Continuing the fight after Tiller

AFTER TILLER, the critically acclaimed documentary directed by Martha Shane and Lana Wilson, paints an intimate portrait of the four late-term abortion providers who continue to practice following the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009.

Dr. Tiller, who performed late-term abortions in Wichita, Kansas, was murdered in his church by a right-wing anti-abortion terrorist, after years of being the political target of the group Operation Rescue.

The film opens with the only appearance by Dr. Tiller, who hauntingly insists that he would rather have a short career filled with "meaning" than have a "long, drawn-out career filled with mediocrity."

Soon after this video fades away, the filmmakers take the audience to Colorado (Dr. Warren Hern), New Mexico (Dr. Susan Robinson and Dr. Shelley Sella) and Nebraska (Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who now practices in Maryland)--three of the nine states that have no legal restriction on abortion in the third trimester.

In the film, the providers remember Dr. Tiller's influence and tell their stories about how they got into practice, showing how deeply their work affects their personal lives. The film also chronicles the physicians' heart-wrenching, personal interactions with patients seeking late-term abortions.

Each of the physicians was trained by Dr. Tiller to perform late-term abortions, and it's clear how profoundly they have been affected by his death. His memory as well as the fear that another member of this incredibly small community will be next weighs heavily on the minds of the physicians and their families.

The personal is incredibly political for these doctors, and, as Dr. Warren Hern states, "I expect to be assassinated when I walk out of my office." Dr. Robinson recalls that a federal marshal once told her it was a good thing her house was high on a hill, because "it would be a tough shot, even with a sniper rifle."

After Tiller also chronicles how Dr. LeRoy Carhart's was literally driven out of practice in Nebraska, and his search for a new state to provide this vital service. We watch as a city council in Iowa debates letting an "abortionist" into their community and the harassment he and the landlord of his new practice's building face in Maryland.

THE FOOTAGE of anti-choice protesters and politicians is scattered throughout the film, although the protesters are far from the focus. The all-too-familiar, mass-manufactured signs which pop up at every demonstration across the country stating "Women Regret Abortion" and large paintings of Jesus crying are diametrically opposed to the compassion we see happening inside the clinics.

For those unfamiliar with the process of late-term, or third-trimester abortions, the film gives a detailed view of the reasons women choose to end their pregnancies, either due to fetal anomalies or an inability to get an abortion earlier in the pregnancy.

Many of the women and families featured hold tear-stained tissues and recount the process of finding out their much-wanted babies have fatal anomalies or would, if they were born, have severe disabilities. Many of these shots show each of the physicians engaging in either solitary or group counseling with their patients, listening to each woman's heartbreak, her struggle with her choice, and making sure she has the support she needs.

One thing each of the different physicians has in common is an incredible drive to serve women when they need help the most. Tellingly, two of the four doctors became interested in performing abortions after seeing women injured or killed by illegal abortions in the pre-Roe v. Wade era while they were in medical training.

I saw this film with a good friend who I do reproductive justice activism with in Seattle. We walked out of the theater in silence, not sure how to react quite yet. "He's right," my friend said, referring to a scene in which Dr. Carhart gives an assessment of the political backlash against abortion. "We've been fighting a war for 40 years...actually, no. There's a war, and only one side has been fighting it."

We left the theater with a renewed sense of what the current state of the assault on access to abortion looks like. We also clearly could sense the desperation and sense of urgency expressed by the film.

There are four late-term providers left in this country. Two of them are over 70 years old. And the whole time they've been putting their lives on the line to provide women medical care they need, we have watched the Democrats and the big women's organizations depoliticize the women's movement at best and completely cave to right wing demands at worst.

This film should be a rallying cry to all activists in the country of the desperate need for a fighting women's movement that calls for free abortion, on demand, with no legal restrictions.