Dr. George Tiller Murdered in Wichita - Suspect in Custody

Dr. George Tiller Murdered in Wichita, Kansas, Suspect in Custody
Yesterday the reproductive health community was devastated to learn of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas abortion provider subjected to decades of anti-choice harassment (and shot in the arms before). KansasCity.com has more on the alleged killer: "Scott P. Roeder, 51, of Merriam, was arrested on Interstate 35 near Gardner nearly four hours after Tiller was shot to death just after 10 a.m. in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita. Roeder was a member of an anti-government group in the 1990s and a staunch abortion opponent... Authorities said they expected Roeder will be charged today in Sedgwick County with murder and two counts of aggravated assault. Federal charges also are possible." KansasCity.com offers more details about Roeder, including that "In April 1996, Roeder was arrested in Topeka after Shawnee County sheriff's deputies stopped him for not having a proper license plate. The deputies said they searched the car and found ammunition, a blasting cap, a fuse cord, a one-pound can of gunpowder and two 9-volt batteries. One of the batteries was connected to a switch that could have been used to trigger a bomb. Roeder was found guilty and sentenced in June 1996 to 24 months of probation with intensive supervision. He also was ordered to dissociate himself from anti-government groups that advocated violence."

Links to Operation Rescue?
Though Operation Rescue immediately denounced the murder -- "We are shocked at this morning's disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down...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" -- links between suspect Scott Roeder and the anti-abortion group are already emerging. On The Daily Beast, Michelle Goldberg reports, "The man arrested for Tiller's murder, Scott Roeder, posted at least one comment on the Web site of the antiabortion group Operation Rescue suggesting that antiabortion activists attend Tiller's church en masse. According to local news reports, he had the group's phone number on a Post-It in his car when he was arrested. He could be a lone lunatic, but he might also be part of a movement that's reemerging after years of relative dormancy." (Michelle and others have called attention to a comment posted on a cached Operation Rescue webpage by a person identifying as "Scott Roeder.")

LifeNews's take on the murder? "Just hours after the shooting death of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller and without a potential suspect, leading pro-abortion organizations immediately blamed pro-life advocates for George Tiller's death."

And the AP reports that anti-choice leaders worry that Tiller's murder will tamp down on questioning of Sonia Sotomayor's position on abortion rights during her confirmation hearings.

Many anti-abortion groups condemned the killing of Tiller, a prominent abortion provider who was shot dead at his church in Wichita, Kan. But they expressed concern that abortion-rights activists would use the occasion to brand the entire anti-abortion movement as extremist.

They also worried that there would now be an effort to stifle anti-abortion viewpoints during questioning of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

 

Calling the murder of Tiller "a kind of terrorism that works," Matthew Yglesias assesses the impact of anti-choice violence: "Random murder of civilians in order to coerce political concessions doesn't have a great track-record. But direct action terrorist violence against abortion providers has, I think, proven to be a fairly successful tactic. Every time you murder a doctor, you create a disincentive for other medical professionals to provide these services. What's more, you create a need for additional security at facilities around the country. In addition, the anti-abortion protestors who frequently gather near clinics are made to seem much more intimidating by the fact that the occurrence of these sorts of acts of violence."

Comments

[LMPE]

I want this lunatic prosecuted to the full extent.