I feel the same way when people call Ann Coulter a man, or compare her to a man. It's wrong, the way using female language to describe a man is. Lord knows there's enough to attack her on without shots at her appearance.

Thank you, Kate - your piece is both touching and inspiring. I find it very upsetting that various news sources (see today's NYT) keep describing Dr. Tiller as an "abortion doctor", as if that was the only service he provided to his patients. Your piece captures the essence of Dr. Tiller in a way that none of the main-stream reporting on his death has managed to do.

That first "insults" post there was supposed to be for the Screwing Michelle Malkin blog entry...sorry, this is the wrong place for it.

I have always found it interesting that Dr. George Tiller was never a trained osbtertician-gynecologist. As far as I know, he never undertook anything more then the absolute minimal internship required for minimal licensing standards. He never did an Ob-Gyn residency. He was never board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology. At virtually any hopsital that any of us are familiar with, certainly any moderate-sized urban or teaching hospital, he would not have been allowed, under routine staff bylaws, to have delivered a baby, or performed any kind of surgery, under any circumstances.

Tiller regarded himself as a "family practitioner," but that is really a misstatement insofar as there is a recognized specialty for Family Medicine and a board-certification for that specialty, which requires a residency in order to be eligible. Tiller never did that training.

In fact, Tiller was, by default, a "general practitioner," not a family practitioner. Tiller was a G.P. because he did not qualify as anything else.

Entirely apart from abortion politics, I can imagine that if all Tiller ever did was abortions, and he did them for years, thousands of them, he probably got pretty good at doing them. But in terms of being a trained or technically respected surgeon, your average foreign medical graduate from Bombay or the Phillipines, working in the Walk-In Clinic down at the strip mall probably has had more, and better, training, than George Tiller.

We'll be sure to note for the record that Elephantman objects to Dr. Hillers qualfications to perform abortions.

Always handy with a red herring, a flag waved in the corner to distract, a straw man. Never willing to tackle the problem head on - that right-wing extremists are willing to kill in order to uphold their views. Somehow it's Tiller's fault, not the lunatic who shot him, or the conservative slave-mongers who put their minions up to it, or the government who refuses to do anything about the FOX murder channel.

Well boy, your mama must be damn proud of YOU.

I am a Catholic, a believer in the sanctity of life in all forms. I believe in economic justice, the promise of hope and the value of each person on earth no matter how small. I am a liberal in the truest sense of the word, and I do not believe abortion honors our humanity. I am at home on Salon most of the time, but when I encounter militancy in the defense of abortion I recoil. Similarly, I recoil from militancy directed to those that perfrom abortion practices.

Dr. Tiller was not a person that I feel I could have had a dialogue with. He performed a procedure that raised a great deal of debate and one that I believe resides on the fringes of medical acceptance, not to mention civil acceptance. He clearly valued the life of an expectant mother over the life of the child she carried. He was an extremist in the fullest sense of the word. His membership in a church seems a kind of perversion to me. He is a hero only to those doctrinaire individuals that are incapable of recognizing the nuance neccessary to balancing the needs of the now living with the potential of those lives to come. His murder provides no answer, nor did his practice. That his life should end in such a manner should suprise none, as should it not be a suprise who rushes to proclaim him a hero or a demon. How I wish the real questions could be addressed in a thoughtful and meaningful way.

I'm sure the unfortunate women who has to seek a late-term abortion were happy to see Dr. Tiller, especially since he was one of what, 4 other abortion providers in Kansas?

Perhaps if domestic terrorists there didn't go around shooting abortion providers, there would be more, and better "qualified" doctors to perform them...

How about it Elephantman - are you interested in mounting a campaign to bring highly-qualified ob/gyn specialists to Wichita?

Now, back to the sky falling...and convincing us that the mother's "health" is more than her being bummed that she might have to burp a fetus that wasn't aborted (dang the luck!).

What if a feminist gene gets discovered. Can knowledge of that be used to offer tax incentives for aborting shrill sistas en masse (while they're worthless "fetuses," of course). -- MerelyMortalMale

I know a few people who are opposed to abortion because they sincerely feel that it is murder. These people are equally opposed to war and the death penalty, and they would never celebrate Dr. Tiller's murder. They are some of the best and kindest people I know, even if I disagree with them on this topic.

The majority of the anti-choice letter writers on Salon, today and yesterday, are nothing like these people. Their opposition to abortion has nothing to do with protecting life, and everything to do with hating and fearing women. Letter writers like "MerelyMortalMale," above, and "Brightstar" and "ReallyNow" and others routinely vent their hatred of feminism and women in general, often extending to their hatred of homosexuals.

One wonders whether they cannot get laid, or hold long-term relationships with women, or are just repressed homosexuals. Whatever the cause of their hatred, they express it in exactly the same way that gay-bashers and religious extremists around the world -- like the Taliban -- express it: with violent denunciations of abortion and gays and equal rights for women. These men are damaged goods, and they take it out on women.

Don't ask me to explain the female letter writers here who are celebrating Dr. Tiller's death, because aside from religious fanaticism, I can't. But as a man, I can spot the misogynists with ease, and they would have my pity if they were not so hateful.

Dr. Tiller's murder has redoubled my commitment not only to reproductive freedom, but feminism in general. Perhaps the greatest cause of grief and misery on this planet is the fear and loathing of women by men. It is up to us men to end that sickness, once and for all.