Strollerderby

please don't call him an abortion doctor.  Call him a gynecologist or an obstetrician.  I truly doubt that there are enough third trimester abortions happening in Kansas to keep him employed performing abortions full-time.

And please don't call "anti-abortion protesters."  Call this what it is: terrorism.

Will Jenn Giroux and her absolute whack-job organization, "Women Influencing the Nation" now have the common decency to take down their website, chargetiller.com?  She's been very, very proud of promoting her actions here for some time now.  When will her ilk and similar organizations begin to understand that they are, essentially, hate organizations promoting their brand of justifiable moral depravity for the type the condemn???

I hope some of those War on Terror policies will be applied in this murder case, as well as to the Watch pages compiled and maintained by various groups. I agree with Knitty - people engaged in malicious and/or violent harassment of healthcare providers are not worthy of the title "activist". Dr. Tiller may have been murdered by one individual (who may have been unaffiliated and acting alone; I doubt it, but we don't know yet), but certain branches of this movement def. promote the hate and mentor individuals sick enough to murder a 67yo legally-practicing doctor on his way to usher at church. Not all of them, mind... but the ones that do should be charged with terrorism and tried along with Dr. Tiller's murderer.

I agree with the previous poster:

Please call him what he was: a doctor, a provider of women's health services, an obstetrician/gynecologist. I am sure that in a day's work, he assisted a woman in the birth of a child, found a lump in a woman's breast, performed routine pap screenings, and yes, terminated a pregnancy. All of these things constitute providing health care to women.

As a pro-lifer, I condemn the killing of Tiller. Many of us take "pro-life" to mean ALL life, not just of the baby but also of the abortion provider.

That said, this link: www.lifenews.com/state4189.html says that Tiller's killer is NOT related to any mainstream pro-life group. It seems much more more he is to the pro-life movement as the 9/11 highjackers were to Islam: fundamentalist, ugly and damaging. Maybe other evidence will come out later, but "pro-life" does not of necessity equal "terrorist."

No, it doesn't. But the branches of your movement that are engaging in terrorist tactics do need to be identified and prosecuted as such.

Good God, Lula. I didn't say that they shouldn't be prosecuted now, did I? And while I may be pro-life, I hardly identify myself as part of "the movement." I've yet to join a pro-life group on Facebook or march in a rally. Chill out.

If it was his mother who had him killed, would this be considered a retroactive abortion by the pro-choice definition?

at least your pro-life stance makes sense. i dont understand prolifers who kill people. dumb.

Amen Maeby!

I also agree that they should not be called abortionists, I think killer/murderer is more accurate?  Doctors are supposed to help and uphold life, not destroy life at the whim of any person feeling inconvenienced by being pregnant.  

NARAL is already talking about the chilling ramifications of this as if anti-abortion people are all about this sort of killing.   By their logic, we should be blogging right now about about the chilling impact of the shooting in Arkansas where an Army recruiter was killed and another wounded.  Obviously those killings were directly linked to to the environment of disdain for the military that pervades the consciousness of our fav, Nancy Pelosi and others like her in Washington.  

ChiLaura: Dude, I am so chill right now that the internet is misinterpreting me for you. You've been a fairly regular self-identifying "pro-life" contributor on here, so I am surprised that you'd balk at being considered part of the anti-abortion movement. I don't care what groups you are or are not part of -- plenty of anti-abortion folks never engage in terrorist activity, and I would assume you are among those who abhor terrorism. But yeah, the branches of the Pro-Life Movement that directly engage in or promote terrorist activity need to be rooted out and tried. I figure you agree?

HM: I would argue instead that shooting Army recruiters is directly linked to the wackness of awarding medals to soldiers who kill well in war while charging murder on those who kill well in civilian life, but whatever pumps your nads.

I wonder what percentage of anti abortionists are mentally defective Christian fundamentalists.  I would be willing to bet that it is quite close to 100.  This nonsense will never stop until people evolve and come to the conclusion that their silly religion is nothing more than a fairytale.

Sorry, Lula, I was too quick to judge your tone. I balked at the word "movement" -- the last thing I want to be a part of is a movement. For some reason, I just don't like that word. If it were up to me, I'd be living on a farm in the hills, growing my own produce and slaughtering my own meat, and not because I want to be a part of some organic movement but to get away from movements in general! Anyway, I digress. I think that HM's comment about NARAL's response above is indicative of a lot of the conflation that goes around, as is mark c's comment about the mental state of anti-abortionists. I mean, really? Yes, extreme groups that engage in violence should be brought to justice, be they abortionist-killing "pro-lifers" or eco-terrorists. But I wish "the media" or "bloggers" or whoeverr trumpets these reports would conced that in the same way that very few Muslims are plane-crashing terrorists, and very few environmentalists wantonly destroy property, only a very few abortion opponents actually kill or even think that it's okay to kill anyone, including abortionists.

To date, abortion(termination of pregnancy) is still a legal medical procedure. How sick and disgusting to murder a doctor in his place of worship. Any psychotic, hating moron can get a gun.

Where is the outrage or comment on the gunning down of a US soldier in Arkansas??

I hope the people who agree with late term abortions are seeking to dismiss the case of Casey being charged with killing her daughter Caylee because really all she did was have a late term abortion.  Her daughter just didn't fit into her life at this time.

Thanks, Jen.

Murdering people in cold blood in their place of worship is heinous, unpardonable, and undermines absolutely everything the pro-life movement is trying to accomplish. Very anguishing and frustrating. Vigilanteism is always, ALWAYS wrong, and usually has the opposite of its intended effect.

But, to those condemning the whole pro-life effort, even those of us who are responsible, productive, peace-loving citizens, instead of focusing on rhetoric and anger about women's rights being violated, please try to understand where we are coming from.  

By 12 weeks a fetus has a heartbeat.  It is the first reassurance to the mother that all is well.

Fairy tales aside, the FACT of the matter is that at 24 weeks a fetus has fingers, arms, toes, lungs, a heart that has been beating for more than three months, sensitivity to light, sound, and pain, the ability to suck its thumb, and to recognize its mother's voice.  Babies have been known to survive outside the womb this early.

In late term abortions the fetus is flooded with an acid solution until it suffocates and dies, is dismembered in some cases, and the mother is induced to give birth to a dead, burned baby, who was usually otherwise healthy.  And rarely, RARELY, is this done to preserve the mother's life or health.  It is mostly about not being able to stomach the idea of the responsibility of a child, for whatever reason.  

We do not even treat animals this way.  The days of casually culling puppies and kittens are long gone, and cruelty to animals is prosecutable.

But somehow, and by some people, this treatment of fetuses is sanctioned, with some calling this doctor a "hero for women's rights" and trying to get us to understand that he "did other helpful things besides abortions".

I don't think there's anything crazy about being concerned for for the rights of a fetus, who cannot speak for itself, if you believe it is alive by its own merits, can feel pain, and is essentially tortured by the abortion process.  If you don't believe that, then you don't.  But let's pretend for a moment and say you did. How could you fault anyone for taking serious issue with the practice of abortion?  In fact, doesn't just the POSSIBILITY that the fetus feels pain give you pause enough to wonder whether it's morally roght?

Obviously, shooting this doctor was all kinds of wrong, and was hypocritical, cowardly, and sad.  But to me, he was no hero, and he is no martyr.  Just a sad situation all around.

Doctors take an oath to cure the sick. A doctor saves lives and eradicate disease from the body and help wounds  heal. A real doctor does not commit murder of the unborn for the taste of money or anything else. This so called Doctor became a millionare killing unborned babies. He kill thousands of babies and still had the audacity to go to church, what a hipocrite he was. The authorities protected him way better than they protected the babies he killed. There is no protection for the unborn. This country protect animals way better than they protect babies. You purposely kill an animal and you will go to jail. You kill a baby and you are considered a great doctor. Although, I don't agree by this type of killing, the babies are safer today. If you don't agree with me, I DON'T CARE.  

Praise Allah.  This man now knoweth how it feeleth to be a very, very late term abortion.  Barack Hussein should not be surprised or shocked.  This was true Jihad.  As a Muslim he should not be surprised.  Praise to Allah that this took place in a Christian Church.  Since there wasn't time to cut off his head, he blasted the godless man in the face.  As the Quran says, let the blasphemer be punished in an excruitiating manner.  This sinner is now in hell.