Murdered Abortion Doc Saw Life As Mission

George Tiller, Gunned Down In Kansas Church, Was No Stranger To Controversy

(CBS/AP)  To some he was an unflinching hero, to others a remorseless villain. As a late-term abortion doctor, George Tiller knew he had chosen a dangerous career, one that made him a lightning rod. His clinic was a fortress, his days marred by threats, but he refused to give up what he saw as his life's mission.

"He never wavered," says Susie Gilligan, who knew Tiller as part of her work in the Feminist Majority Foundation. "He never backed away. He had incredible strength. When you spoke to him, he was a soft-spoken man, a very gentle man. He said, 'This is what I have to do. Women need me. I know they need me.'"

Tiller, 67, whose Wichita, Kan., clinic had been the target of anti-abortion protests for more than two decades, was fatally shot Sunday while serving as an usher at his church. The suspect, identified by police as Scott Roeder, was taken into custody three hours later on suspicion of murder.

Roeder's ex-wife, who asked not to be identified, said he was obsessed with fighting abortion, reports CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor.

"I think he thinks he's right," she told Glor. "And that he was justified in doing what he's done."

As one of a few doctors across the nation to perform third-trimester abortions, Tiller had survived an earlier shooting, his clinic was bombed, his home picketed. He hired a Brink's armored truck to take him to work for several weeks, he had federal marshals protecting him for 30 months. He built a new surgical center without windows and he was known to wear a bulletproof vest, sometimes even to church.

Through it all, he stood defiant.

When a pipe bomb heavily damaged his clinic in the mid 1980s, he hung a sign outside the rubble saying: "Hell, No. We Won't Go!" He offered a $10,000 award - which was never collected.

When thousands of protesters gathered at the Women's Health Care Services clinic in 1991 for the 45-day "Summer of Mercy" demonstration staged by Operation Rescue, he was again unbowed.

"I am a willing participant in this conflict," he said at the time. "I choose to be here because I feel that it is the moral, it is the ethical thing to do."

He told The Wichita Eagle newspaper in 1991 that prayer and meditation helped him through hard times. "If I'm OK on the inside," he said, "what people say on the outside does not make much difference."

When a woman passing out anti-abortion literature shot him in both arms outside the clinic two years later, he briefly pursued her by car, recalls Peggy Bowman, his former spokeswoman. "He didn't even know he was shot and all of a sudden he saw this blood (and figured), 'I probably shouldn't spend my time chasing this woman,'" she says.

Tiller suffered minor wounds - and was back at the clinic the next day. (That's when he hired the armored truck.)

This spring, Tiller was acquitted of misdemeanor charges of violating Kansas restrictions on late-term abortions. Shortly after, the state's medical board announced it was investigating allegations against him that were nearly identical to those a jury had rejected.

Tiller's outspokenness rankled his critics, who decried as a publicity stunt his offer several years ago to provide free abortions on the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. He said at the time at least 32 low-income women signed up for the free first-trimester abortions.

Abortion opponents also claimed Tiller's large financial involvement in Kansas politics thwarted prosecutions against him. They routinely blamed Tiller's "corrupt influences in the government" whenever legislation strengthening state abortion laws failed to pass the Legislature or was vetoed by the governor.

While anti-abortion activists have condemned Tiller's death, Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue - who also said the gunman was wrong - told the National Press Club on Monday the doctor was "a mass murderer and, horrifically, he reaped what he sowed."

Tiller, a former Navy flight surgeon, hadn't planned to be an abortion doctor. He hoped to become a dermatologist.

But when his father, also a doctor, died in a plane crash (his mother, sister and brother-in-law also were killed), he took over the family practice. He soon learned the elder Tiller had performed abortions.

"In reading through some of his records, he realized his father had done abortions when they were illegal," says Bowman, his former spokeswoman. "At first, he was really shocked. Then in going through those charts, he totally began to understand the importance of this service."

Friends and colleagues say Tiller, a father of four and grandfather of 10, was a strong-willed, unassuming man who was quick with a hug or a joke. He decorated his office with family photos. He cherished rituals; he raised American flags in his clinic parking lot after the 1991 protests were over and later gave them to volunteers.

"He was never riled, he was always calm and cool," says Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. "He was a very serious man, but a very good-natured one."

In a 2008 speech to a young women's leadership conference sponsored by the foundation, he said he was on a hit list in 1994, leading to federal protection. His wife was stalked, he said, and the names of his vendors were made public on the Internet.

"But the good news," he said, "is we still live in the United States of America" and Roe vs. Wade allows women the opportunity to terminate pregnancies.

Dr. Susan Robinson, a California obstetrician-gynecologist who calls Tiller her mentor, recalls one day when she asked him: "How can you stand it being in a pressure cooker?' He said, 'If it it's none of my business, I don't get involved. If it doesn't matter, I don't get involved. If there's nothing I can do about it, I don't get involved.'"

But it was clear his work had taken a toll. Willow Eby, who worked as a volunteer escort at the clinic, remembers a conference she attended last year for abortion providers where he talked about his work.

"He explained that this would take your youth, it would take your energy, it would wear you down," she recalls. "But he said he would not let down the women who needed him badly."

Tiller once said his "gifts of understanding" helped him bring a service to women that aided them in fulfilling their dreams of a happy, healthy family. It was important, he said, that women have a choice when dealing with technology that can diagnose severe fetal abnormalities before a baby is born.

"Prenatal testing without prenatal choices is medical fraud," he declared.

Colleagues said Tiller's office walls were lined with letters from patients expressing their thanks.

One woman who turned to him was Miriam Kleiman, of northern Virginia. Nine years ago, a routine sonogram revealed her 29-week-old fetus had major brain abnormalities that prevented the baby's heart and lungs from functioning properly.

Doctors told her the baby would die in utero or soon after birth. Kleiman's doctors told her a third trimester abortion was not possible.

Kleiman says she could not bear a two-month death watch. "There was a baby dying inside of me, and it wasn't if, but when," she says.

After desperate pleas, she says, a doctor scribbled Tiller's name on a scrap of paper. She and her husband flew to Wichita and drove through a gauntlet of protesters to the fortress-like clinic.

She remembers Tiller and his staff as kind and compassionate. She had the abortion and brought home her baby to be buried.

Kleiman, who now has two sons, says she cried when she heard of Tiller's death while watching her son's soccer game.

"I fear," she says, "that other people might not have this option in the future - to have a medical option that was safe, that was legal and allowed us to say goodbye with dignity."

[guest173]

I agree with Randall Terry in the article, it is a shame Tiller was inspired by his criminal father to carry on this work. It is also a shame the Lutheran church doesn't care what their people do in their private lives, they just care about church attendance, as long as you show up you must be a good person. I am a former Lutheran and that's the impression I got from many years of being a member, they don't seem to follow Jesus and the Bible much.

[Aldymac]

Americans most envied by terrorists are abortionists, every terrorist would love to kill 55 million Americans. But don't worry about who will fill the jobs they would have had, 65 million Mexican nationals, legal and illegal, have taken their place.
Every abortion destroys a piece of our future, regardless of the problems a few children might have with defects, 55 million pieces of our nations future has been thrown away simply for profit, sooner or later it will all come home to us.

[akpals]

I think a point that is largely ignored in this debate is that when you are told bad news, especially when you are young, your first reaction is that it couldn't get any worse, or that it's the most terrible thng on earth. I don't think these mothers ever think that raising a disabled child- no mater what the disability- may not be so bad. People are too hung up on "normal", and too unaccepting of imperfection.

[homesheba]

no matter what- God says its wrong.
i expect the 'doctor' has found that out by now.

[globalcoolin]

Life as a mission? You mean DEATH for the PROFIT!

[livingandwell]

I see your heartfelt concerns for the unwanted children in our country/world. I agree with your charges to all of us to adopt, give our time and money to shelters and children's homes and teach young people how to not get pregnant. I disagree on a few points, ie:giving out condoms and the morning after pill. Yes, teaching abstinence before marriage is harder and takes more time and effort and care. Giving out condoms and the morning after pill doesn't go to the root of the problem for young people searching for acceptance and having sex when they shouldn't be. We all need to take as many young people under our wings as we possibly can and teach them self-worth and responsibility and discipline and restraint and that they don't have to "give themselves away" to be accepted. It IS possible. not EASY , but POSSIBLE. The quick fixes of condoms, the morning after pill and abortion only teach "do what you want sexually,when you want, with no consequences of your actions". I know some fight for the right for "medical/safety of the mom" abortions, but the numbers don't lie that most are done for convenience and to get out of responsibility and then the Medical community profits from them. I'm alive and well, because my Mom chose to not terminate her pregnancy per the advice of her Dr. that I was just a mass not able to grow into a healthy human. Boy was he wrong! I was born healthy, physically and mentally and remain so. I am "Pro-Choice" and my definition of that is..."I CHOOSE to hold life as sacred, starting at conception and I CHOOSE to have sex with my husband and not other men and I CHOOSE to love and care for my children and teach them responsibility." Those women out there, young and older, who choose to terminate a pregnancy are choosing to kill a life, period. Even if the life is diagnosed with abnormalities, or is an incest child, etc. IT IS STILL A LIFE and we humans can overcome SO much more than we think we are able to. Ask any parent of a deformed/mentally handicapped child. They love that child with their life! I encourage you and others to take that care that you feel for the unwanted children and channel it, also, in the direction of protecting the unborn, too. The evidence of life at conception is too strong to ignore. GIve life a chance.

[gratvialavas]

I think it's plain that some right wing Republicans have become hate-filled, murdering terrorists. Bitter that they lost the election and angry that a nonwhite is President, they resort to violent speech and violent means. Their talk is now constantly of secession and overthrow. They are the new Nazis, no question about it.

[kansas1946]

All liberals have such a GUILYTY conscience that they blame PRO LIFERS for this DR death. Why do they not mourn MILLIONS of unborn babies . Because rthey cannot rationalize the "FREE CHOICE " to KILL..
Posted by berniew4 at 1:30 PM : Jun 2, 2009
+ report abuse + permalink
**************************************************

I have a guilty concience about nothing. How many unwanted children have you adopted? How much money have you given to shelters and childrens homes. How hard have you fought to get sex education into schools so that young people know how not to get pregnant. How hard have you fought to get the morning after pill available to young women. How many times have you suggested free condoms to be available to teen agers so they can protect themselves. If you have done none of those things, then you only care about punishing anyone who doesn't hold your narrow view, not in creating solutions to a problem.

[freespeech101]

here is a list of their sponsors:

http://www.debone.com/boycottFoxNewsSponsors.html

LET'S BOYCOTT THEM NOW!

[freespeech101]

Watch this great clip!!! You will be amazed and sickened about how right wingers are so filled with hate.

Rage on the Radio in America

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09122008/watch.html

THERE'S ALSO SOMETHING FUNNY ABOUT HOW CBS BANNED ME FOR POSTING A LINK TO BOYCOTT O'REILLY EARLIER YET LETS THE RIGHT POST WHATEVER THEY LIKE HERE!

[moisnhcrnr]

Invading an unarmed nation based upon lies is?
a. the Republicon way
b. immoral
c. crime against humanity
d. murder, plain and simple
Posted by ConsRdumber


ConsRdumber,

I thought we were talking about abortion. Stay on topic. It's a typical liberal strategy--rather than address the topic at hand, try to deflect it by changing the subject.

[Mixolydian8X11]

Full of nasty, hateful, cowardly people, who would never have the guts to say anything to anybody's face in the real world, yet they write as if they're the saviors of all that is good and decent. And that goes for both sides of this issue.

Get. a. life.

[Mixolydian8X11]

The forums are hilarious.

[steeepe]

Tiller was no butcher. He worked with patients and other doctors to make difficult decisions in many cases to save the mother. I don't know about you, but if a choice had to be made between an abortion and the life of a pregnant woman, I would save the woman. Of course, none of these things are black and white, as the mad dog "pro-lifers" would have you believe. What decision would those fanatics make if they had to choose between a fetus and the mother's life?

[antoniof123]

For the right wing morons read a letter of a woman who talks about late term aboration.

http://iowaindependent.com/2565/open-letter-to-obama-a-personal-perspective-on-late-term-abortion

If you still think you are right then you did not read this letter nor do you have any knowledge of the sititution that a family has to go through when this decission is made.

Of course I have always said right wing nuts are to dumb to breath the air they hold to their fantasies of what they believe the world is rather than to reality.

[displeased]

Why do they not mourn MILLIONS of unborn babies .
Posted by berniew4

Because they are just that, unborn.

[berniew4]

All liberals have such a GUILYTY conscience that they blame PRO LIFERS for this DR death. Why do they not mourn MILLIONS of unborn babies . Because rthey cannot rationalize the "FREE CHOICE " to KILL..

[antoniof123]

If the right wing was so stupid this would not be happening but now they have truly lost me 100 percent. Late term aborations you idiots occurs not because they are unwanted morons. You really need to read some of the letters that the woman who have had to have them have to say. Idiots like you should have been removed from society because you are too dumb to breath the air.

These are not unwanted they are wanted but the baby is not viable and you filthy wing nuts should be removed from society talking like you know something. Morons and idiots all of you who are right wing nuts.

Do some research instead of listening to the hate filled preacher who wants a division issue.

[staycalm]

Saturn05....once again, a fetus is ALIVE. A dead thing does not grow for nine months and come out healthy and breathing. Please do your homework. And why all the anger in your post? Methinks thou dost protest too much.

[ConsRdumber]

Posted by obomba1
Late term abortion unless it's medically needed is murder. Plain and SImple.

Invading an unarmed nation based upon lies is?
a. the Republicon way
b. immoral
c. crime against humanity
d. murder, plain and simple