Late-Term Abortion Provider Gunned Down In Church

[Lemur]

I oppose late-term abortions, but this is not the way to fight it. Gunning down a man in church in front of his wife? What kind of sick loser thinks that's a good idea? Change the law, don't resort to domestic terrorism. Waaaay too reminiscent of Theo van Gogh.

A thoughtful reaction:

"If anyone has an urge to kill someone at an abortion clinic, they should shoot me. ... It's madness. It discredits the right-to-life movement. Murder is murder. It's madness. You cannot prevent killing by killing." — John Cardinal O'Connor

Another:

The murder of George Tiller at his church is a heinous crime, without any sense or justice. Regardless of how one feels about George Tiller’s profession, his murderer is nothing more than a domestic terrorist — someone attempting to impose by force a policy that one cannot get in place through democratic means. Tiller’s killer is no better than William Ayers, Kathleen Soliah, and Eric Rudolph, people who attempted to use violence for their extremist ends. Those who value life know that murder is the antithesis of the pro-life movement. [...] Circumstantial evidence suggests that the motive was indeed political.

Beliefnet has an interesting article about how this links to the much-hated DHS report.

I was thoroughly dumbfounded at the conservative reaction to that report in April. If you read the report, it was quite clearly aimed a serious, violent, insane extremists. Yet mainstream conservatives took great offense, accusing the Obama administration of chillingly targeting the free-speech of conscientious anti-abortion citizens, veterans and conservatives writ large. [...]

Roeder seems exactly the sort of person that the DHS warned about.

The report suggested that the bad economy and the election of a black president could stimulate more anger and activity from "violent anti-government groups." Far from attacking anti-abortion activists in general, as many claimed, the report instead noted white supremacists' "longstanding exploitation of social issues such as abortion."

We'll see if Roeder maintained his ties to the militia groups or had shifted his focus to abortion only, but at a minimum, conservatives have to make a new choice: take seriously right wing extremists -- the real ones, not the bloviators -- or run the risk of truly being lumped together.

In a way, conservatives now face a choice similar to what liberals in the late 1960s and early 1970s faced during the heyday of the Weather Underground.

There is now exactly one doctor who is known to provide late-term abortions. I expect he's a marked man as well.

There's a right way and a wrong way. Murdering to score political points is the wrong way.