Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land and other pro-life leaders condemned the May 31 killing of abortion doctor George Tiller.
Probably the best-known abortion provider in the United States, Tiller was shot to death on Sunday morning inside the building of Reformation Lutheran Church, the Wichita, Kan., congregation of which he was a member.
Scott Roeder, 51, of Merriam, Kan., was arrested the same day on suspicion of committing the crime. Roeder is a member of the Freemen, an anti-government group, and strongly opposed abortion, according to The Wichita Eagle.
He believed the killing of abortion doctors was justified, other abortion opponents told The Eagle.
The entire pro-life community “must swiftly and soundly repudiate” the one who killed Tiller if he “was acting in the name of the pro-life movement,” said Land, president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, in a statement released the day of the murder.
Tiller’s slaying “is a human tragedy,” Land said. “Murdering someone is a grotesque and bizarre way to emphasize one’s commitment to the sanctity of human life. People who truly believe in the sanctity of human life believe in the sanctity of the lives of abortion providers as well as the unborn babies who are aborted.
“Clearly the killing of abortion providers is unbiblical, unchristian and un-American,” Land said. “Such callous disregard for human beings brutalizes everyone.
“For people to take the law into their hands in this fashion and to attempt to be judge, jury and executioner of a fellow human being is reprehensible and must be condemned by all civilized citizens.”
The country’s major pro-life organizations denounced Tiller’s murder. Among those making statements decrying the killing were representatives of the National Right to Life Committee, Americans United for Life, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, Care Net, Susan B. Anthony List, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, American Life League, Operation Rescue, Christian Defense Coalition, 40 Days for Life, Stand True, Priests for Life and Pro-life Action League.
Tiller, 67, gained notoriety among as the leading late-term abortion provider in the country. His Wichita clinic, Women’s Health Care Services, is a major reason Kansas has been described as “the late-term abortion capital of America.”
It has advertised on its Web site it has “more experience in late abortion services over 24 weeks than anyone else currently practicing in the Western Hemisphere, Europe and Australia.” Women traveled to his clinic from throughout the United States and various foreign countries in order to have abortions even in the third trimester. (BP)
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