In Memoriam - Susan Hill

From RH Reality Check:

Sadly, the women's health and rights community lost a courageous, loving advocate. Susan Hill, a women's clinic owner and reproductive rights advocate, died today. Hill was the President and CEO of the National Women's Health Organization in North Carolina.



...at one time, Susan Hill owned five health centers around the country, including the now famous Jackson Women's Health Center - the last remaining health center providing abortions in Mississippi. For this, she was targeted mercilessly and violently by anti-choice activists. In fact, in October 2009 RH Reality Check contributor Carol Joffe wrote about Hill's mission to share the anti-choice movement's latest strategies against women's health centers: suing the cities in which the centers reside, along with the police chiefs in these regions often times. Hill was particularly afraid, Joffe wrote, because simultaneously, violence against clinics and staff at clinics seemed to be escalating in the wake of Dr. Tiller's murder:

“In the old days, at least we knew what they were up to. If they were blockading us or firebombing us, we knew it. This is more insidious, more like a stealth strategy. And it is making life a living hell for the providers.”

Hill was close friends with Dr. Tiller and remained extremely active working on behalf of clinic owners continually harrassed by anti-choice protestors:

Hill served as plaintiff in over 30 federal and state lawsuits concerning abortion rights, and was a key plaintiff in the NOW v. Scheidler case that charged abortion opponents with using violence, intimidation and extortion to put women's clinics out of business.

Rest in peace Susan. Your spririt and activism will be missed.