Dr. George Tiller, age 67, a well known abortion advocate who has performed thousands of such procedures was shot to death Sunday morning (5/31/09) at Wichita, Kansas' Reformation Lutheran Church, where he served as an usher and his wife sang in the choir. Tiller's killer was described by multiple witnesses as a white male in his 50s or 60s, 6'1', 220 pounds. The killer shot Tiller once with a handgun and then fled the scene in a 1993 light blue Ford Taurus. Dr. Tiller was often accompanied by a bodyguard who was apparently not present when the doctor was shot, noting church members say it was not unusual for anti-abortion protesters to be outside of the church on Sunday mornings. The vehicle's license plate was registered to a person in Merriam, Kansas, about a three hour drive north/north east from the crime scene. Approximately four hours after the 10 AM shooting a suspect, described as a 51-year-old Scott Roeder, 6'2", 250 pounds, from the Kansas City suburb of Merriam, was arrested without incident by Johnson County deputies as he drove along I-35, apparently on a leisurely drive home after the murder. No weapon was found on him or in his vehicle at the time of his arrest. Investigation revealed he was basically indigent with $10 in his bank account.

Dr. Tiller has been providing abortions for 36 years and has been a lightning rod for pro life advocates. His Women's Health Care Services Clinic is one of the few such facilities remaining in the country where late-term abortions are still performed. Dr. Tiller has been called a "baby killer" and "America's Most Notorious Abortionist," by some, and was looked upon by others as a leader in providing women with the opportunity for late-term abortions. He and his clinic have been the focus of many pro life protests, and thousands of protesters have been arrested outside of his clinic over the years. He has also been the subject of a number of law suits and most recently was acquitted on charges that he had performed illegal abortions. During that trial Dr. Tiller testified that he had been under the protection of federal agents (US Marshals) on and off for a number of years, (last in 2001), this after his name was found on an anti-abortion assassination list. It was during Dr. Tiller's recent trial that he conceded that he performed abortions on mother's whose infants could have lived outside of their wombs. The legal challenge then faced by Dr. Tiller was the Kansas law allowing late-term abortions if two independent medical doctors agree that the mother's life was threatened by the pregnancy. The prosecution believed that Dr. Tiller had an ongoing financial relationship with the doctor who provided him with second opinions in such cases.

Dr. Tiller had received numerous threats to his life, his clinic was bombed in 1986, and he was shot in both arms at his clinic in 1993 by Rachelle Shannon, who remains in prison today. He was not the target of any recent, specific threat that is thought to be related to his murder. Many pro life groups have expressed shock and "denounced vigilantism and the cowardly act" that resulted in the murder of Dr. Tiller, indicating not only their concern for him and his family, but for those that will believe their movement, instead of "some crackpot extremist," was responsible for Dr. Tiller's death. This appears to be a lone act of domestic terrorism that will affect both the pro life and pro abortion movements, providing further cannon fodder for each side to fire at the other.

Many have begun to compare Dr. Tiller's believed killer, 51-year-old Scott Roeder, to anti-abortion lone wolf Michael Frederick Griffin. It was Griffin, who, at age 32, shot to death Dr. David Gunn, a Pensacola, Florida, abortion provided, outside of Dr. Gunn's clinic in March 1993. Griffin, who remained at the scene of the murder and did not attempt to flee, was the first anti-abortion activist convicted of killing an MD who provided abortion services. Then there was James Charles Koop. Koop used a sniper-like rifle in October 1998 to kill Dr. Barnett Slepian, a well known OBGYN who performed abortions at a women's clinic in Buffalo, NY, this as Dr. Slepian stood in his own kitchen. Koop, probably with assistance, fled NY to Mexico, then to Ireland, and finally to France where he was ultimately arrested by French police in March 2001. Koop was eventually extradited to the US where in 2003 he was convicted of Dr. Slepian's murder. Koop's shooting of Dr. Slepian was also similar to shootings of abortion doctors in their homes in three different Canadian cities as well as in Rochester, NY.

Dr. Tiller's clinic had been severely vandalized a few weeks ago, causing thousands of dollars of damage to the facility. As a 1994 federal law (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act) prohibits the use of force, threat of force or physical obstruction of abortion clinics, the FBI was advised of the actions of the unidentified vandals, and was also involved in the hunt for Dr. Tiller's killer. Dr. George Tiller leaves behind a wife, four children and 10 grandchildren. His killer, meanwhile, turnes out to be someone who believes in UFOs, alien abductions, "men in black" type of government conspiracies, and does not believe the federal government should tax you. Scott Roeder has been concerned with government conspiracy and abortion issues for years, and served a prison sentence for having bomb making components in his vehicle in 1996. He recently attended the trial of Dr. Tiller, and had apparently posted information on the Internet concerning the identity and location of the church that Dr. Tiller attended. One more "fringe of the fringe" extremist who went too far, probably due, in part, to Dr. Tiller's recent legal successes and the stance taken by the new administration on abortion. Little reason to take a human life, but for someone so apparently mentally challenged, it somehow seemed right to him.

A recent poll revealed that for the first time over 50% of Americans are pro life (or against abortion). After his election, President Obama repealed the ban on US funding of foreign family planning groups that offer abortion services and also sided against pro life activists who in turn were against certain aspects of stem cell research. With the murder of Dr. Tiller, many fear that the country will become even more polarized on the issue of abortion rights and that anyone pro life will be branded as an extremist as certain individuals and groups have been similarly branded by the Secretary of Homeland Security. This flies in the face of investigations by the US Department of Justice that found that the activities of individuals like Griffin and Koop were not connected to any known pro life group and that such extremists, like Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh and "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, had acted either alone or with the assistance of a few who were not members of any group to which the suspect belonged. These results were similar to a study I participated in along with the US Marshal's Service in the mid 1990s as we looked at the threat to abortion clinics and providers associated with these clinics.

We are a nation of laws and when individuals take the law into their own hands, as the shooter of Dr. Tiller did, we have witnessed the act of an uncivilized man in an otherwise civilized nation. While the majority of America believes in the sanctity of human life, the end we saw today never justifies the means used by a few in their attempt force their belief on society. All the shooter's extreme actions have done is to take a life, punish Dr. Tiller's family and further polarize our nation.