Supporters of reproductive rights are mourning the killing of the abortion provider Dr. George Tiller. The sixty-seven-year-old doctor was shot Sunday as he attended services at his Wichita, Kansas church. The gunman fled the scene, but a suspect was later caught in a Kansas City suburb.
Dr. Tiller’s clinic is one of just three in the nation performing late-term abortions after the twenty-first week of pregnancy. Dr. Tiller faced constant threats and incidents of violence and vandalism. His clinic was bombed in 1985. In 1993, Dr. Tiller survived an assassination attempt with gunshot wounds to both arms. Two years earlier, thousands of anti-abortion activists tried to block his clinic during the “Summer of Mercy” protests organized by the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. He had recently asked prosecutors to increase legal action against anti-abortion activists who targeted the clinic.
The National Abortion Federation says Dr. Tiller is the eighth abortion provider to be assassinated in the United States since 1977. Seventeen other abortion providers, they say, have been targeted for murder.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/1/dr_george_tiller_1941_2009_murdered
Tuesday, June 2
Dr. George Tiller (1941-2009)
Supporters of reproductive rights are mourning the killing of the abortion provider Dr. George Tiller. The sixty-seven-year-old doctor was shot Sunday as he attended services at his Wichita, Kansas church. The gunman fled the scene, but a suspect was later caught in a Kansas City suburb.
Dr. Tiller’s clinic is one of just three in the nation performing late-term abortions after the twenty-first week of pregnancy. Dr. Tiller faced constant threats and incidents of violence and vandalism. His clinic was bombed in 1985. In 1993, Dr. Tiller survived an assassination attempt with gunshot wounds to both arms. Two years earlier, thousands of anti-abortion activists tried to block his clinic during the “Summer of Mercy” protests organized by the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. He had recently asked prosecutors to increase legal action against anti-abortion activists who targeted the clinic.
The National Abortion Federation says Dr. Tiller is the eighth abortion provider to be assassinated in the United States since 1977. Seventeen other abortion providers, they say, have been targeted for murder.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/1/dr_george_tiller_1941_2009_murdered
