Why the Assasination of Dr. Tiller was a Hate-Crime Against Women

For years this country had argued over abortion in the wake of Roe v Wade. In recent years this debate has become even more contentious with the increased highlighting of so-called "Partial-Birth" Abortions which take place in the last term of a pregnancy.

Then of course it's hard to Fight Blind Faith with Fact when you have people on national TV shouting "Tiller the Baby Killer" over and over again.



During the Bush Administration this practice was outlawed at least partially. The law prohibited the use of a procedure called D&E (Dilation and Extraction) which sought to remove a non-viable fetus in one piece, but left legal as less safe option called D&X (Dilation and Escavation) where the fetus is sliced into pieces then removed increasing the likelihood of infection and complications for the mother.

The was challenged and went all the way to the Supreme Court in 2007, where it was upheld - but not without a scathing descent by Justice Ginsberg.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking out in the courtroom for the dissenters, called the ruling “an alarming decision” that refuses “to take seriously” the Court’s 1992 decisions reaffirming most of Roe v. Wade and its 2000 decision in Stenberg v. Carhart striking down a state partial-birth abortion law.

Ginsburg, in a lengthy statement, said “the Court’s opinion tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. For the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception protecting a woman’s health.”

The American College of OB/GYN's stated in response.

The intact variant of D&E offers significant safety advantages over the non-intact method, including a reduced risk of catastrophic hemorrhage and life-threatening infection. These safety advantages are widely recognized by experts in the field of women’s health, authoritative medical texts, peer-reviewed studies, and the nation’s leading medical schools.

Of course the facts rarely deter people like Randal Terry who said this about Tiller's Murder.

"George Tiller was a mass murderer and we cannot stop saying that," Terry said. "He was an evil man -- his hands were covered with blood."

Terry said he was now concerned that the Obama administration "will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions."

Despite the arguments of rabid Pro-Lifers like Terry and USA Today, this procedure - under law - can not be used on a fetus that is likely a capable of survival in Kansas.

Kansas law generally allows abortions even into the third trimester so long as the physician determines the fetus isn't viable. A doctor who makes such a determination after 21 weeks gestation must report the reasons why the determination was made.

"Third trimester abortion is simply a part of abortion," Tiller told Wichita TV station KAKE in 1999. "We have constructed our clinic and our philosophy along the lines that until you have natural survivalhood [of the fetus], the woman is the patient, not the fetus.

"When does natural survivalhood come on? ... Sometime after the end of the second trimester."

But even if a fetus is determined to be viable after 21 weeks, Kansas law still permits a doctor to perform an abortion if that physician and another determine the procedure is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant woman.

It is a LIE to claim that Dr. Tiller performed late-term abortions of viable babies, and that now without access to this service the risks of survivability for pregnant women in Kansas has greatly increased.

Killing Tiller will not save the lives of children, any more than being against embryonic stem-cell researches helps a single potential child - both positions only hurt others - mothers and the sick.

But this is fairly consistent with the general failure of the "Pro-Life" position to actually help children live, as you can see from the Chart from the CDC, after President Clinton implemented policies of access to condoms and full spectrum sex eductation and prevention the rate of nation wide abortions dived like a rock dropped over a cliff - but that drop came to a near Complete STOP when the Republican Congress and later President Bush begun to oppose those effort and instead put forward ineffective "Abstinence Only" programs which misled young people into thinking "Condom's Don't Work".



Rather than increasing Life the Anti-Choice/Anti-Freedom groups have actually reduced the quality of Women's health and put them at greater risk, time and time again.

Killing Dr. Tiller only furthers this agenda but does nothing to protect "innocent life".

But then again what else would you expect from Domestic Christian Terrorists like Scott Roeder.

Suspect Is Identified in Killing of Abortion Doctor

WICHITA, Kan. — The suspect in the fatal shooting of one of the nation’s only doctors to perform late-term abortions had professed an anti-government, anti-abortion philosophy in years past, some who knew him said on Monday.

Scott Roeder, 51, of Merriam, Kan., whom authorities have described as a suspect in Sunday’s fatal shooting here of George Tiller, the doctor who had been a focal point for abortion opponents for decades, was once a subscriber and occasional contributor to a newsletter, Prayer and Action News, said to Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Des Moines who runs the newsletter. Mr. Leach said he and Mr. Roeder had met once, and Mr. Roeder had described similar views to his own. Of Dr. Tiller’s death, Mr. Leach said, "To call this a crime is too simplistic," adding, "There is Christian scripture that would support this."

The connections made between Roeder and Operation Rescue/Save America are not to be taken lightly considering their long history of similar associations, and the fact that until just an hour or so ago, Operation Rescue's website maintained a "Tiller Watch" which helped target the doctor.

Operation Rescue as formerly headed by Randall Terry were sued by NOW (National Organization for Women) due to their connection with the murders of abortion doctors, as well as violence and bombings at womens clinics. (The issue was settled out of court).

These actions include the Murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian by Operation Rescue member James Kopp, which was denounced as "Terrorism" by Janet Reno.

The Southern Poverty Law Center notes the activities of various former Operation Rescue members.

Murder and the Theocratic Revolution

By the early 1990s, Michael Bray had come to advocate the murder of abortion doctors and call for theocratic revolution with the aim of instituting biblical law. During the same period, professed AOG member Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon, who had earlier launched butyric acid and arson attacks on clinics throughout the western United States, attempted to murder Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kan., wounding him badly.

High-profile murders in the early 1990s marked a turning point in the violence, transforming the movement and riveting the attention of the nation.

In 1993, Dr. David Gunn was shot to death by Rescue America activist Michael Griffin. Paul Hill then became the focus of attention through his efforts to promote the notion that the murder of Dr. Gunn and other abortion providers was "justifiable homicide." Hill received the prominent support of Fr. David Trosch, Bray and 31 others (see Justifiable Homicide: The Signers).

Following Dr. Gunn's murder, Joseph Scheidler presided over a summit meeting of militant pro-life leaders in Chicago to discuss the movement's future. The conclave degenerated into a debate about violence, and led to the formation of the hard-line American Coalition of Life Activists (ACLA), many of whose leaders signed the "justifiable homicide" statement. Many ACLA members had previously been prominent in Operation Rescue, the group founded and long headed by Randall Terry.

In 1994, Hill murdered a doctor and his escort outside a Pensacola, Fla., clinic. He drew moral support from the likes of ACLA leader Andrew Burnett, who appeared in one photograph holding a sign reading "Free Paul Hill! JAIL Abortionists." Burnett's magazine, Life Advocate, has been the leading editorial voice of the pro-violence faction.

In 1995, a young, mentally unstable hairdresser named John Salvi shot up two clinics in Brookline, Mass., killing two people and wounding five.

From ProChoice Online.

Link between anti-abortion militants and right-wing militias

Observers of right-wing activities are noting a convergence of philosophy and technique between anti-abortion militancy and extremist militia activity. Bombings at the Atlanta clinic (where a second bomb exploded an hour after the first) are just one example; clinics vandalized with hangman's nooses and bullet- riddled signs, as was done by militia leader Larry Ball at a Lincoln, Nebraska, Planned Parenthood clinic, are another. Look deeper and hear the rhetoric used by extremist militias, radical tax protesters, and extreme anti-choicers merging: Both anti-abortion and militia leaders often cite Roe u Wade and FACE (the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances law) as evidence of "anti-Christian" bigotry and defiance of "God's law."

One militia leader has been fined over $500,000 for his participation in abortion blockades with Oregon-based Advocates for Life. This same man also conducted target practice with Shelley Shannon four days before her attempted murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita. Larry Pratt, former Pat Buchanan aide and executive director of Gun Owners of America, a favorite speaker at white supremacist gatherings, raised $150,000 to pay Operation Rescue's bills. Many pro-gun, anti-government zealots have connections to Operation Rescue, and OR activists have demonstrated at the Waco compound.

Not long before the murder of Tiller there was the the Knoxville Tennessee Church Shooting by James Addkisson, as well as the Pittsburg Cop-Killer Richard Poplawski and the attempted Maine Dirty Bomber.

Militant Militias, the anti-Choice and Anti-Gay crowd all coming together?

Sounds exactly like what the Homeland Security Report on Potential Right-Wing Terrorism reported in May. Coincidence? I think not.

Vyan