Dr Tiller was a hero for over 30 years.
Donate in his honor to Planned Parenthood.
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Not so lucky as according to a Tweet six minutes ago (2:11 EST), a suspect is in custody.
Now we will get to hear all about the cause to save the unborn and how he came to be a true believer.
George Tiller shot to death at Wichita church
BY STAN FINGERThe Wichita Eagle
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, 67, was shot just after 10 a.m. at Reformation Lutheran Church at 7601 E. 13th, where he was a member of the congregation. Witnesses and a police source confirmed Tiller was the victim.
No information has been released about whether a suspect is in custody.
Homicide detectives and Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston have arrived at the church.
Members of the congregation who were inside the sanctuary at the time of the shooting were being kept inside the church by police, and those arriving were being ushered into the parking lot. Witnesses are being transported downtown for interviews and other members of the congregation are slowly being released from inside the sanctuary.
Tiller has long been a focal point of protest by abortion opponents because his clinic, Women's Health Care Services at 5701 E. Kellogg, is one of the few in the country where late-term abortions are performed.
Protesters blockaded Tiller's clinic during Operation Rescue's "Summer of Mercy" protests during the summer of 1991, and Tiller was shot by Rachelle Shannon at his clinic in 1993.
Tiller was wounded in both arms, and Shannon remains in prison for the shooting.
Tiller's clinic was severely vandalized earlier this month. According to the Associated Press, his lawyer said wires to security cameras and outdoor lights were cut and that the vandals also cut through the roof and plugged the buildings' downspouts. Rain poured through the roof and caused thousands of dollars of damage in the clinic. Tiller reportedly asked the FBI to investigate the incident.
Sgt. Bart Brunscheen of the Wichita Police Department said there has been no activitiy today at Tiller's clinic, although security crews were being brought in to make sure the building was secure. Officials also were going to check the clinic's security cameras to see if there was any activity over night.
Tiller and his clinic have faced continuous threats and lawsuits. A Wichita jury ruled in March that he was not guilty of illegal abortion on 19 criminal charges he faced for allegedly violating a state law requiring an "independent" second physician's concurring opinion before performing later term abortions. Immediately following the ruling in this criminal case, the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts made public a similar complaint against Tiller that was originally filed in December 2008. Tiller's medical license could eventually be suspended or revoked by the board on the basis of the complaint.
Check Kansas.com for updates.
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Twitter updates:
- Police say suspect is in custody. #tiller 11 minutes ago
- Video of Tiller's body being moved from church: http://bit.ly/aukfC 30 minutes ago
- Press conference video is in its entirety. Be patient with it. 2 minutes ago
- press conference video on Tiller: http://bit.ly/8w47u 2 minutes ago
- http://twitpic.com/6cg0j - Body of George Tiller being removed from Reformation Lutheran church. 57 minutes ago
- Police were not certain if shooter was a member of the church. about an hour ago
- Stretcher taken from back of van and rolled into front entrance of church. Expect removal of body shortly. about an hour ago
- mostly just police and media at Reformation Luthern Church now. about an hour ago
- Video of police statement coming soon on Kansas.com about an hour ago
- Body still hasn't not been removed from chuch. about an hour ago
- Police say a handgun was used in the crime. about an hour ago
- 225-BAB is the tag on the vehicle police are looking for. Kansas tags. about an hour ago
- Several witnesses have been taken downtown for questioning. about an hour ago
- Allred would only identify victim as a white male in his 60's. Also said he had been a victim of high profile crimes in the past. about an hour ago
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The suspect fled the scene and authorities are still investigating. His car is described as a powder blue or light blue Taurus with a K-State vanity plate, license number 225 BAB. He is described as a white male in his 50's or 60's, 6'1," 220 lbs, wearing a white shirt and dark pants.
The car is licensed to Merriam, Kansas. (ABC KAKE 10)
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Tweets of Hate:
- Crap, I always forgot hashtags. I'm happy Tiller's dead. - Jennifer Waite, Selah, Washington
- UPDATE... Doctor George Tiller was aborted today in his 204th trimester - aren't paybacks a bitch - Punch
- oh HAPPY DAY! Tiller the baby killer is DEAD! - Samantha Pelch
- George Tiller the baby killer was shot dead this morning. God bless the gunmen who hopefully won't be caught. - readnwatchchris, Creedmor. NC
- was George Tiller the baby killers brain scrambled the way he scrambled full term fetuses.. one can only hope - Brad S
- Infamous baby killer George Tiller gunned down at (irony) church. Why do I not feel sorry for him? Have fun at Judgment Day. - James Fiddler
- tiller the baby killer shot dead...wow. is it insensitive of me to say what goes around comes around? - Brad M. Negulescu Cleveland.
- George Tiller the Baby Killer shot dead. May he rot in Hell. - Amy Strong
- Tiller Baby Killer was shot and killed this morning Justice has been served. - Shirl Ledeux
- Thinking about "Tiller the baby killer" He now knows the wages of sin is death. - Dianne McDowell
- May Tiller rot in Hell , infanticide is the murder of babies, he WAS a provider of death like Hitler, Bundy the list goes on.... - Dennis, A People Voip Company
- Burn in hell George Tiller - mikedanben Sparta, NJ (41.005501,-74.672)
- No need to pray for George Tiller. We know he went straight to hell!!!!! - Laurie D. Bailey Olive Branch, MS
- Good ridence to Tiller - babies will not be murdered because he is now gone. Wonder how he likes hell! - Jay Emess, Southern, NJ
- Karma is a beautiful thing. Cheers to the hero who sent George Tiller where he belongs... straight to hell. - Matthew Kamar
- omg!george tiller abortion dr. was killed n his church parkn lot! hell yea! - Sarah Gulick, Wtichita, Ks
- George Tiller: Burning in Hell for the last three hours. - darthdilbert Kettering, Oh
- Hmm, I know it's wrong, but I feel like the Late-Term Abortion Doctor George Tiller, got what was he deserved..... - Mary Keogh London England
- Boom Boom Boom. George Tiller was served a very very late term abortion this morning. - Chad Coleman, coeur d'alene, Id
- My compassion is with the innocent children Tiller slaughtered; not with him. 2day he paid consequences of his actions. - Jennifer Weber, Columbia, SC
- George Tiller has killed his last baby - updated 4:50 PM Eastern: Who said the media only reports bad news? - Stan McCullars, Florida
- As much as I detest murder, and please don't get me wrong, there's a part of me that is happy that #Tiller (Dr. Death) is dead. - David Rosenberg, New York
- Someone gunned down George Tiller, murder is wrong but I can't say I'm sad he's gone. - Elizabeth Siler, Kansas
- unless George Tiller was repenting for all the murders he has committed, I don't see what business he had in church. - Ricardo Perez, iPhone: 34.058884,-117.748413
- George Tiller Now has to awnser to his Maker for Murdering the Unborn not my Job to Judge Him now - Jimmy, Southern Cal
- Due to Tillers premature arrival, I hope God had already prepared his special place in Hell. - JLC, Missouri
- Dr George Tiller was not murdered. The shooter was merely performing a very late term abortion on him. - Mike Packer, RI ÜT: 41.699455,-71.514096
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Comments
Thank you for posting this.
Lairderg: Abortion isn't my cup of tea, but I do support a womans right to make that choice for herself. Abortion will always be needed but I think one of the ways to encourage its decrease in numbers is to increase access to pregnancy prevention in the first place. THAT is where the pressure should be. "Safe, legal and rare"
Please let this not be true.
Please.
If Roe v. Wade had been decided decades earlier - before the Pill, before NOW - it would have engendered little controversy. The timing made it inflammatory: an exclamation point on the insult of women's rights.
Fetal rights are a marketing tool; the emotional fuel that fires a political movement that has nothing to do with children, little to do with religion, and everything to do with power. At its core, the anti-abortion movement is anti-birth control, and would be anti-appendectomy if women were somehow shackled to tradition by the presence of an appendix.
"The common dogma [of fundamentalists] is fear of modern knowledge, inability to cope with the fast change in a scientific-technological society, and the real breakdown in apparent moral order in recent years.... That is why hate is the major fuel, fear is the cement of the movement, and superstitious ignorance is the best defense against the dangerous new knowledge. ... When you bring up arguments that cast serious doubts on their cherished beliefs you are not simply making a rhetorical point, you are threatening their whole Universe and their immortality. That provokes anger and quite frequently violence. ... Unfortunately you cannot reason with them and you even risk violence in confronting them. Their numbers will decline only when society stabilizes, and adapts to modernity."
I want to add that fear of knowledge isn't the only fear that drives these people. The other, more insidious and perhaps more powerful one, is the fear that their world is changing. The last 6 months in particular must have pushed this fruit over the edge.
If anyone is interested, this article by The Nation gives a blow-by-blow account of the hypocrisy of today's anti-abortion movement and how their "passion for the unborn" really came to be.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070528/blumenthal
But this today--there is no justice in this. It is the equivalent of a jihadist terrorist committing murder/suicide in the name of God. What type of monsters do we still have in our society to do such a thing. The act is blasphemous as was the location.
This is almost just too gruesome for words.
I am sickened by this homicidal, and yes, terroristic behavior of these fringe lunatics. I totally understand your anger. I share it today.
From O'Reilly to the Taliban, indeed any faith or political ideology (read: civil religion) that instigates hate and violence because the other doesn't believe as the "faithful" is complicit in the heinous acts committed in its name.
@ Stellaa - thank you also for reminding us that language matters, and that Dr. Tiller was not an "abortion doctor." He was a doctor who performed abortions as part of his dedication to protecting the health of women in a part of the country where it is greatly devalued (who I am kidding - it's devalued everywhere), and who gave his life for those beliefs.
I think it's important to remember that Dr. Tiller also provided other reproductive health services, including contraception, to women who would not otherwise have had access - make no mistake, many of those who are celebrating Dr. Tiller's murder would like to see the U.S. return to the Comstock days when virtually all contraception was illegal.
@"Hello," she lied, the author's contention that Roe vs. Wade would not have caused a political ruckus had the decision been made before gender rolls began to change.
The history of abortion in this country makes it clear that, as "Hello" stated, at its core, the anti-choice movement is a movement to control women's bodies. Abortions were legal in the U.S. from its inception, and were routinely performed by midwives. The movement to make abortion illegal began on a state-by-state basis in response to fear that Eastern European immigrants, who had higher birth rates than white Anglo Saxons, would threaten the cultural and "racial" status quo - sort of a reverse eugenics movement (gee, sound familiar anyone?). That said, doctors (male) were the primary force behind the drive to criminalize abortion - it was part of a larger attempt to push midwives (women) out of the "birthing" business and establish for themselves exclusive rights to practice medicine. As with the issue of rape, the abortion issue is about who has power over a woman's body.
A side note about late term abortions - they are extremely rare and almost exclusively performed in order to save the life or fertility of the mother. That is one of the reasons that the "partial birth abortion law" ruling did not make exception for the life of the mother. Women's lives mattered less in this instance than dogma.
A quote from Nancy Keenan, NARAL President: "If it proves to be an act of anti-abortion violence, as we suspect it is, then the full weight of the law must be used to send a clear message that these types of attacks will be prosecuted fully and swiftly." For those who are interested in joining NARAL's action alert network, you can do so here: http://action.prochoiceamerica.org/site/R?i=eXiegHdwqHE4km6MfdUdzw..
"I hope this terrorist assassin resists arrest and is in turn shot dead by the police. "
I do, I really do, understand the anger. But . . . Dr. Tiller's murderer believed HE was acting as some sort of avenger. Let's not follow the same script.
It turns out that Tiller's clinic was the only one of three or even two (!) able to perform late term abortions, which, as any sane person knows, are extremely rare and performed not when a woman has a baby blues as O'Reilly likes to brag, but when her life and health is in serious danger. Most of fetuses in those EXTREMELY RARE cases are also not viable. It is mindboggling how right ideology is working on ingnorant minds.
Anyone knows if those procedures can be done in Canada? I cincerely hope that no one I know will ever need this info, but I am just curious.