Pro-choice Group Condemns Murder of Kansas Abortion Provider

NATIONAL — Canada’s abortion providers and pro-choice leaders are devastated by news of this morning’s brutal assassination of Dr. George Tiller of Wichita Kansas. Dr. Tiller was shot at point-blank range this morning just after 10am, in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, as he was acting as an usher.

The suspect escaped in a light blue Ford Taurus, Kansas license plate number 225 BAB. He was arrested a short time later. The suspect is described as a white male in his 50’s or 60’s with grey hair that is balding in the middle. He is about 6’1″ and about 220 pounds and was wearing a white shirt and dark pants. It is not known if the suspect is a member of the church.

Dr. Tiller was one of the very few doctors in North America who was able to perform late abortions on women whose pregnancies had gone wrong, or whose lives depended on the ability to get an abortion at a later stage. Women travelled from all over, including Canada, to access his services. Dr. Tiller has long been a target of anti-abortion protests, mostly by “Operation Rescue.” He suffered continuous harassment, including death threats, baseless lawsuits, pickets at his clinic and staff residences, vicious slander, and a previous assassination attempt in 1993, when he was shot in both arms outside his clinic by anti-abortion protester Rachelle Shannon.

“I’m in shock, I’m completely devastated. He was a friend of mine,” said Joyce Arthur, Coordinator of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. “Dr. Tiller was called a saint by many of his patients, and ‘Saint George’ by abortion providers across the nation. His incredible courage was inspirational. He never let the ugliness of the protesters dampen his dedication to women’s lives and health. He saved the lives of countless women over the years, and his deep compassion and respect for women was legendary. What will happen now to all the women who desperately need his services?”

“Abortion is not a cerebral or a reproductive issue. Abortion is a matter of the heart. For until one

understands the heart of a woman, nothing else about abortion makes any sense at all.”

— Dr. George Tiller.