 A US anti-abortionist has killed another doctor.
George Tiller had been the subject of serious harassment by the religious right in the US including an unethical and shady campaign by former Kansas Attorney General Phil Kline. Tiller was acquitted by jury on all 19 counts.
Tiller was killed in the lobby Reformation Lutheran Church this morning while ushering. The gunman also threatened congregants who tried to stop him from leaving.Â
There is no way any anti-abortion group has the right to condemn his murder although they are trying, couching their words in their typical religious language. No anti-abortion activist has the moral high crowd to call themselves pro-life. They are already trying to make themselves victims. Other extremist groups such as The Army of God are celebrating his murder. Talk2Action has updates on anti-abortion extremist groups including Operation Rescue. Operation Rescue/Operation Save America is condemning The Reform Lutheran Church as apostate and playing victim saying media will ‘paint every Christian who loves life’ as ‘a wild eyed lunatic.’  I really hope the FBI and Kansas State Police are crawling all over these websites. I can’t access Operation Rescue, or their Tillerwatch. Again let’s hope the FBI and police are crawling all over the site.
Roeder’s family is Lutheran and they hadn’t seen him in several years.
Tiller’s clinic in Kansas was bombed in 1985 and Tiller was shot in both arms by an anti-abortionist in 1993. The womans clinic was vandalized several times.
A 51 year old man, Scott Roeder is being questioned as a person of interest.
Seven doctors and clinic staff have been killed by anti-abortionists in the US, 17 attempted murders and 12 bombings and arsons between 1994-2000.
Violence and harassment against womens clinics and their clients have gone up since Obama was elected president.
Tiller’s wife was in the choir when he was murdered, he leaves behind his 4 children and 10 grandchildren. My condolences to his family, colleagues and church family.
AP reports the person of interest:
Court records and Internet postings show that someone using the name Scott Roeder has a criminal past and has expressed anti-abortion opinions on sympathetic Web sites.
The FBI is involved tracing to see if Roeder had ties to anti-abortion groups. He left comments at a site called chargetiller (now scrubbed) but are found in cache. The site called for Tillers death. Roeder may also be connected to Operation Rescue – leaving comments such as this:
May 19th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Bleass everyone for attending and praying in May to bring justice to Tiller and the closing of his death camp.
Sometime soon, would it be feasible to organize as many people as possible to attend Tillers church (inside, not just outside) to have much more of a presence and possibly ask questions of the Pastor, Deacons, Elders and members while there? Doesn’t seem like it would hurt anything but bring more attention to Tiller.Mon September 03, 2007, 09:49:40
It seems as though what is happening in Kansas could be compared to the “lawlessness” which is spoken of in the Bible. Tiller is the concentration camp “Mengele” of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgement upon our nation.
Scott Roeder
Tue March 13, 2007, 20:26:48
PUT THIS MONSTER TILLER BEHIND BARS WHERE HE CAN’T MURDER ANY MORE OF OUR MOST INNOCENT UNBORN BABIES, WHO HAVE NO VOICE!!! WHERE ARE THE WILBERFORCES WHO WILL SCREAM OUT UNTIL THIS INJUSTICE RESTS ?!!! AS THOMAS JEFFERSON SAID, “I TREMBLE THAT OUR HEAVENLY FATHER IS JUST AND THAT HIS JUSTICE WILL NOT WAIT FOREVER!!! PUT THIS HEINOUS BUTCHER BEHIND PRISON WALLS IN HOPES THAT THIS NATIONS’ JUDGEMENT WILL STAVED OFF. ONE OF THE SEVEN THINGS OUR HEAVENLY FATHER HATES IS THE SHEDDING OF INNOCENT BLOOD !!! HEAVEN HELP US !!! US !!!
KMBC in Kansas is reporting Roeder had a post it note with the Operation Rescue number in his car when he was arrested. Operation Rescue had targeted Tiller with clinic protests and a 2007 video where they called him Tiller the Killer. Roeder may have been a lone wolf, that information isn’t available yet.
Experts call anti-abortion violence single issue terrorism.Â
Roeder also served time for parole violations and was named as Freeman by the FBI. According to this:Â
…following a 1996 conviction for having bomb components in his car trunk. Roeder, a sovereign citizen and tax protester, violated his parole by not filing tax returns or providing his social security number to his employer.
Police say the Merriam Kansas resident may be charged with aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated battery tomorrow.
Here is a personal story from a woman who used Dr. Tiller’s services.
Update: I hesitated to use the word extremist in the title, given how sparse information was yesterday, however the reality is single issues extremist groups exist and are a threat to society.
Roeder was also involved with an Iowa anti-abortionist who justifies his position.Â
Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Iowa, said Mr Roeder had contributed to his newsletter, Prayer and Action News, which argues that killing abortionists is justifiable homicide.
Mr Leach said that to call Mr Tiller’s death a crime was “too simplistic… there is Christian scripture that would support this”.
Comments are closed
