Abortion doctor shot dead inside US church
Pastor Dale Morgan
Abortion doctor shot dead inside US church*
* Damien Pearse
* guardian.co.uk, Sunday 31 May 2009 20.26 BST
A doctor who was one of the few in the US to continue carrying out
late-term abortions was shot dead in a church today.
George Tiller, 67, who had been picketed, bombed and shot in the arms in
previous incidents, was killed at his church in Kansas, according to
police sources.
Tiller was a controversial man, whose clinic has been the site of
protests for two decades. He was shot and wounded by a protester in 1993
and someone placed a bomb on the roof of the clinic in 1986, seriously
damaging the building.
Police spokesman Gordon Bassham would not confirm the victim's identity
but said a 67-year-old "high-profile individual in the community" was
shot and killed. He was shot at 10am in the lobby of Reformation
Lutheran church in Wichita, police and city officials said.
According to the reports a white man carrying a handgun shot the doctor
and then fled in a blue Ford Taurus.
"It's an unfortunate incident to happen on a Sunday morning," Wichita
police captain Brent Allred told reporters. "These things should not
occur at any time."
The FBI and state police were called in to help search for the gunman,
whose licence plate was registered to a home in a suburb of Kansas City,
200 miles away.
The shooting came just two weeks after Barack Obama sought "common
ground" over the divisive abortion debate in a controversial speech at
one of America's leading Catholic universities.
The president has attempted to defuse one of the most emotive issues in
US public life by arguing that while abortion should remain legal, the
government should do all it can to limit unwanted pregnancies.
Tiller had been regularly targeted by abortion opponents who protested
outside his clinic. Some 2,000 protesters were also arrested outside the
clinic during summer-long demonstrations in 1991.
He was acquitted in March on charges that he performed 19 illegal
abortions in 2003. His lawyer described the prosecution as a witch-hunt.
Tiller testified during the trial that he spent years under police
protection after the FBI discovered an anti-abortion hit list in 1994
that named Tiller as the top target.
The doctor also testified that he owns one of only three clinics in the
US that perform late-term abortions, which are performed on foetuses
that could survive outside the mother's womb.
Late-term abortions are legal in Kansas if two independent doctors agree
that the mother could suffer irreparable harm by giving birth.