Here are four stories about the murder of Dr. George Tiller, a doctor who performed late-term abortions, who was gunned down in his church on Sunday May 31st 2009.


WICHITA, Kan. — Authorities said they had a suspect in custody Sunday afternoon in the shooting death of George Tiller, a Wichita doctor who was one of the few doctors in the nation to perform late-term abortions. 
Dr. Tiller, who had long been a lightning rod for controversy over the issue of abortion and had survived a shooting more than a decade ago, was shot inside his church here on Sunday morning, the authorities said. Dr. Tiller, 67, was shot with a handgun inside the lobby of his longtime church, Reformation Lutheran Church on the city’s East Side, just after 10 a.m. (Central Time). The service had started minutes earlier.
Dr. Tiller, who had performed abortions since the 1970s, had long been a lightning rod for controversy over the issue of abortion, particularly in Kansas, where abortion opponents regularly protested outside his clinic and sometimes his home and church. In 1993, he was shot in both arms by an abortion opponent but recovered.
Dr. Tiller had also been the subject of many efforts at prosecution, including a citizen-initiated grand jury investigation. In the latest such effort, in March, Dr. Tiller was acquitted of charges that he had performed late-term abortions that violated state law. 
Shortly after Sunday’s shooting, police said they were searching for a man who had fled in a powder blue Taurus. By mid-afternoon, they said someone had been taken into custody, but offered no additional details.
“This is going to be a larger search than maybe just Wichita,” said Brent Allred, a police captain, who said that the FBI and state police had been called to the scene. Few parishioners remained at the church, a modern, red brick facility that seats about 500 people. Police cars surrounded the building.
Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group that has led opposition to Dr. Tiller’s methods, denounced the killing on Sunday, as did other national groups opposed to abortion. “Our prayers go out to his family and the thousands of people this will impact,” Mr. Newman said in a telephone interview from his home in Wichita.
“Operation Rescue has worked tirelessly on peaceful, non-violent measures to bring him to justice through the legal system, the legislative system,” Mr. Newman said. “I’m a tireless advocate and spokesman for the pre-born children who are dying in clinics everyday. Mr. Tiller was an abortionist. But this wasn’t personal. We are pro life, and this act was antithetical to what we believe.”
Leaders of national abortion rights organizations, meanwhile, expressed outrage. Some described Dr. Tiller as one of the only doctors in the nation who performed third-trimester abortions when the life or health of a mother was at stake, and said that his death would make it even harder for women in such circumstances to end their pregnancies.
“Dr. Tiller was a fearless, passionate defender of women’s reproductive health and rights,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, based in New York, which had worked on a legal case related to Dr. Tiller. “It’s time that this nation stop demonizing these doctors, and start honoring them.”
At St. George Orthodox Christian Church, next door to Dr. Tiller’s church, members said they had often been concerned about being so close to a church that often was the scene of protests because of Dr. Tiller’s presence. Dr. Tiller had attended the church for a long time, they said, and had contributed significantly to construction of the current facility, which was built in about 1996. 
“This is a God-fearing community,” said Mickey Cohlmia, who was at services at the neighboring church on Sunday morning and said she was horrified that such a thing had happened in Wichita, a city of about 358,000 in southern Kansas. “How does this scar everybody in his church?”
-- CNN



AN abortion doctor was shot dead as he arrived at a church service yesterday. 
Dr George Tiller, 67, was gunned down at the church where he was an usher. 
His wife Jeanne was in the choir at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, US. 
The killer fled in a blue Ford Taurus but a suspect was later arrested. 
Dr Tiller controversially carried out abortions for women up to 28 weeks pregnant. One of the few carrying out late-term abortions in the US. 
He was shot in both arms by a demonstrator in 1993 and his abortion centre was bombed in 1985.
-- The Sun



The abortion doctor shot and killed while ushering in his church Sunday was among the most controversial providers of abortions in the United States. 
George Tiller's clinic in Wichita, Kan., is one of only three in the nation that performs late-term abortions, according to an AP tally. He had already been shot – once in each arm – in 1993, and his clinic was bombed in 1985. 
He often traveled with a bodyguard, according to several reports.
Both abortion rights and anti-abortion activists condemned the killing. But it comes as the debate over abortion has been reemerging on a national level. It was at the center of the backlash to President Obama's address at Notre Dame University on May 17. It has also come up as a potential cause of questioning later this summer during hearings to confirm Sonia Sotomayor, Mr. Obama's Supreme Court nominee. 
In a statement released Sunday, Obama said: "However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence." 
Tiller was killed in the foyer of the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita just after 10 a.m., police say. 
A medical colleague in Wichita told the Los Angeles Times that she thought the crime might have been a reaction to a recent legal victory for Tiller. He was accused of performing late-term abortions without adequate oversight. The jury exonerated him, and local anti-abortion critics might have felt he "got off the hook," said Ann Kristin Niehaus. 
Anti-abortion activists worry that the crime is so shocking that it could be politicized and turned against them in the confirmation hearings for Judge Sotomayor. Though the judge's opinions on abortion are not clear from either her rulings or public comments, anti-abortion advocates are concerned that "there would now be an effort to stifle anti-abortion viewpoints during questioning," according to AP. 
Tiller's murder is apparently the first abortion-related murder in more than a decade. On October 23, 1998, Barnett Slepian, a doctor who performed abortions in Buffalo, N.Y., was shot and killed in his home. 
Authorities in Wichita say they have apprehended a suspect in Sunday's shooting. Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz said he did not think the suspect, whom he did not name, was working with accomplices, but added that his investigation is continuing. 
Tiller began performing abortions in 1973, the year they were legalized by the landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade. He had been repeatedly targeted since then, partly because he performed abortions after the fetus was 21 weeks old – the time after which the fetus can live outside the body, according to medical experts. 
In addition to the 1985 bombing and the 1993 shooting, Tiller and his clinic were also at the center of a six-week "Summer of Mercy" protest in 1991, which included thousands of demonstrators.
-- The New York Times



KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A Kansas doctor reviled by anti-abortion groups for his work providing "late-term" abortions was shot and killed in his Wichita, Kansas, church on Sunday, and police said they captured the man responsible.
Police said they planned to charge a 51-year-old man on Monday with homicide and two counts of aggravated assault in the death of 67-year-old George Tiller, who died from a single gunshot.
Tiller was shot while serving as an usher for Sunday services in the foyer at Reformation Lutheran Church. The shooter threatened two other men at the church who tried to intervene, police said.
"We feel that this is an act of an isolated individual, however our investigation continues," said Wichita deputy police chief Tom Stolz.
Stolz said they were investigating whether the shooter had any ties to anti-abortion groups.
President Barack Obama expressed shock and outrage, saying in a statement, "However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence."
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said federal law enforcement officials would work with local authorities in investigating the crime. He directed federal agents "to offer protection to other appropriate people and facilities around the nation."
The killing comes as the Obama administration is seeking confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court of Sonia Sotomayor, whom many anti-abortion groups have vowed to oppose for her perceived support of the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in the United States.
"For the movement, it could not come at a worse time," the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, which lobbies against abortion, said of the killing.
"If they make it seem that people who embrace the pro-life movement are kind of this extremist violent group, that could diminish some of the passion and energy on confronting Sotomayor."
Mahoney said that while it was likely Tiller's killing was motivated by anti-abortion beliefs, the movement did not support violence. Anti-abortion leaders will hold a news conference in front of the U.S. Supreme Court at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT) on Monday to discuss the matter.
Tiller was one of only a few physicians in the United States willing to perform late-term abortions, those performed after the 20th week of gestation when a fetus potentially could survive outside the womb and legal under certain conditions.
PREVIOUS ATTACKS
Tiller's Wichita clinic had been the site of several mass protests by anti-abortion groups and was bombed in 1985. The doctor was shot in both arms by an abortion opponent in 1993.
Abortion foes celebrated earlier this year when Tiller was brought to trial on charges of illegally performing certain abortions in his Wichita clinic. But he was acquitted in March
One anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue, had been particularly outspoken against him, maintaining a "Tiller Watch" on its website. But the group on Sunday denounced "vigilantism" and said it was praying for Tiller's family.
Police declined to name the suspect in Sunday's shooting, saying only that he was captured a few hours after the killing about 180 miles north of Wichita, near Kansas City. Police said he was a resident of Merriam, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City.
Tiller's family released a statement through its lawyers calling the killing a "unspeakable tragedy."
"This is particularly heart wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace," the statement said.
-- Reuters
