14 DAY TRIAL // Sixty-seven-year-old George Tiller, a famous pro-choice activist and abortion doctor, was killed on Sunday, in a Reformation Lutheran Church in his Wichita, Kansas hometown. The police apprehended the shooter, a 51-year-old man, and are currently investigation whether he has any connections to pro-life groups that oppose abortions. The killing raised a massive wave of protests from all those with a bit of common sense, ranging from pro-choice activists to federal authorities, Congress and even US President Barack Obama.
The doctor experienced the wrath of abortion opponents in the past as well. Over the years, numerous mass protests were held at his clinic in Wichita, and the place was even bombed in 1985. In 1993, a pro-life activist shot the doctor in both his arms, hoping to prevent him from doing his job, and helping women in need further. Tiller was among a very small number of doctors in the US today ready to perform abortions late in the pregnancy, after the 20th week of gestation.
Wichita deputy police chief Tom Stolz said “We feel that this is an act of an isolated individual, however our investigation continues.” He added that his department would collaborate with state and federal authorities on the matter, and that, if the suspect had any connections to the abortion opponents, they would be found. The aggressor also threatened two other men in the church, who were trying to intervene. Tiller died from a single gunshot wound.
“However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence,” Reuters quotes Barack Obama as saying in a statement. US Attorney General Eric Holder already announced that federal agents would “offer protection to other appropriate people and facilities around the nation.” This basically means that all clinics where abortions are being done will from now on be surveyed by federal authorities.
“For the movement, it could not come at a worse time. If they make it seem that people who embrace the pro-life movement are kind of this extremist violent group, that could diminish some of the passion and energy on confronting Sotomayor,” said of the crime the director of the Christian Defense Coalition Rev. Patrick Mahoney. The group, which lobbies against abortions, is currently engaged in protests against the US Supreme Court nomination for justice, Sonia Sotomayor. Religious groups believe that Sotomayor favors abortions, based on her previously judged cases.
The suspect was caught a few hours after the deed, as he was driving towards his Merriam, Kansas, home. Merriam is a suburb of Kansas City. He was captured some 180 miles north of the crime scene, but the authorities refused to give out the man's name. “This is particularly heart wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace,” said in a statement Tiller's relatives.