Dr. William Harrison, Defender of Abortion Rights, Dies at 75. I am so proud of Dr. Harrison.

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/us/26harrison.html

“Oh, God, doctor, I was hoping it was cancer.”

Those words so affected Dr. William Harrison that for years, he said, he could not repeat them. They made him break down in tears.

The woman who spoke them — black, poor and middle-aged — had come in 1967 to the Arkansas hospital where Dr. Harrison was a medical student in obstetrics. A doctor, after examining her swollen belly, had told her she was pregnant.

Dr. Harrison felt compelled to perform abortions after many doctors in northwest Arkansas abandoned the practice. For decades, he was the only doctor in the region willing to provide the procedure. In typically flamboyant language, he said, “I have chosen to ride this tiger unquietly, raking its side with verbal spurs, swinging my hat and whooping like a cowboy.”

Dr. Harrison died on Friday at the age of 75, the Nelson-Berna Funeral Home in Fayetteville said. He had received a diagnosis of leukemia in May.

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His clinic is a block from my house. It was closed on July 31, 2010, but the banner Dr. Harrison had made for the 'pro-life 40 days of prayer' event last year remains. It says, " Pray for safe, legal abortions 365 days a year."

[aquart]

1. I am so glad he got to die a natural death.

Of course, the stress he had to have been under 365 days a year was probably not life lengthening.

I once read, in some pre-Civil War southern letters, a parent's prayer for a new baby: "May his community be glad he lived." His community was larger than he ever met and we are all glad and thankful that he lived.