RW Statement to the media on the murder of Dr. Tiller

By Anne Slater
Radical Women National Organizer
206-722-6057 (office), 206-708-5161 (cell)

*To honor the memory of Dr. Tiller,
we need to carry on the fight for reproductive rights
*
The heart of every member of Radical Women goes out to the family, friends
and co-workers of Dr. George Tiller, a fallen hero for women's rights. Dr.
Tiller was gunned down Sunday morning at his church in Wichita, Kansas. He
was a courageous champion of a woman's right to control her own body and
destiny. Despite years of relentless rightwing harassment, Dr. Tiller
continued to provide a full range of reproductive health services. His
Women's Health Care Services clinic is one of just three in the nation that
provides late-term abortions.

For decades, ultra-right forces targeted Dr. Tiller and his clinic, bombing
the facility in 1985 and shooting Tiller in 1993. In 1991 and 2001 Operation
Rescue unsuccessfully attempted to shut the clinic down. Former Kansas
Attorney General Phill Kline launched an anti-choice witch-hunt against
Tiller that lasted for 15 years. But they were not able to silence or stop
him. Instead, he bravely persisted in defending women's freedom.
There is no question that Tiller's death is a political assassination. While
horrifying, it is not completely surprising. The anti-abortion movement has
a track record of mayhem and murder under a cover of sanctity. Recently,
far-right forces in general have become emboldened. A crashing economy,
skyrocketing prices, and desperate competition for jobs feed a movement that
blames single moms, immigrants, people of color and queers for all society's
ills and who express their ideology in violent action.

The murder of Dr. Tiller is a wake-up call to evaluate our approach to
winning reproductive justice. Some groups focus on winning seats for
pro-choice candidates, usually Democrats. Some have sought compromise in an
attempt to appease neo-conservatives. These strategies have failed.
What is necessary to defeat the bigots is to generate a powerful movement to
express the majority's belief that a woman must be able to make the most
crucial decisions about the direction of her life. Visible, militant,
multi-hued, multi-issue community organizing is what won abortion rights and
virtually every other gain of working people. That is what is needed today,
so that not one more abortion provider is injured, killed or intimidated.

Radical Women calls on feminists to join together to build a united front
capable of stopping the ultra-right and winning survival needs such as full
reproductive rights, affordable housing, childcare and education,
single-payer healthcare, decent paying jobs, expanded human services, and an
end to U.S. wars. If you are interested in collaborating on this kind of
effort, contact Radical Women at RadicalWomenUS@gmail.com or 206-722-6057 or
find a local chapter <http://www.radicalwomen.org/contactrw.html> near you.

Dr. Tiller's legacy is one of committed passion and unflinching resolve.
Let's honor his memory by rekindling the feminist movement to finally win
reproductive rights and full equality.
# # #
*Radical Women was founded in 1967 and is one of the oldest socialist
feminist organizations in the U.S. RW has been in the forefront of the
abortion rights fight and were instrumental in getting abortion legalized in
Washington State through a voter referendum in 1970. Radical Women is a
leader in clinic defense, having initiated successful coalitions in
California, New York, Oregon and Washington.