http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/31/george-tiller-killed-abor_n_209504.html

Dr George Tiller was an obstetrician that provided among other women’s services, late term abortions. In the past, his clinics have been bombed, he was shot in both arms and now he has been murdered—ironically, outside of his church…probably in the name of ‘god’. Dr. Tiller provided so much to the care of the health of women and endured threats and disruptions to his privacy and safety to provide late term abortions as well as professional grief counseling for the women he served. Unfortunately, some opponents -almost always a man who coincidentally could NEVER be pregnant—who have been unsuccessful in overturning Roe v Wade have decided that the second best way to end abortions is NOT education, but murdering the providers. Late term abortions are not done lightly, and are done for many, many reasons too numerous to list, and most medical schools under pressure from the religious wrong, no longer teach budding doctors how to perform them.
I have to take issue with the way the HuffPost described Dr Tiller as an ‘Abortion Doctor’, when he was so much more…including a HERO, an overused word I do not use lightly.

Yes, tragic. More criminal damage done in the name of religious fundamentalism.

I agree with you asanta.  I hate when the media distills a persons life down to a single activity that he/she was associated with as though that’s all there is to the person. Its disrespectful. demeaning, misleading, and obviously grossly inaccurate. But the media doesn’t care. their goal is to be as inflammatory as possible and get people to read their rag.

The underhanded things they’re saying to the surviving family are making this tragedy even worse. The abortion protesters are releasing statements such as “We’re sorry the doctor didn’t find Christ before his death” (i.e. he’s going to hell) and “We’ll pray the family finds the comfort and healing only available only through Jesus Christ.” How insulting!

These same protesters who wrote on their websites he was a murderer and baby killer and showed his photo with those words plastered across it like a wanted poster, and posted his home address and daily schedule, almost begging him to be shot, now are saying “Oh that was a cowardly act, we only protest through legal means.” Well, what did they think would happen when they put wanted posters of his face that said baby killer all over them? Not that some nut job wouldn’t do it on his own, but they sure as hell encouraged his killing. They WANTED him dead. They are rejoicing.

He was targeted specifically because he performed late term abortions. This poor heroic doctor, who had already survived one previous murder attempt, probably terminated late term pregnancies with horrible birth defects or diseases that would mean a short painful life. He was acting mercifully. Women don’t usually decide in their 5th, 6th or 7th month of pregnancy “whoops changed my mind” there is a SERIOUS medical problem with the fetus to warrant an abortion that late. These nut jobs have been fed horrible misinformation by these horrible protesting groups, who insist the babies are perfectly healthy and ready to survive outside the womb and then murdered. In reality there are babies with organs growing outside their body, missing their brain, no eyes or mouth, and other horrible conditions. This is not an act of “birth control” or something done on a whim, as the protesters would have us believe.

He is quoted as saying that “prenatal diagnosis without prenatal choice is medical fraud.” I have to agree with that assessment.

I wonder if all these protesters are willing to sit in the hospital holding dying malformed infants that they insist be brought into this world? They care nothing of the suffering and grieving families, they care nothing for these babies once they are born. They just want them born no matter how horrific and painful their condition. Even a fetus without a HEAD they want women to carry to term and birth naturally. That is just cruel.

I once cared for an infant that had a partially formed brain, and the most complete cleft palate to the point that the nonexistent nose and mouth were just one very large hole in the middle of her face. This had been diagnosed in utero, but the mother refused an abortion, because she felt this was ‘god’s’ punishment for an abortion she’d had in the past. Pro-choice is all about the ability to make choice, but what kind of teaching would tell a mother that this kind of gross deformity of a child who will never be able to eat except through a tube, who will never walk or talk, and will probably die in infancy of a pneumonia, is a punishment of a ‘loving and benevolent god’.

Note that Randall Terry stated that he was more ‘concerned’ about Obama’s reaction to Dr. Tiller’s death (he very appropriately expressed outrage), than the murder itself!

What a horrible deity!  Seriously, I find it difficult that anyone can blame a supposedly loving god for such a thing.  Be that as it may, that child probably cannot have a very productive and quality life like that.

The kind of teaching that taught that mother such a thing was very abusive, which not only took advantage of a mental state she was in, but some cognitive processes and human need.  None of it was very healthy or good.  I hardly believe that it would have been murder to end that pregnancy too.  IF anything, it probably would have ended a lot of suffering.  It never ceases to amaze me how Xians put so much emphasis on an afterlife, yet extend life beyond the point of being a quality life.  You would think they would not do such things and cause even more misery in this world.  That poor baby.  :(

Since 1993, working with a clinic-defense group ( http://www.brooklynprochoicenetwork.org ), I’ve been helping organize escorts for a clinic that’s been harassed by religious nuts for an even longer period.  But even though anti-choice activism is coming solely from the religious right, neither organized atheism nor humanism have been interested in defending the right to abortion, which is considered a “partisan” issue.  Reproductive rights IS a secular issue.  It’s time to stop deferring to the hypothetical tiny number of skeptics who claim that there’s “scientific” proof that “life starts at conception,” and for us to get involved in this issue.

Here are two press releases:

   
As Tiller’s Murder Proves, Lack of Church Discipline Can be Deadly

MEDIA ADVISORY, May 31 /Christian Newswire/—There is nobody more to blame for the murder of George Tiller than Reformation Lutheran Church, ELCA, in Wichita Kansas.

Mr. Tiller lived quite the murderous life himself, pulling viable babies out by their legs and sucking their brains out with a vacuum. Other Churches called him to repentance and excommunicated him, but Reformation Lutheran, ELCA, enthusiastically embraced him, pocketbook and all.

Church discipline, and the call to repentance, is a matter of life and death in the Church. As Reformation Lutheran mops up Tiller’s blood from their foyer floor, let them not forget that his blood is also on their hands.

Had they called Tiller to repentance, as Jesus commands the Church, he would not have been there this Pentecost Sunday to face a violent death. The failure of the Church to fulfill God’s commission is deadly, and has eternal implications. But just perhaps Reformation Lutheran, ELCA, will humbly repent for the evil they have been complicit in all these years.

Members at Reformation Lutheran are shocked that the safety and peace of their sanctuary has been destroyed by such violence this morning. They have gotten a glimpse of what it was like for babies, whose sanctuary was the womb, to be viciously torn apart piece by piece by a man who masqueraded as both a doctor and a Christian.

As the executioner says before carrying out the judgment of the court in the death chamber, “God have mercy on his soul.”

——-

George Tiller - Killed

WASHINGTON, May 31 /Christian Newswire/—“He died the way he lived. His was a bloody death.” Rev Rusty Thomas, Operation Save America(OSA). “Someone ‘chose’ to end George Tiller’s life this morning, in his church.”

“What was an abortionist doing ‘in’ church, any church…being allowed, welcomed, even venerated? This man killed babies for a living. He charged large sums of money to do it. Then he went to ‘church,’ made large contributions, and the ‘church’ (Reformation Lutheran Church) accepted it??” Pastor Mark Holick, Spirit One Christian Center, & OSA.

This is an apostate church, fully complicit in Mr. Tiller’s murderous rampage against preborn children. It has provided cover and respectability for him. We have confronted both pastor and church with this trashing of the Gospel of Christ. I can still recall one board member saying, “We have members who believe both ways (pro-life or pro-choice).” Please!

“A man who stiffens his neck after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.” Proverbs 29:1. “George Tiller has been confronted innumerable times with the claims of Christ.” Rev Flip Benham, Director of Operation Save America. “We were in Wichita in 1991, pleading for him to receive Christ and stop murdering children. In April 2001, I wrote him a personal letter with the book, Won By Love hoping to speak with him. Every day outside his abortion mill, gentle Christians pleaded with mothers to choose life and with George to choose Christ. We have been to his home, his church, and his work. He is now bowing before Jesus and confessing that He (Jesus) is right and that he (George Tiller) was wrong!”

No doubt the media will paint every Christian, who loves life and lives out that belief in the streets of his city, as a wild-eyed, lunatic, fanatic bent on shooting abortionists. They will attempt to silence the voice of many by using the violence of one. This ploy is the devil’s “straw man.”

Beware! The one who murdered George Tiller became exactly what George Tiller was—a murderer.

We will not be silenced nor will we stop opposing the murder of “any” person - born or unborn. If I were at Reformation Lutheran Church this morning my duty would be to stand in between the shooter and George Tiller. The love of Christ compels us!

Notice they only call him Mr. Tiller, repeatedly, never Dr. Tiller. They refuse to call him Dr.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Dr. Tiller’s Lutheran church was bombed after that nasty press release.

The Lutheran church is not the one who put up wanted posters with Dr. Tiller’s photo, address, and schedule with the words “baby killer” in blood red. That would be those “good Christian” abortion fanatics.

Josh, it is wonderful that you volunteer to help guarantee access to clinics. If I’m not mistaken, volunteers have been shot in the past, helping doctors and patients enter clinics. Not many people are willing to volunteer for such a dangerous job.

This is the type of response I expected to see from the “pro-life” crowd:

“Abortion opponent: Doctor’s death may be justified
A Des Moines abortion opponent said Monday that the killing of a Kansas doctor could be justified as a way to prevent what he sees as the murder of unborn babies.

The activist, Dave Leach, said he did not condone the shooting death Sunday of Dr. George Tiller, but he wouldn’t condemn it.”  Remainder of article here.

Unfortunately, there are probably many that don’t even attempt to disguise it, as this fellow did, but are rejoicing that this happened.

I find it ironic that the supposed right to lifers/religious Reichers support life, yet turn around and murder someone or support the murder thereof.  It’s insane.

I forget which Christian BigWig it was, Pat Robertson? One of those guys? (700 Club?) But I will NEVER forget the quote. He went on and on about how abortion was murder, no exceptions, God would bring wrath on the earth, etc. etc. because of abortion. Then someone on the show asked him “What do you think about China, their one child policy and abortion there?” BigWig Christian’s answer to that? “Well China is different. They do what they have to do because of their population problem. But in America there is no excuse to kill innocent babies.”

It’s only bad when Christian fetuses are aborted?

I think the more sinister implication of Robertson’s words are that it’s actually only bad when white fetuses are aborted.

But I agree, it’s absolutely sickening.  That the majority of our population is against late-term abortion (given the ludicrous moniker “partial birth” to ensure that even the semantics make it sound abysmal) speaks to the ability of the reich-wingers to distort an issue so greatly that the hyperbole becomes inseparable from actual facts.