Dr. George Tiller, one of the few physicians in the nation to provide late-term abortions, was shot to death this week at his church in Wichita. Police quickly arrested the alleged gunman, a Kansas man with a history of associating with militant anti-abortion and anti-government groups. Tiller, 67, had performed abortions for more than three decades and was a frequent target of anti-abortion activists. He survived a shooting in 1993. The eighth abortion provider killed since 1977, Tiller died while handing out bulletins in the church foyer while his wife, a choir member, was inside the sanctuary. Abortion-rights supporters held vigils in several cities, and Attorney General Eric Holder pledged to provide federal marshals to protect abortion clinics.
Authorities filed first-degree murder charges against Scott Roeder, 51, who in 1996 served time in prison on charges of illegally transporting large quantities of gunpowder and a homemade fuse in his car. The conviction was later overturned on the grounds that his car had been improperly searched. “He wanted a scapegoat,” said his ex-wife, Lindsey Roeder. “First it was taxes—he stopped paying. Then he turned to the church and got involved in anti-abortion.”
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Who’s being demonized now? said Julia Dunn in The Washington Times. Liberals wasted no time blaming “the entire pro-life movement for Tiller’s death,” when in fact, the vast majority of pro-lifers are genuinely saddened by this tragedy and condemn violence in all its forms. But what a shame that in the mourning over Tiller, more sympathy hasn’t been mustered for the countless unborn children who died by his hand.
Indeed, if you truly believe “abortion is murder,” you ought to be cheering the death of a man who committed thousands of them, said William Saletan in Slate.com. The fact that most pro-lifers are condemning this act reveals that, in their hearts, they “don’t really equate” killing fetuses with, say, shooting up a school or nursing home. “Is abortion murder? Or is it something less, a tragedy that would be better avoided? Most of us think it’s the latter.”