Assassination

Let's call it what it is: assassination and terrorism and fascism.

The murder of Dr. George Tiller yesterday at his church removed one of the reportedly three doctors who do late-term abortions. This is a much-maligned procedure that is rarely performed and is legal only in cases of a threat to the mother's health or because the fetus is defective and unviable.

By first person accounts, Dr. Tiller was a compassionate man and a humane doctor who operated within the law, despite trumped up charges and investigations. He had previously not only received countless death threats, but his clinic has been bombed and he was wounded in a previous attempt on his life.

The Colorado Independent reports:

Hours after the Sunday morning shooting death of late-term abortion doctor George Tiller in Wichita, Kan., a Boulder physician — who says he could be the only doctor in the world still performing the procedure — said Tiller’s assassination was the “absolutely inevitable consequence” of decades of anti-abortion fanaticism.

I’m profoundly sad and I’m furious and I think the American people need to understand that we have a fascist movement in this country,” Dr. Warren Hern told The Colorado Independent on Sunday. “We don’t have to invade Iraq to find terrorists. They’re right here killing abortion doctors.”

“Every doctor that does abortions has been under an assassination threat for decades,” Hern said. “The anti-abortion movement message is, ‘Do what we tell you to do or we will kill you,’ and they do. This is a fascist movement.”

Hern laid blame for Tiller’s death at the feet of the anti-abortion movement’s encouragement of violence against abortion providers and the Republican Party’s “exploitation” of the extremist rhetoric. . . .

Janet Napolitano was forced to retract a Homeland Security report that mentioned right-wing extremists as a threat, because of an outcry from right-wing politicians and radio/tv ranters.

Randall Terry, who had led protests at Tiller's clinic in 1991 as head of Operation Rescue said:

George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God. I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions.

Abortion is still murder. And we still must call abortion by its proper name; murder. Those men and women who slaughter the unborn are murderers according to the Law of God. We must continue to expose them in our communities and peacefully protest them at their offices and homes, and yes, even their churches.

Notice that he says "peacefully protest," but he's concerned about having to surrender "our most effective rhetoric and actions." He does not condemn the murder of the doctor. It is this kind of support that leads fanatics and mentally unstable to feel justified in doing the killing.

This is not about whether a fertilized ovum is a human being or when an embryo becomes a living being. This is about vigilantism, terrorism, hate speech, hate crimes and, yes, a fascist movement in God's name.

Ralph