{"id":510,"date":"2009-05-31T16:16:17","date_gmt":"2009-05-31T16:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/2009\/05\/abortion-doc-killed-in-church.html"},"modified":"2009-05-31T16:16:17","modified_gmt":"2009-05-31T16:16:17","slug":"abortion-doc-killed-in-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2009\/05\/abortion-doc-killed-in-church.html","title":{"rendered":"Abortion doc killed in church; pro-lifers decry shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"Tiller<\/span>George Tiller, the Kansas abortionist whose willingness to perform late-term abortions made him especially anthema to pro-lifers, was shot and killed as he served as an usher this morning at his church, Redeemer Luthern. <\/p>\n

He was reportedly shot by a white male with a handgun, and the AP reports <\/a>that police have a suspect in custody:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

A politically active Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions, George Tiller, was shot and killed Sunday morning outside a church he attended in Wichita, according to local news reports.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Donations Tiller and his allies made to then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and her political action committee became a point of controversy during her nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Emergency dispatchers now say they have a suspect in custody, and Wichita police have announced a 4 p.m. press conference.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Police had earlier said they were looking for a white male who drove away from the church following the shooting in a blue Ford Taurus. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Tiller, 67, had repeatedly been the target of protests over his work. He had been shot once before, while at his clinic in 1993. The clinic was also bombed in 1996, and was severely vandalized earlier this month, according to an AP report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more: http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/0509\/23140.html#ixzz0H7LPLETO&B<\/a><\/div>\n

\n

WICHITA, Kan. – A Wichita city official says a suspect is in custody in the shooting death of late-term abortion provider<\/span> George Tiller<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The city official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. The official did not provide additional details.<\/p>\n

An attorney for Tiller, Dan Monnat, says the doctor was shot Sunday as he served as an usher during morning services at Reformation Lutheran Church<\/span>. Monnat said Tiller’s wife, Jeanne, was in the choir at the time of the shooting.<\/p>\n

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.<\/p>\n

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Late-term abortion doctor<\/span> George Tiller, a prominent advocate for abortion rights wounded by a protester more than a decade ago, was shot and killed Sunday at a church in Wichita where he was serving as an usher and his wife was in the choir, his attorney said.<\/p>\n

Tiller was shot during morning services at Reformation Lutheran Church, attorney Dan Monnat said. Police said a manhunt was under way for the shooter, who fled in a car registered to a Kansas City suburb nearly 200 miles away.<\/p>\n

National anti-abortion groups had long focused on Tiller, whose Women’s Health Care Services clinic<\/span> is one of just three in the nation where abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A news conference is scheduled for 4pm local time. The Wichita Eagle also has up-to-the-minute coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pro-life groups have been quick to denounce the shooting:<\/p>\n

\n

“We are shocked at this morning’s disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down,” said Troy Newman<\/span>, president of Operation Rescue. “Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning.”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

A politically active Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions, George Tiller, was shot and killed Sunday morning outside a church he attended in Wichita, according to local news reports.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Donations Tiller and his allies made to then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and her political action committee became a point of controversy during her nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n

\n

Emergency dispatchers now say they have a suspect in custody, and Wichita police have announced a 4 p.m. press conference.<\/p>\n

\n

Police had earlier said they were looking for a white male who drove away from the church following the shooting in a blue Ford Taurus. <\/p>\n

\n

Tiller, 67, had repeatedly been the target of protests over his work. He had been shot once before, while at his clinic in 1993. The clinic was also bombed in 1996, and was severely vandalized earlier this month, according to an AP report.<\/p>\n

Read more: http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/0509\/23140.html#ixzz0H7LPLETO&B<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

LifeNews.com <\/strong><\/a>also rounds up pro-life reax.<\/p>\n

Coming just weeks after a new poll <\/strong><\/a>showing a majority of Americans identifying with the pro-life label (if not policies) for the first time, this could be ugly. <\/p>\n

\n
\n

A politically active Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions, George Tiller, was shot and killed Sunday morning outside a church he attended in Wichita, according to local news reports.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Donations Tiller and his allies made to then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and her political action committee became a point of controversy during her nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Emergency dispatchers now say they have a suspect in custody, and Wichita police have announced a 4 p.m. press conference.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Police had earlier said they were looking for a white male who drove away from the church following the shooting in a blue Ford Taurus. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Tiller, 67, had repeatedly been the target of protests over his work. He had been shot once before, while at his clinic in 1993. The clinic was also bombed in 1996, and was severely vandalized earlier this month, according to an AP report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more: http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/0509\/23140.html#ixzz0H7LPLETO&B<\/a><\/div>\n

\n
\n

A politically active Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions, George Tiller, was shot and killed Sunday morning outside a church he attended in Wichita, according to local news reports.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Donations Tiller and his allies made to then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and her political action committee became a point of controversy during her nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Emergency dispatchers now say they have a suspect in custody, and Wichita police have announced a 4 p.m. press conference.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Police had earlier said they were looking for a white male who drove away from the church following the shooting in a blue Ford Taurus. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Tiller, 67, had repeatedly been the target of protests over his work. He had been shot once before, while at his clinic in 1993. The clinic was also bombed in 1996, and was severely vandalized earlier this month, according to an AP report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more: http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/0509\/23140.html#ixzz0H7LPLETO&B<\/a><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Tiller, the Kansas abortionist whose willingness to perform late-term abortions made him especially anthema to pro-lifers, was shot and killed as he served as an usher this morning at his church, Redeemer Luthern. 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He came by all those vocations by accident, or Providence, during a longer-than-expected sojourn in Rome in the 1980s. Gibson began his journalistic career as a walk-on sports editor and columnist at The International Courier, a small daily in Rome serving Italy's English-language community. He then found a job as a newscaster and writer across the Tiber at the English Programme at Vatican Radio, an entity he describes as a cross between NPR and Armed Forces Radio for the pope. The Jesuits who ran the radio were charitable enough to hire Gibson even though he had no radio background, could not pronounce the name \"Karol Wojtyla,\" and wasn't Catholic. Time and experience overcame all those challenges, and Gibson went on to cover dozens of John Paul II's overseas trips, including papal visits to Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States. When Gibson returned to the United States in 1990 he returned to print journalism to cover the religion beat in his native New Jersey for two dailies. He worked first for The Record of Hackensack, and then for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, winning the nation's top awards in religion writing at both places. In 1999 he won the Supple Religion Writer of the Year contest, and in 2000 he was chosen as the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year. Gibson is a longtime board member of the Religion Newswriters Association and he is a contributor to ReligionLink, a service of the Religion Newswriters Foundation. Since 2003, David Gibson has been an independent writer specializing in Catholicism, religion in contemporary America, and early Christian history. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Boston Magazine, Commonweal, America, The New York Observer, Beliefnet and Religion News Service. He has produced documentaries on early Christianity for CNN and other networks and has traveled on assignment to dozens of countries, with an emphasis on reporting from Europe and the Middle East. He is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the major cable and broadcast networks. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on Catholicism, religion in America, and journalism. Gibson's first book, The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism (HarperSanFrancisco), was published in 2003 and deals with the church-wide crisis revealed by the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The book was widely hailed as a \"powerful\" and \"first-rate\" treatment of the crisis from \"an academically informed journalist of the highest caliber.\" His second book, The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (HarperSanFrancisco), came out in 2006 and is the first full-scale treatment of the Ratzinger papacy--how it happened, who he is, and what it means for the Catholic Church. The Rule of Benedict has been praised as \"an exceptionally interesting and illuminating book\" from \"a master storyeller.\" Born and raised in New Jersey, David Gibson studied European history at Furman University in South Carolina and spent a year working on Capitol Hill before moving to Italy. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter and is working on a book about conversion, and on several film and television projects.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/author\/dgibson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}