If law enforcement officials believe they can prove that Scott Roeder is guilty of Sunday's shooting death of abortion doctor George Tiller at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kan., then they should work to put him away for life. Roeder is being held on first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
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In killing Tiller, the gunman did more than commit one violent act that ended a man's life. The murder also served to intimidate abortion providers -- and perhaps chase some professionals out of the practice altogether. Thus by use of murder, the shooter set out to achieve that which he could not achieve through the democratic political process.
Boulder, Colo., abortion doctor Warren Hern called the killing "a political assassination in a historic pattern of anti-abortion political violence. It was terrorism," according to the Associated Press.
Unfortunately, the National Right to Life Committee issued a statement that lacked Hern's clarity and outrage. The statement extended sympathy to Tiller's family, then condemned "any such acts of violence regardless of motivation. The pro-life movement works to protect the right to life and increase respect for human life. The unlawful use of violence is directly contrary to that goal."
I understand that anti-abortion activists considered Tiller's practice of late-term abortions to be heinous in and of itself -- and they had a moral argument. But that moral argument is undermined by the shooting of a doctor -- in a church of all places.
And it doesn't help when Randall Terry, an anti-abortion activist, tells reporters, "George Tiller was a mass murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God. I am more concerned that the Obama administration will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions." Most effective actions? Like shooting people?
Any responsible anti-abortion leader should have nothing to do with Randall Terry.
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