And They Call It Pro-Life

And now it has happened to 77- year-old Dr. George Tiller, the eighth abortion provider since 1977 to be murdered by "pro-life" activists.

Tiller, who had been acquitted a few months earlier of providing late-term abortions without getting the second opinion required by Kansas law, was gunned down at approximately 10:00 a.m. in Wichita. 51-year-old anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder, arrested three hours later as he drove an automobile approximately 170 miles away, was charged with one count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault and held without bond.

The Women's Health Care Services Clinic managed by Dr. Tiller is one of only three clinics in the nation which provide third trimester abortions. (The deceased himself had been providing abortions since Roe v. Wade in 1973.) The clinic was bombed in 1985 and was the focal point of "Summer of Mercy" anti-abortion protesters in 1991, during which Tiller was protected by the Federal Marshalls Service for two weeks. He was shot in both arms in 1993, and after being found on the top of an anti-abortion hit list (following the assassination of an abortion provider and an escort in Pensacola), was protected for 30 months by the Marshalls Service.

A new building, as Dr. Tiller noted in 2008, was built. There was a metal detector, no windows, a moat, and "people have to have airport-like security to get in and out of the clinic." Nevertheless, in early May of this year, Tiller needed to ask the FBI to investigate vandalism at the clinic- including cut wires to surveillance cameras.

Abortion obviously is highly controversial, even more so late-term abortions. Dr. Tiller, however, was complying with the law which, in Kansas, apparently permits a woman to obtain an abortion in her third term only when two doctors stipulate that bringing the pregnancy to term would cause the woman "substantial and irreversible impairment." Nevertheless, Operation Rescue had a "Tiller Watch" (now taken down) on its website and even such a mainstream (albeit irresponsible) media figure as GOP TV's Bill O'Reilly referred to Tiller as "The Baby Killer," and accusing him of "executing fetuses in his Wichita office" in a "barabaric display" of "slaughter."

Some might think it ironic that Dr. Tiller was struck down on Sunday morning at his church, on the brink of worship while serving as an usher. But it is not really ironic, even though Tiller family spokesman and attorney Dan Mannat told CNN's Rick Perez this afternoon "church is one place where George Tiller thought he was safe from violence." No, given the fanaticism of much of the pro-life movement, it really isn't surprising that the murder would have taken place as the victim was preparing to glorify God, presumably by a man convinced that he, and those with his political views, have a unique pipeline to God, or at least to righteousness.