Dr. William F. Harrison, a courageous physician and Daily Kos diarist, died Friday at age 75 from leukemia. For decades, from his clinic on a main street of Fayetteville, Ark., he provided women coming from nearby and hundreds of miles away with reproductive health services, including pap smears, breast exams, ultrasounds of developing fetuses, fertility drugs. Up to 1991, he delivered babies, half those born in the town. And despite incessant protests and threats of violence, he also provided abortions.
That came about in part because he had seen the consequences of botched illegal abortions during his residency at University Hospital in Little Rock in the late '60s. One older woman, the mother of a large number of children already, told him that she hoped the swelling in her abdomen was cancer and not another pregnancy.
Even after other physicians, including his friend, Dr. George Tiller, were assassinated by "pro-life" thugs, even after his clinic was fire-bombed in 1985, even after he became the last physician in his part of Arkansas to provide abortions, he continued to ensure that women could obtain what the Supreme Court said was their legal right. Dr. Harrison refused to be intimidated the way so many other physicians were. He fought back. He wouldn't surrender. He once wrote:
It is not always possible for one to determine how he will die, but it is always ours to choose how we will LIVE. I choose to live unafraid. Therefore, terrorists can never make me their "victim."
Sadly, despite years of trying, he could not find any young physicians brave enough to let him train them to take over his practice. So, when his illness became too much for him to handle any more appointments this summer, he closed his clinic for good. Only one facility providing surgical abortions now remains in Arkansas.
At Daily Kos, we knew him from his diaries as an avid backer of Hillary Clinton, an outspoken atheist, a fierce opponent of Republicans - especially the right-wingers who had taken over the party in the past 30 years - and, of course, a strong proponent of women's reproductive rights.
In May 2007, he explained WHY I PROVIDE ABORTIONS:
We each have unique skills, talents and abilities to be used in the service of our fellow human beings. What I mean by this is, that I was led into OB-Gyn by my love for delivering babies. Gynecology was really to be only an appendage to my obstetrical practice and I am sure that providing abortions, even thinking about abortions, would never have been a major part of my life had other physicians in my area continued to provide them as was being done prior to 1984.
However, I soon found my practice inundated with abortion patients because other physicians who had also been providing abortions stopped doing so. In late 1983 it suddenly became uncomfortable, and very soon dangerous, to provide abortions. I literally had no option but to make a "Sophie's choice" between delivering babies, which I loved, or making what for me would be an immoral and unethical decision, that is, to choose to abandon those girls, women and families who started coming to my office by the dozens. How could I look my children, my wife, my mother and my friends - myself - in the face and say, "I believe that abortion should be legal, safe, and available. But now some people disapprove and it's become very uncomfortable, perhaps even dangerous, to provide them. And so I am going to stop doing what I know to be absolutely right. When it gets uncomfortable or dangerous, it's OK to say, `not me, coach.'"
In an email, Blaire Chandler, a lifelong friend of Dr. Harrison's daughter, writes:
My favorite anecdote about Dr. Harrison is when I was his patient. I was 17 years old or so, and had been diagnosed by him with endometriosis -- a rarity in a young girl at that time. It was critical for my health that I take a certain medicine. However, my stepfather had found Jesus in a big way and declared that the Lord would heal me, so he wouldn't pay for it. So, no medicine for me.
A few weeks after my last diagnostic surgery, I was waiting for Dr. Harrison's daughter Amanda in their kitchen -- (I had just wandered in; they never locked their doors) -- and I was startled when Dr. Harrison came into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of tea. I didn't mean to tell Bill -- he intimidated me crazily when I was young; such a serious man -- but he asked how the medicine was working, and I couldn't lie. So I told him. And there we were, in his family kitchen, and he just stared at me. It was the longest two minutes of my life. Then he put the glass down and quietly went to the phone, called the pharmacist nearby, and told him that I'd be picking up some medicine. He paid for my medicine himself, to the tune of about $300 dollars a month for the next two years, until I no longer needed it. And he never mentioned money to me, even once, that day or after.
As Blaire says, he wasn't famous, but he should have been. Heroes such as he are few and far between. Although he is gone, he will always remain an inspiration.
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A memorial service will be held Oct. 4. Anyone wishing to make a contribution in his memory can send it to Medical Students for Choice, PO Box 40188, Philadelphia, PA 19106, or the William F. Harrison Reproductive Service Center, Planned Parenthood, 125 East Township Street, Fayetteville, AR 72703.
Tenn Wisc Dem has a condolences diary here.