BREAKING: Dr. George Tiller Assassinated

by matttbastard

Oh, fuck:

George Tiller, the Wichita doctor who became a national lightning rod in the debate over abortion, was shot to death this morning as he walked into church services.

Tiller was shot just after 10 a.m. at Reformation Lutheran Church at 7601 E. 13th, where he was a member of the congregation. An anonymous police source confirmed Tiller was the victim.

NOW do all the pearl-clutching conservative bloggers get why that fauxtroversial DHS report on far-right activity was so goddamn pertinent?! As GallingGalla just said on Twitter, “forced-birthers are TERRORISTS on US soil.” This latest killing of a health care provider, martyred for daring to provide women with a vital medical service (in the same week that, here in Canada, the Ontario Provincial Police decided to let another anti-choice assassin evade accountability), only reinforces that all-too-clear fact.

Seriously, this is supposed to be an expression of ‘pro-life’ sentiment?! Look, Operation Rescue can offer hollow denunciations all they like. They are still morally complicit and should rightfully be held accountable for their inflammatory rhetoric and tactics.

Fuck them and their deadly, pro-natalist fanaticism.

h/t Atrios

Update: Via Ann Friedman, Cara writes at Feministe:

This is the first time an abortion provider has been murdered in over a decade. I have friends who work in abortion clinics. This is terrorism. And right now, I just don’t have the words.

As my co-blogger (and Wichita resident) Sassywho just said over IM,

[Tiller] was a prisoner to [Operation Rescue’s] tactics. And because “abortion is a divisive issue,” he wasn’t protected. I just fucking hope (!) that Obama gets that fucking message how framing it as such opens windows.

Sebelius better make sure he gets that fucking message.

Also, what Ann said:

I am also worried about what Tiller’s murder means for women in Kansas and elsewhere in the country who need the services that he provided. The simple fact is there are almost no doctors who provide late-term abortions, especially in rural parts of the country. I was in Nebraska several years ago to interview Dr. Leroy Carhart (whose challenges to abortion-restricting laws went all the way to the Supreme Court), and Carhart and Tiller were the only two late-term providers in their region. If one wanted to go on vacation or got sick, the other had to fill in. There was no one else. Perhaps it would be a fitting memorial to Dr. Tiller to contribute to Medical Students for Choice, and encourage more doctors with a deep commitment to reproductive rights to become abortion providers.

Signed. Off.

Update 2: Via Sylvia, KC Star columnist/blogger Mike Hendricks effing nails it:

At mid-day, police were still trying to figure out who pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller at his church on Sunday morning.

I’m betting they’ll find that person soon enough.

As for the murderer’s accomplices, we know them already.

They include every one who has ever called Tiller’s late term abortion clinic a murder mill.

Who ever called Tiller “Tiller the Killer.”

The groups who spent decades fomenting hate toward a man who simply believed that he was serving a purpose by being one of the few doctors in the country performing late-term abortions.

Hate. Not heated opposition. Not strong disagreement.

But blind hatred.

The kind of hate that would prompt some maniac to take a  gun into a church and shoot a man to death in front of friends and family.

The kind of hate that is on full display over in Freeperville (h/t AJ Strata, a right-of-centre individual who can smell the fucking coffee.)

Update 3: Police capture suspect in Tiller murder:

Police are not releasing the name of the suspect, but numerous media sources are reporting that a man named Scott Roeder has been arrested in connection with the crime

In addition to the links provided @ DKos, a quick google search brought forth this additional gem:

Roeder Cap


Update 4:  Must-read posts from Antonia & dbO.

Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers

15 thoughts on “BREAKING: Dr. George Tiller Assassinated

  1. Well, I disagree with your statement of it not being a difficult decision. It most certainly is a hard and tough choice to make. I have been there, I know what a tough decision it is.
    That was 30 years ago, yes, I think I made the right decision, but for the wrong reasons, maybe if I had other options as Pres. Obama has talked about I would have made a different decision, but those options weren’t open to me then.
    So, think about me and think about that, before you condemn him for saying we need to find common ground.


  2. This is so sad.

    May he rest in peace.

    Hate is the true accomplice here, and all those Anti-Choicers trying to wash their hands of this need to own their part in his death.


  3. The most revealing comment here is that there have not been any assisnations in over 10 years of abortion doctors. It looks like time are changing and other abortion doctors better be looking over their shoulders in the future. The country is going to Hell, led by the abortionists!

    [note: Am leaving this comment up as an example of what WON’T be tolerated on this thread. Further comments expressing similar sentiments will be removed by management. — mb]


  4. Bid Now–
    Fuck you, you terrorist piece of scum.
    How dare you say that to people who are mourning the death of an actual human being?
    Just as I thought, you anti-choice bastards have no compassion, empathy, or class.


  5. This is such a horribly devastating time. This is definitely a humbling time that makes us remember the important work that abortion providers do; they dedicate their lives to women’s rights and reproductive freedoms. We must not take that for granted.


  6. This is a bit extreme, maybe. I wonder if you all would be willing to take blame for a pro-Choice supporter killing a pro-Life supporter. The “banned” example is probably the most legible response on the whole page.


  7. @Patrick:

    Perhaps we would all be doling out non-statements like ‘We don’t agree with what ____ did but no one deserves to die.” Or something like that.

    You also have to look at your wordage, however… “Pro Life” people should be pro-all life; that or they should start calling themselves pro-fetus (and no other type of “life” whatsoever.) Just sayin’…


  8. Patrick: if the pro-choice movement had spent innumerable years and dollars demonizing and dehumanizing the opposition and implicitly giving its collective approval to extra-judicial killing (and in many instances conflating that with divine approval), then, yes, we would have to hold ourselves accountable for any subsequent lethal consequences.

    However, since the above scenario in no way reflects the reality of pro-choice advocacy, well, it seems all too apparent that your conflated ‘example’ is pure fallacious bullshit– far too divorced from reality to even constitute a tu quoque.

    But you hopefully knew that already; I prefer to assume malice as a default motivating factor, rather than idiocy.


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