by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 2, 2009
All Rights Reserved.

        Gunned down 10:00 a.m. in the lobby of Wichita, Kansas’ Reformation Lutheran Church, famed 67-year-old abortion doctor George Tiller died for the cause of defending Roe v. Wade, guaranteeing woman the right to abortion.  Tiller had survived an attempted assassination August 19, 1993 by Shelly Shannon, who shot Tiller in both arms. He completed med school at the University of Kansas, expecting to specialize in dermatology.  When his parents, sister and brother-in-law were killed in a tragic plane crash, George decided to forego dermatology residency and join his father’s medical clinic known, before Roe v. Wade, for performing abortions.  Tiller was the subject of 28 segments on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” prompting the show host, Bill O’Reilly, to warn of Tiller's “Judgment Day.”  President Barack Obama said he was “shocked and outraged” by Tiller's murder.

            O’Reilly hyped the so-called “partial-birth” or late-term abortions, highlighting Tiller’s inhumane treatment of developed fetuses, prompting conservative Web sites to disseminate Tiller’s heinous “crimes” to pro-life groups around the globe.  Tiller became O’Reilly’s poster-boy for all that’s evil in pro-choice medicine, placing womens’ needs above evangelical churches.  “However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence,” said Barack, well-aware that analogous right-wing groups are currently demonizing him as a leftist, hell-bent on destroying the U.S. Constitution.  Those are the same haters that hyped John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln in Washington’s Ford Theatre April 14, 1865, less than three years after he signed the first Emancipation Proclamation Sept. 22, 1862.

            Anti-abortionist have become today’s anti-abolitionists, filled with the same hate that leads to violence and murder.  Tiller’s death was no accident when you consider the anti-abortion movement, glorifying the names and reputations of patriotic warriors in the twilight struggle against the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe. v. Wade ruling, legalizing abortion.  Tiller’s clinic was bombed in 1986 and blockaded in Operation Rescue’s 1991 “Summer of Mercy” campaign.  Responding to Tiller’s death, Operation Rescue’s founder Randall Terry said Tiller “was a mass murder, and horrificly, he reaped what he sowed,” displaying the fanaticism that puts anti-abortion groups on the same page as Islamic terrorists.  Fanatics like Terry have a perfect excuse to condone violence.  Calling Tiller “one of the villains of history,” Terry equates him with mass murders like Adolf Hitler.

            Terry was recently arrested protesting Obama’s appearance at Notre Dame University, where he received an honorary doctor of laws degree.  Terry and other pro-life fanatics believe abortion is murder.  “The thought of him leaving this life with blood on his hands for having killed so many thousands of children and not having been prepared to meet his maker is a dreadful, terrifying thought,” said Terry, showing no sympathy for Terry’s death.  Terry, and other extremists, don’t differentiate between embryos and fetuses, calling them all God’s children.  Whether you agree or disagree with Roe v. Wade, it’s currently the law of the land.  Anti-abortion groups should try lobbying the Supreme Court, not bombing abortion clinics or doctors that operate under current U.S. laws.  During the reign of former President George W. Bush, pro-lifers had an ally in the Oval Office.            

            Fleeing in a Ford Taurus, a 51-year-old unnamed suspect was taken into custody without incident by two Johnson County sheriff’s deputies.  “We took him down without incident,” said Johnson County Sheriff’s spokesman Lt Mike Ptannenstiel.  Sedgwick County District Attorney intends to charge the suspect with First Degree murder at his arraignment.  Wichita Police have requested a backup investigation with the FBI and Kansas Board of Investigation.  Despite the denials, both need to determine whether or not Operation Rescue or some other extremist pro-life group collaborated in Tiller’s death.  “Today we mourn the loss of our husband, father and grandfather.  Today’s event is an unspeakable tragedy for all of us and for George’s friends and patients,” read a family’s statement by attorneys Dan Monnat and Lee Thomson.  Judging by Terry’s reaction, the FBI has some unfinished work.

            Tiller’s assassination illustrates everything’s that’s wrong with today’s abortion debate .  Right wing groups and related media need to come to grips with the kind of incitement that pushes sociopaths and garden-variety psychotics into violent acts.  Whether opposed to Roe v. Wade or not, it’s the law of the land, requiring responsible physicians, regardless of religious beliefs, to perform medical procedures at the request of patients.  Judges and juries must understand that there’s nothing mitigating about  extreme pro-life beliefs that view licensed doctors as mass murderers for performing legal medical procedures.  Law enforcement and the courts must punish killers to the full extent of the law, offering no mitigating circumstances.  Fanatics, like Terry, see themselves at war with a determined enemy.  No matter how righteous the cause, they're still domestic terrorists.

 About the Author

 John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.