This past Thursday night Judge Warren Wilbert gave Scott Roeder the maximum sentence for murdering my mentor, Dr. George Tiller last May: life in prison with the possibility of parole after 50 years, when Roeder will be 102.
The "Hard 50," as it's known in Kansas, is the right sentence. But Roeder spending his life in jail doesn't stop the continuing acts of terrorism against providers and their staffs. It also doesn't bring back one of the most compassionate, caring men I've ever known. I worked side by side with Dr. Tiller as his top political adviser for nearly a decade. The walls of his office were covered with thank you notes from the women and families who were grateful to him for treating them with dignity and respect at one of the most difficult times in their lives.
Militant anti-choice leaders who spew inflammatory rhetoric bear some responsibility for Dr. Tiller's death as well. After the first assassination attempt on Dr. Tiller's life, Flip Benham and Operation Save America threatened that they were returning to Wichita to "finish the job." TV host Bill O'Reilly popularized the inflammatory "Tiller the Baby Killer" tag and inveighed against Dr. Tiller in nearly 30 episodes before his murder. Randall Terry, also of Operation Rescue, issued a statement after Dr. Tiller's murder calling him a "mass murderer" who "reaped what he sowed." They can't just blame Scott Roeder as the triggerman.
Terms like "baby killer," "holocaust," and "murder" are the equivalent of yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. They contribute to an environment where violence against providers and their staff members is acceptable -- where someone like Scott Roeder thinks he's doing God's will by gunning down an innocent man in church. (Dr. Tiller is the fifth abortion provider murdered since 1993; including provider staff brings the total to eight.)
Dr. Tiller was a great man: courageous and funny and deeply committed to trusting women to make their own difficult, private medical decisions. He gave his patients the care they needed, judgment-free, and always referred to himself as a "woman-educated doctor." During the 2001 so-called "Summer of Mercy Renewal" (that's when Benham urged supporters to "finish the job"), Dr. Tiller stuck a huge banner on a truck parked in the clinic parking lot that said, "Women need abortions, and we're going to do them." After he was shot the first time (by Shelley Shannon), he put up a sign in the clinic driveway that said "Hell no, we won't go." And he came back to work the next day. When Kansas DA Phill Kline began his relentless (and ultimately fruitless) persecution, Dr. Tiller switched the "Trust Women" button he wore for one that said, "Attitude is Everything."
I miss him terribly.
The time has come for the Department of Justice to go after the domestic terrorists that have been harassing, stalking, and murdering providers and their staff with near-impunity for decades now. No possible "good" can come of my mentor's murder, but I hope that it will make it more difficult for the DOJ to continue standing on the sidelines while this mayhem continues.
Julie Burkhart, Dr. George Tiller's top political advisor, worked side by side with him for 8 years. She's currently carrying on Dr. Tiller's legacy as the Founder and Executive Director of Trust Women PAC, which protects the rights of physicians who provide later terminations of pregnancy, and the rights of women and families to access these services.
Reposted from AlterNet
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They mock Muslims for being religious extremists yet are killing abortion doctors. They make bombers of Muslims groups seem "crazy" yet are going to clinics and opening fire
It's so sad and so laughably stupid
I wish they had executed this man and anyone else in his group who kills anyone else in the future
If you feel that you have the grass roots support necessary to legitimate
With all due respect, you have a fundamenta
"The enumeratio
Brilliant argument, except for the fact that a right to an abortion is guarenteed nowhere in the Constituti
The right to privacy exists nowhere in the Constituti
The right to abortion on demand exists nowhere in the Constituti
These rights exist only in the minds of statists.
I will explain again. The pro abortion sect of society hasn't anywhere close to the grass roots support necessary to legitimate
Funny part is Obama won't be President forever, political tides turn. Activist opinions are only as strong as the judges who hold them. R v W 's existence is one activist judge away from being overturned
Then lets discuss how a Constituti
Yeah, that's right: The right to privacy between a woman and her doctor (or the right to an abortion on demand, if you prefer) is retained by the people. If it's not enumerated
The enumeratio
http://en.
The Ninth appears written specifical
I've always felt the the ultimate in misogyny was promote the notion that a woman must be able to legally kill her unborn child under any circumstan
Listen to your self-right
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You're absolutely right. Religious dictates should never apply to all Americans.
Neither should Supreme Court dictates.
The reason liberals tout R v W as holy scripture is because the pro abortion movement could never even come close to getting the grass roots support necessary to legitimate
Liberals have a serious problem with the 10th amendment and the power in grants to states and local communitie
The notion that any part of the Constituti
Individual states aren't free to violate the client-att
Isn't it hypocrisy when conservati
The Supreme Court exists solely to insure the the government does not exceed the specific powers granted to it by the Constituti
Once again, the notion that any part of the Constituti
If you feel that you have the grass roots support necessary to legitimate
If you can't do that then by virtue of the tenth amendment, abortion on demand is to be regulated by the states and by the communitie
Its written in plain and simple English so that the most common man could understand the each statutes intent..
http://en.
Listen to your self-right
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You're absolutely right. Religious dictates should never apply to all Americans.
Neither should Supreme Court dictates.
The reason liberals tout R v W as holy scripture is because the pro abortion
It is the "mainstrea
Destroying the life of a person who has been born is murder, and it is a mortal sin. Period.
"Thou shall not kill" is one of the basic 10 commandmen
The devil can rationaliz
let me simplify it for you...
the very fact that someone can be terrorized because of partaking in LEGAL actions not only reduces our society to lawlessnes
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jer 1:5
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29:11
Listen to your self-right
BTW, he did not kill a single born baby.
Roeder is a terrorist.
Put his defenders on no-fly lists, and spurn them.
There can be no other term for MURDER with a POLITICAL agenda.
Dr. Tiller helped and comforted women with no hope because he believed it was the right thing to do. He helped 'the least of these,' and I very much doubt hell is his reward.
I would argue that you are either pro-choice or pro-author
If you go into the medical profession
tolerance for ignorance and , in fact, wallow in the swampy miasma of it.
Ask him how many babies he's adopted.
Ask him how much of his income is given toward raising the babies with horrific birth defects ?
Either there will be *crickets* or he'll blather.
It's a shame that Bill O'Reilly is able to white-wash his image simply by giving some cash to a person suing the despised Westboro Baptist Church, and so earn praise from HP commenters here:
http://www
Like this:
"I don't care what his motive is. Why does it make a difference
"... congratula
etc. ad nauseam.