Abortionist George Tiller killed during Church service

The abortionist George Tiller, notorious for his performance of late-term abortions as well as his close ties with Kathleen Sebellius, was killed during a Church service this morning:

"Dr. George Tiller, who remained one of the nation's few providers of late-term abortions despite decades of protests and attacks, was shot and killed Sunday in a church where he was serving as an usher.

The gunman fled, but a 51-year-old suspect was arrested some 170 miles away in suburban Kansas City three hours after the shooting, Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz said.

Long a focus of national anti-abortion groups, including a summer-long protest in 1991, Tiller was shot in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church, Stolz said. Tiller's attorney, Dan Monnat, said Tiller's wife, Jeanne, was in the choir at the time." (AP)

I unreservedly condemn this killing. The pro-life movement believes in justice for all and murder is always wrong with no exceptions.

With that said, some foes of the pro-life movement are already trying to use Tiller's death as an excuse to demonize the pro-life movement as a whole. Even the AP report makes reference to this:

"Stolz said all indications were that the man acted alone, although authorities were investigating whether he had any connection to anti-abortion groups."

Any group that would sanction the unlawful killing of someone is simply not a pro-life group.

The National Organization for Women is especially guilty of this reprehensible, bigoted association of the (as yet unidentified) killer with the non-violent activities of the pro-life movement:

Saying that women "lost a champion" with the death of Tiller, the pro-abortion National Organization for Women claimed that an "anti-abortion terrorist" must have killed Tiller even though the identify of the shooter has yet to be revealed.

NOW said "the anti-abortion cause" was behind Tiller's murder and other actions against abortion centers and practitioners even though members of pro-life groups have never been behind any such incident.

Saying that bringing the person who killed Tiller to justice is "not enough," NOW called on the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to "root out and prosecute as domestic terrorists and violent racketeers the criminal enterprise that has organized and funded criminal acts for decades."

"We call on the new attorney general Eric Holder and head of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to treat these murders in the same way they would treat politically-motivated domestic terrorism of any other kind and put the full resources of their two departments behind that effort," they said. (LifeNews)

NOW should publish a full apology for its unfounded attacks as well as for trying to profit from Tiller's death.

LifeNews has reported the story, and has also begun listing the pro-life organizations which have condemned the act. SBA List has done so, as has ALL. Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org, said:

“As the late Cardinal John O’Connor said, ‘If anyone has an urge to kill someone at an abortion clinic, they should shoot me. ... It's madness. It discredits the right-to-life movement. Murder is murder. It’s madness. You cannot prevent killing by killing.’”

The last quote comes from Geoffrey Miller:

[Tiller] knows the truth now. If the truth has indeed set him free, he will be a most powerful ally to us through his intercessions.

I pray that this sad event becomes on occasion for the pro-life movement to reveal the depths of its mercy, and for the media at-large to report the story accurately. Murder is never right, of the born or unborn.

update: President Obama has released a statement on Tiller's death:

"I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence." (6:21 p.m.)