. Tiller’s courageous medical care. Ms. Kleiman’s story is mine. Her words are mine, also, when she says “He saved my life”. I have heard no other reporter or news venue explain what it means to need a late term abortion. All of my fellow patients (5 or 6 others) the week I was in Wichita came and underwent this procedure out of love for the babies we had planned to have, and out of love for our families, present and future. None of us made the decision lightly, nor would Dr. Tiller have accepted us as patients if we had. His death is a senseless tragedy.

Thank you for airing Ms. Kleinman’s story. What I heard loudest was the crushing insensitivity and judgement given by the medical director of her obstetrics practice. As a physician I was disheartened by his biased treatment of Ms. Kleinman. I would hope that she sends a report of her unhelpful encounter with that doctor to her state medical board so that he can learn to better care for future patients.

I too, was sitting in my car yesterday listening to the wrenching and honest story of Miriam Kleiman. How brave and generous of her to share her story with all of us hearing it. Unfortunately, I tuned in perhpas half-way through it and so I must say did not hear the beginning. That being said, I did hear much of her heart-wrenching story and have just read many of the responses posted. It is clear that the story has illicited many emotions and no wonder. I did have a question after hearing something I heard Miriam say. I believe she said that her baby was going to die very early on (pre-birth?) but that one of the things she mentioned was she didn’t want the pain of delivering a dead baby. And truly, I do not want to seem insensitive to the deep, deep pain Miriam and her husband suffered, but a late-term abortion means only one thing to the pre-born baby and that is a brutal and painful death. And I am not indifferent to the pain of losing a baby in utero (I lost two). Would nature have resolved this with less pain for mother and child? Please forgive me if I don’t have the entire story correct and/if I seem insensitive.
Again, I commend Miriam for her courage and wish her the very best. It would be, I think, appropriate for Here and Now to also present a view, in light of objectivity and fair journalism, from a person who took a different route in the same situation.

Thank you for this interview–I am one of those women who had to make the heartbreaking choice of terminating their late-term pregnancy due to severe fetal anomalies “incompatible with life.” Dr. Tiller also helped in cases where there would be irreparable harm to the mother.

I was beginning my 3rd trimester (26 weeks)when my baby was diagnosed with the most severe form of osteogenisis imperfecta (brittle bone disease), was underdeveloped & had multiple fractures throughout his poor little body. I was told if I went through live labor and delivery, I would most likely kill my baby as he passed through the birth canal.

I felt the most loving and humane informed choice I could make for my baby was to end his suffering; it was agony knowing that every move I made could be causing him pain. My OB arranged for me and my husband to go to Dr. Tiller’s clinic (we felt like fugitives having to leave our own state) and we were assaulted by protesters entering the clinic. I wanted my baby, and I wanted him to live–that would have been my choice, but that is not the situation I was in.

We could not have been treated with more dignity, compassion, love, respect, caring, etc. by Dr. Tiller and his staff. He was by my side the whole week and provided superb medical education & care. Before we left Kansas at the end of the week, as part of the healing process he showed me my angel boy and why he wouldn’t have been able to live on this earth. I held my baby and remember his perfect tiny little feet and his mop of black hair.

The other couple there that week had a baby with 1/2 a brain–incompatible with life. Dr. Tiller told us of a 9 year old girl whom he’d recently helped–she had been molested and impregnated by her father and if she had carried the baby to term her body as well as her psyche would be destroyed. There are countless other heart-wrenching stories that support there is a true medical need for the services that Dr Tiller provided. I am aching for those couples who flew to Kansas last Sunday after making a very difficult choice…..where do they go now? Who would want to take on Dr. Tiller’s work and put themselves and their families at life risk? Dr. Tiller had to take extraordinary measures for his safety as well as that of staffers and patients, and anyone associated with Dr. Tiller (including their families, friends, and even businesses in the community that served them) were targets of unbelievable harassment by supposed “godly” pro-lifers. Women like me don’t openly share our stories for fear of retribution.

Dr. Tiller kept doing the work he was doing because he was a true advocate for women and their health and well-being. He is a brave hero and is a huge loss to this world. He was also a husband, father of four, and grandfather who was ruthlessly murdered. His murderer has been dismissed as acting independently, but many people are cheering the fact that Dr. Tiller is dead. The majority of people in the US would not even think of supporting late-term abortion. I am hoping by sharing stories, a greater education and understanding of the need to maintain women’s rights to choose as well as there being a true medical need for those grey areas of choice including late term abortions is critical.

Thank you so much for airing Miriam’s story. Hers is a story not often heard, due to the stigma of abortion in this country.
There is a book where 46 women share very similar stories of interrupting a wanted and planned-for pregnancy due to problems with the baby’s health or the mother’s health. It is titled “Our Heartbreaking Choices” and is an excellent resource–for those who have experienced a similar loss and feel utterly alone, and for those who know little about the subject but are willing to listen with an open heart.

I must be missing something. If the “baby” is already dead (or doomed to die shortly after birth), and delivery will be dangerous to the mother, I see no moral dilemma. Given the choice between saving the mother needless pain, and possible death, or forcing a futile “birth”, I say the rights of the mother should always prevail. That is the only moral outcome!

Thank you, THANK YOU for the Interview with Dr. Tiller’s patient. This is a much needed perspective that is not hitting the main stream as much as it should right now. I have forwarded this interview to so many people I know who are quick to say he was a “baby killer” when in reality he was a humanitarian brave enough to provide a much needed and compassionate service to women in need.