George Tiller knew the dangers of his work. His clinic had been bombed and vandalized. He sometimes wore a bulletproof vest and travelled with a security guard. One time, he was shot in both arms. Last Sunday morning, someone finally got him. He was gunned down in church.
Depending on whose side of the abortion wars you're on, Dr. Tiller was either a mass murderer or a hero. His clinic in Wichita, Kan., was one of just three in the United States that performed late-term abortions. Fox News's Bill O'Reilly was a relentless foe. "Tiller the baby killer," he called him on his cable show. He accused him of "executing babies" for "no reason whatsoever" in a "death mill." The attacks were so virulent that a lot of people think he should be charged with incitement. They think he's the one with blood on his hands.
All the leading pro-life groups condemned the killing. But pro-choice groups regard it as a homegrown terrorist assassination - one that should have come as no surprise in a country where Fox News, the Christian right and the Republican Party have been whipping up anti-abortion frenzy for years. "We don't have to invade Iraq to find terrorists," said Warren Hern, another late-term provider. "They're right here killing abortion doctors."
Nowhere is the American cultural divide deeper than in Kansas, where urban liberals regularly duke it out with creationists. One chat group of rural farmers generally seemed pleased that Dr. Tiller got what he deserved, but unhappy that he'd got it in a church. The only suspect in the case is Scott Roeder, 51, who, according to his former wife, went off the deep end a few years ago. He appears linked to an obscure group that rejects taxes and Washington's rule, and an acquaintance has said he believes killing an abortion provider is justifiable homicide.
Even to people who are pro-choice, late-term abortions are morally distressing. They are performed on fetuses that are already viable, and the details aren't pretty. What Mr. O'Reilly doesn't mention is that these procedures are rare. Most of these pregnancies are very much wanted, but involve severe fetal abnormalities discovered when the pregnancy is advanced. The stories are heart-wrenching. One woman learned in her eighth month of pregnancy that she was carrying conjoined twins. The prognosis was grim: One would surely die, and the other would endure a life of surgeries, pain and suffering. "We made an informed decision to go to Kansas," her husband wrote. "One can only imagine the pain borne by a woman ... who had to go against everything she had been taught to believe was right."
Few couples make these decisions lightly. They are much harder than the decision to terminate an unwanted early term pregnancy. They involve faceless babies, babies with no brains, even babies who are dead. But restrictions on late-term abortions are very tight. Few doctors have the necessary expertise, and even fewer want the hassles. That's why women went to Kansas.
Canadian women went there, too. "There was no place else to go," said Suzanne Newman, a family physician and abortion provider who practises in Winnipeg. "And now we're worried that there will be no place to go."
Dr. Tiller was widely known for the emotional support he gave his patients during the most shattering time of their lives. "He was a hero to abortion providers," said Dr. Newman, "and to patients everywhere, he was a saint."
His former patients say, "He saved my life." They do not mean that in the literal sense. (Few abortions are done to save the life of the mother.) They mean he saved their lives from being utterly destroyed.
Despite the killing of Dr. Tiller, the influence of extremist Christianity in the United States is on the decline. This brutal act may only hasten that. But if other doctors are discouraged from doing this painful but necessary work, the killer will have won after all.