To the Editor:

The use of the word "abortionist" in the headline of your Aug. 21 report on the return to work of Dr. George Tiller, who was shot and wounded outside his clinic two days earlier, was highly offensive to many physicians such as myself who provide abortion services.

Aside from the fact that the word "abortionist" does not appear in the article, it is a highly charged word that is pejorative, derogatory and defamatory. It is most often used by antiabortion fanatics in close company with words like "murderer," "baby-killer" and other slanderous phrases to describe physicians who perform abortions. (If you don't like the name of the profession you can always leave)

There are some words that are so laden with historically stigmatized meanings that they cannot be separated from that context, no matter how hard people may try to bring them into accepted use. Examples are "final solution," "ethnic purity" or "racial purity" and other terms associated with political totalitarianism or group discrimination.

The term abortionist has been used most often to describe illegal actors in a sleazy world of avaricious, incompetent criminals exploiting immoral women in a sordid and hazardous procedure. The world has changed, and I would hope your usage reflected that.

For myself, I am proud to be a physician who specializes in providing safe abortion services for women who need them, and I will continue to do so. WARREN M. HERN, M.D. Director, Boulder Abortion Clinic Boulder, Colo., Aug. 25, 1993