Killer killed
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| Sun, 05-31-2009 - 4:39pm |
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090531/D98HDH9G0.html
Abortion doc George Tiller gunned down at church
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Late-term abortion doctor George Tiller, a prominent advocate for abortion rights wounded by a protester more than a decade ago, was shot and killed Sunday at a church in Wichita where he was serving as an usher and his wife was in the choir, his attorney said.
Tiller was shot during morning services at Reformation Lutheran Church, attorney Dan Monnat said. Police said a manhunt was under way for the shooter, who fled in a car registered to a Kansas City suburb nearly 200 miles away.
National anti-abortion groups had long focused on Tiller, whose Women's Health Care Services clinic is one of just three in the nation where abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy.
In 1991, the Summer of Mercy protests organized by Operation Rescue drew thousands of anti-abortion activists to this city for demonstrations marked by civil disobedience and mass arrests.
Some abortion opponents had resorted to attacks against Tiller long before Sunday's shooting. A protester shot Tiller in both arms in 1993, and his clinic was bombed in 1985.
Anti-abortion group Operation Rescue issued a statement denouncing the shooting.
"We are shocked at this morning's disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down," said Troy Newman, Operation Rescue's president. "Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning."
Capt. Brent Allred said Wichita police were looking for a gunman who fled in a 1993 light blue Ford Taurus registered in the Kansas City suburb of Merriam, Kan. No other details about the shooting were immediately released.
The phone line at the home of Tiller and wife, Jeanne, had a busy signal Sunday.
Tiller began providing abortion services in 1973. He acknowledged abortion was as socially divisive as slavery or prohibition but said the issue was about giving women a choice when dealing with technology that can diagnose severe fetal abnormalities before a baby is born.
"Pre-natal testing without pre-natal choices is medical fraud," Tiller once said.
After the 1991 protests, Tiller kept mostly to his heavily guarded clinic, although in 1997 he opened it to three tours by state lawmakers and the media.
Tiller remained prominent in the news, in part because of an investigation started begun by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, an abortion opponent.
Prosecutors had alleged that Tiller had gotten second opinions from a doctor who was essentially an employee of his, not independent as state law requires. A jury in March acquitted Tiller of all 19 misdemeanor counts.
"I am stunned by this lawless and violent act, which must be condemned and should be met with the full force of law," Kline said in a written statement. "We join in lifting prayer that God's grace and presence rest with Dr. Tiller's family and friends."
Abortion opponents also questioned then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' ties to Tiller before the Senate confirmed her this year as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary. Tiller donated thousands of dollars to Sebelius over the years.

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"I believe she said CVS, which is chorionic villus sampling. "
Thanks, I missed that.
Well as I picked a practice that doesn't do abortions it is highly probable that the full range of options you are so enamored with may not have been available anyway. But at least I'd have avoided the fate of Christine Gilbert.
For the particular particular form of CVS I needed at that time there was no physician or facility that would perform that procedure in this state. I do not know if that situation still exists today.
"Which pretty clearly illustrates that violence or even just the threat of violence had nothing to do with your ability or inability to undergo that procedure"
Once again this is your particular area of concern. Thousands of women managed to commission Mr Tiller to kill their preborn children prior to this threat manifesting itself in Mr Tiller's killing.
"For the particular particular form of CVS I needed at that time there was no physician or facility that would perform that procedure in this state."
Thankfully you and your child survived.
"Thankfully you and your child survived. Were the facilities in your state closed because fanatics had murdered practioners of the test because they didn't agree with it? "
The procedure wasn't available. Period. The particular reason for non-availability shouldn't be at issue if unfettered access to all women's health care services was the issue.
" If so, that would be highly unfair, too. However, if there wasn't enough demand, that's another issue."
Heck the residents of my state ran a perfectly legal business out of dodge a number of years back because they didn't like it. Plenty of demand, yet the residents didn't want it there. Not many tears were shed for the owners, if I recall.
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