Killer killed

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
Killer killed
260
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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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-25-2008
In reply to: postreply
Thu, 06-11-2009 - 6:49pm
A statement which does nothing to invalidate my observation as to the priorities of that facility.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
In reply to: postreply
Thu, 06-11-2009 - 6:55pm
Please feel free not to go there. I believe they still have a better safety record than Tiller. I think his last fatality (before becoming a fatality himself) was 2005.
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
In reply to: postreply
Thu, 06-11-2009 - 7:06pm
The state is Connecticut. I don't believe it's moved much since the tectonic plate shifted about 60 million years ago. No secret where ist is.
Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
In reply to: postreply
Thu, 06-11-2009 - 7:07pm
Well it would seem so-called women's health care advocates are only concerned with access for some procedures.






Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
In reply to: postreply
Thu, 06-11-2009 - 7:16pm
So, you're claiming that you couldn't get CVS in all of CT or surrounding states?





iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
In reply to: postreply
Thu, 06-11-2009 - 7:23pm

" How do you feel about the incarceration of one of your own pro-lifers?"

Can only speak for myself here, but that's the expected consequence of shooting someone. If he couldn't do the time, he ought not to do the time. Is he complaining about where he is presently at?

Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
In reply to: postreply
Thu, 06-11-2009 - 7:24pm
He might be perfectly happy being the martyr for your cause.





iVillage Member
Registered: 12-25-2008
In reply to: postreply
Thu, 06-11-2009 - 7:24pm

Actually, I feel kinda free to go there.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
In reply to: postreply
Thu, 06-11-2009 - 7:32pm

"It seems the pro-life people might have been the reason you couldn't get one."

Had nothing to do with it. At that time, CVS in a twin gestation was still a relatively new thing, and only a few facilities (all hospitals) had physicians and advanced ultrasonography capable of doing it, particularly given my "advanced maternal age." Nearest place was Pennsylvania.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2008
In reply to: postreply
Thu, 06-11-2009 - 7:35pm
I do not know what the policy of the hospital was. My statement was with regard to the physicians of the practice I saw for OB/GYN care. They would not do them.

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