When I Was Young

Suspect arrested, Obama expresses outrage at murder

WICHITA (Kansas) — A controversial provider of late-term abortions was shot dead yesterday as he walked into services at his Kansas church, officials said.

A lightning rod in the bitter culture war over abortion, Dr George Tiller had already been picketed, bombed and shot in the arms.

He was shot dead in the morning in the lobby of the Reformation Lutheran Church here, police and city officials said.

A white man wielding a handgun shot Dr Tiller, 67, and then fled by car.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and state police are investigating the case. Latest reports said that they had arrested a 51-year-old suspect.

The shooting incident came only two weeks after President Barack Obama sought "common ground" over the divisive abortion debate in a controversial speech at one of the top Catholic universities in the United States.

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.

Mr Obama has, however, angered the anti-abortion movement by reversing his predecessor George W Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research and for family-planning groups that carry out or facilitate abortions overseas.

Mr Obama's choice for Health Secretary, former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, has been widely condemned by the anti-abortion movement because of her ties to Dr Tiller.

Mr Obama, on being informed about Dr Tiller's death, is reported to have said that he was outraged by the incident.

One of the few doctors who still performed late-term abortions in the US, Dr Tiller had been demonised by abortion opponents who regularly protested outside his clinic.

In 1986, someone placed a bomb on the roof of the clinic, seriously damaging the building. In 1993, Dr Tiller was shot in both arms outside the clinic. He recovered while his assailant was jailed for 11 years.

Some 2,000 protesters were also arrested outside the clinic during summer-long demonstrations in 1991.

The doctor was acquitted in March on charges that he performed 19 illegal abortions in 2003 in a case which his lawyer described as a witch hunt.

Dr Tiller testified during the trial that he spent years under the protection of federal agents after the FBI discovered an anti-abortion assassination list in 1994 that listed him as the top target.

Dr Tiller also testified that he owned one of only three clinics in the US that performed late-term abortions, which are performed on foetuses that would be viable 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.

Dr Tiller was acquitted of having an illegal financial relationship with the doctor who provided the second opinion. AFP

From TODAYOnline.com –World News, Monday, 01-Jun-2009; see the source article here.